Stocks were indicated to open marginally lower on Wednesday as bond yields appear to be stabilizing after the yield curve inverted late last week. Investors need to be considering how they want their investments and assets positioned for the rest of the year 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 stocks 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 Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. The valuation call is after the stock closed up 0.5% at $107.20, above the $103.46 consensus target price.

California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo in a valuation downgrade.

Citigroup resumed coverage of Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) with a Buy rating and a $450 price target, and the shares were indicated down 0.5% at $369.44 after a 737 MAX plane had to make an emergency landing for engine troubles that were unrelated to its anti-stall issues.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was maintained as Buy but the price target was lowered to $65 from $68 at Buckingham Research. The stock closed down 8.7% at $51.71 the prior day based on weaker than expected guidance.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $760 from $650 at Robert W. Baird. Shares closed up 1.8% at $688.82 on Tuesday and were indicated marginally higher on Wednesday morning.

Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Canaccord Genuity.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup. Kinder Morgan closed down 0.2% at $20.09 on Tuesday and was indicated down 0.9% at $19.90 on Wednesday, with a consensus target price of $21.47 and a 52-week trading range of $14.62 to $20.44.

ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ON) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $26 from $22 (versus a $21.00 prior close) at Goldman Sachs. The consensus analyst target is $25.27, and the 52-week trading range is $14.55 to $26.38.

Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) was raised to Hold from Sell at Stifel. It closed up 1% at $49.23 on Tuesday, with a consensus target price of $50.00 and a 52-week trading range of $38.05 to $64.18.

Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) was raised to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna.

Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo. After closing down 0.26% at $122.27, the stock has a 52-week range of $95.63 to $147.79 and a consensus target price of $137.00.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $94 price target at Macquarie. It closed down 0.8% at $73.93 ahead of this call and has a 52-week range of $43.72 to $101.15.

Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: TCBI) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $65 price target (versus a $54.34 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ: WING) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned an $85 price target (versus a $71.76 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: WIX) was started with a Neutral rating at Macquarie.

Mizuho started data security players Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW), CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) and Rapid7 Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD) with Buy ratings.

Nomura/Instinet started mortgage real estate investment trusts (REITs) with a positive view. It gave new Buy ratings to Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY), Chimera Investment Corp. (NYSE: CIM), Dynex Capital Inc. (NYSE: DX), PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: PMT) and New York Mortgage Trust Inc. (NASDAQ: NYMT).

Tuesday’s top analyst calls included Alcoa, Apple, Autodesk, BB&T, Bed Bath & Beyond, Camping World, Nvidia, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Voya Financial and many more.

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