Despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell and the FOMC signaling the Federal Reserve is going to be all but out of the rate-hiking business this year and most of next year, stocks were indicated to have a softer opening on Thursday as investors digest an entirely flat yield curve. With the market having recouped so much ground in 2019, investors need to be considering how they want their investments and assets positioned for the rest of 2019 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new trading and investing ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary and trading data have been added on some of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets mentioned and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters (Refinitiv) sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Aerie Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AERI) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned an $80 target price (versus a $45.86 prior close) at Piper Jaffray. It has a 52-week trading range of $32.18 to $74.75.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $215 from $200 at Wedbush Securities, with the firm seeing its streaming service adding billions of dollars in shareholder value. Needham also was even stronger, raising its Buy rating to Strong Buy and raising its target to $225 from $180. Apple closed up 0.87% at $188.16 a share on Wednesday and was indicated up 0.8% more at $189.50 on Thursday. Its 52-week range is $142.00 to $233.47, and its consensus target price was $180.85 on last look.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray. After closing up 0.3% at $67.54, its shares were indicated up another 0.7% at $68.00 on Thursday. The consensus target price is $78.00.

CubeSmart (NYSE: CUBE) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James. The 52-week range is $27.04 to $33.18 and the consensus analyst target is $31.13.

Diplomat Pharmacy Inc. (NASDAQ: DPLO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James. The 52-week range is $5.16 to $28.74 and the consensus analyst target is $6.94.

Eagle Materials Inc. (NYSE: EXP) was started as Neutral at JPMorgan. The 52-week range is $57.00 to $115.75 and the consensus analyst target is $86.30.

Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James. The 52-week range is $82.80 to $101.96 and the consensus analyst target is $98.08.

Greenhill & Co. Inc. (NYSE: GHL) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS. The 52-week range is $17.65 to $33.45 and the consensus price target is $22.96.

Internap Corp. (NASDAQ: INAP) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with an $8 price target at Wells Fargo. After rising 3.75% to $4.98 on Wednesday, shares were indicated up 4% at $5.18 after the call.

International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (NYSE: IFF) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $151 price target (versus a $122.54 close) at Goldman Sachs. IFF has a 52-week range of $121.85 to $150.57 and a consensus target price of $145.27.

Magna International Inc. (NYSE: MGA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets. The 52-week range is $42.88 to $67.47 and the consensus analyst target is $61.79.

Martin Marietta Materials Inc. (NYSE: MLM) was started as Overweight with a $225 price target (versus a $195.76 close) at JPMorgan. The 52-week range is $150.75 to $232.89 and the consensus analyst target is $211.50.

Medicines Co. (NASDAQ: MDCO) was started as Buy with a $75 price target (versus a $27.05 close) at Roth Capital. The 52-week trading range is $16.69 to $41.57, and the consensus target price is $46.15.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) closed down 0.6% at $40.13 ahead of earnings but was last seen trading up 4.3% at $41.86 as guidance was not as weak as some investors may have feared. Citigroup downgraded Micron to Sell from Neutral after the report.

Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform and the price target was raised to $21 from $20 (versus a $15.11 close) at Raymond James. The stock closed down 13.5% on Wednesday but was indicated up almost 3% at $15.55 on Thursday. Shares have a 52-week range of $13.10 to $19.35.

Summit Materials Inc. (NYSE: SUM) was started as Neutral at JPMorgan. The 52-week range is $11.25 to $31.36 and the consensus analyst target is $19.73.

Vulcan Materials Co. (NYSE: VMC) was started as Overweight with a $135 price target (versus a $115.35 close) at JPMorgan. The 52-week range is $82.52 to $133.59 and the consensus analyst target is $127.53.

Wipro Ltd. (NYSE: WIT) was reiterated as Underperform and the price target was lowered to $3.75 from $4.25 (versus a $4.10 close) at Wedbush. This call comes after a recent issuance of bonus shares, and it also noted that Wipro is the weakest Tier I IT Services provider of its peers and that the company hasn’t been able to appropriately or timely adjust to the new technology landscape taking shape.

Goldman Sachs has five of its Conviction Buy list picks in which the upside is far greater than most of its Buy ratings.

There are four energy analyst picks for higher oil prices this summer, but here is how the top oil giants and energy sector ETFs have been outperforming the market in 2019 on a serious catch-up trade with oil back at highs not seen since last November.

Check out the 30 companies that are getting the most out of government contracting.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Allergan, Costco, Cree, Dollar Tree, Eli Lilly, FedEx, Mylan, NextEra Energy, Peabody Energy, Teva Pharmaceutical, Yum Brands and many more.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.