Stocks were looking for direction on Thursday despite U.S.-China trade talks reportedly entering their late stages. The market’s major indexes are still up double-digits year to date in 2019, and the S&P 500 is within striking distance of all-time highs again. 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 of the daily 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 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 Thursday, April 4, 2019.
Altaba Inc. (NASDAQ: AABA) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
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Brighthouse Financial Inc. (NYSE: BHF) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and its target was lowered to $35 from $39 (versus a $37.30 prior close) at Citigroup. It had a consensus target price of $41.69, and it is down from a 52-week high of $52.77.
Carbon Black Inc. (NASDAQ: CBLK) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $20 target price (versus a $14.02 close) at Robert W. Baird. The data security company with the Predictive Security Cloud was up 7% at $15.00 after the call, and its 52-week range is $11.80 to $35.00. It had a $992 billion market cap prior to the call.
Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA | CMA Price Prediction) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed at $76.89 and were indicated down 0.8% at $76.30 on Thursday morning after the call.
Elastic N.V. (NYSE: ESTC) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $102 target price (versus an $82.75 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $85 target price (versus a $69.46 close) at Canaccord Genuity. Etsy shares were indicated up 0.4% at $69.75 on the news, and its consensus target price was $72.75, and it had an $8.3 billion market cap.
Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $200 from $175 (versus a $173.54 close) at Guggenheim.
Falcon Minerals Corp. (NASDAQ: FLMN) was started with a Hold rating and a $10 target (versus a $9.12 close) at Stifel.
KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: LYV) was downgraded to In Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. After a 3.4% gain to $43.90 on Wednesday, the stock was up about 38% so far in 2019 alone. It has a 52-week range of $28.39 to $64.66 and a consensus target price of $46.04.
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Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. (NYSE: MAA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Janney based on exceeding the fair value estimate by 20%, but the firm did raise its price target to $110 and said it still likes the business model but would wait for a more attractive entry point for new or add-on positions.
Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) was raised to Buy from Neutral but the target price was lowered to $6.80 from $7.20 (versus a $5.31 close) at Citigroup. It was indicated up 2.9% at $5.47, and the Chinese electric car maker’s American depositary shares have a 52-week range of $4.90 to $13.80 and a consensus target price of $8.02.
PennyMac Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: PFSI) was reiterated as Outperform with a $28 target (versus a $22.40 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm noted that it narrowly lowered 2019 earnings estimates due to the higher volume of mortgages that is still at above-consensus levels.
Rapid7 Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $58 target price (versus a $53.33 close) at Robert W. Baird
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
Renewable Energy Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REGI) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $35 target price (versus a $21.98 close) at Piper Jaffray. The stock has a 52-week range of $12.50 to $32.52 and a consensus analyst target price of $34.50. The maker of cleaner and lower carbon transportation fuels has seen its shares fall almost 15% so far in 2019 while the market has risen double-digit percentages.
Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was lowered to $72 from $77 at Guggenheim. Roku closed down almost 3% at $68.60 on Wednesday and was indicated down 3.2% at $66.41 on Thursday. The consensus target price was $68.34.
Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $150 price target (versus a $128.78 close) at JPMorgan.
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Smartsheet Inc. (NYSE: SMAR) was started as Outperform and assigned a $50 target price at Oppenheimer. Its consensus target price is $53.14, and its post-IPO range has been $18.06 to $49.04.
USA Compression Partners L.P. (NYSE: USAC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $18 price target (versus a $15.60 close) at Stifel. It has an $18.67 consensus target price and a 52-week trading range of $12.09 to $19.28.
US Ecology Inc. (NASDAQ: ECOL) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie.
Waste Management Inc. (NYSE: WM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.
Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. Shares closed up 0.5% at $47.18 ahead of the call but were indicated down 0.6% at $46.90 afterward. The consensus target price was $54.63.
Credit Suisse has two alternative asset managers in lending and private equity that it thinks have major upside potential.
There looks to be slower dividend growth coming in 2019.
Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Alcoa, AMD, Caterpillar, CSX, Intel, Nvidia, Raytheon, Suncor, Square, Walgreens and many more.
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