Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Bed Bath & Beyond, Celgene, Dow, Fannie Mae, Intel, Lennar, Snap, UGI, Viacom, WEX and More

Investing

Published: April 5, 2019 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 10:26 pm

Stocks were looking for a marginally higher open on Friday, along with a better-than-expected payrolls report from the U.S. Department of Labor. With U.S.-China trade talks reportedly entering their late stages, the major market indexes are still up double-digits year to date, and the S&P 500 is within striking distance of all-time highs again. Investors have to be considering how they want their portfolios 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 Friday, April 5, 2019.

Amicus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) was started as Buy with a $20 price target (versus a $13.91 prior close) at Janney. The firm noted that the company is building a comprehensive portfolio of novel therapies for rare diseases, with a focus on lysosomal storage disorder, and that in addition to Galafold for Fabry disease it has a Phase 3 clinical development for Pompe disease. The firm also sees limited downside risk with significant upside potential from the gene therapy pipeline.

Avrobio Inc. (NASDAQ: AVRO) was started as Buy with a $34 target price (versus a $24.42 close) at Janney. The firm noted that the company has built a strong lentiviral gene therapy platform for lysosomal storage disorders in which enzyme replacement therapy has been the standard of care but significant unmet medical needs remain.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley. The firm has a $20 target price (versus a $17.59 close), and the report pointed to the activist intervention and pressure for a new entire board has brought a risk to the underlying negative thesis.

Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs, with the firm pointing out the continued decelerating sales growth at the brewer of Sam Adams beer.

Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Hold at Stifel, but the firm vaulted its price target to $700 from $500, noting that its turnaround and rekindled growth momentum has continued to gather steam. The stock closed at $703.38, and it had a consensus target price of $571.78.

Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank, after a 6.5% gain the prior day to $191.45 a share. The firm sees the risk/reward profile as now balanced with the current share price, representing the base case fundamentals.

Corbus Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRBP) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $18 price target (versus a $7.08 close) at Jefferies. The shares were indicated up over 6% at $7.55 after the call, in a 52-week range of $4.50 to $9.11. The market cap was $455 million ahead of the call.