Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abbott Labs, CenterPoint, Dominion, Delphi, Disney, Dollar General, Lennar, Lululemon, Visa, Zillow and More

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Stocks were indicated to open higher on Thursday morning after two days of small losses in the major equity indexes. With so many nontraditional developments and so many sidebar issues affecting the markets and the economy, investors have to be considering how they want their portfolios and assets positioned for the summer and into late 2019.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other analyst calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

We have provided these calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading and additional comments and trading data have been added on some of the calls. 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 on Thursday, June 13, 2019.

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $91 from $89 at Wells Fargo. Shares closed up 1% at $81.95, in a 52-week range of $60.32 to $82.00 and with a consensus target price of $83.06.

Atlassian Corp. PLC (NASDAQ: TEAM) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $142 from $121 at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.

Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNCE) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the fair value was raised to $16 from $14 at Janney. The upgrade was based on the company announcing positive Phase 1 SAD/MAD data of CTP-692 (deuterated D-serine) as an adjunctive treatment to antipsychotics for schizophrenia and that it was well-tolerated with no signs of renal toxicity.

CytomX Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTMX) was started as Buy and assigned a $16 target price at Mizuho.

Delphi Technologies PLC (NYSE: DLPH) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was lowered to $24 from $25 at Goldman Sachs.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was reiterated as Outperform and as a Top Pick at Oppenheimer, but the firm raised its target price to $150 from $135 in the call. Shares closed up 0.4% at $136.04, in a 52-week range of $95.61 to $136.43 and with a consensus target price of $136.68.

Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $62 from $50 at Wedbush Securities. The call noted mortgage rates near two-year lows, housing sectors rebounding and continuing demand for affordable housing by multiple demographic groups as reasons why investors should be willing to pay a higher multiple for homebuilder earnings.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) closed down 0.4% at $170.89 ahead of earnings and initially traded up by 2% in the after-hours session on Wednesday, and it was indicated up over 4% at $178.20 on Thursday morning after the quarterly report. Morgan Stanley maintained it at Equal Weight but raised the price target to $163 from $160. RBC Capital Markets raised its target price to $200 from $190.

Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) was started as Outperform and assigned a $75 price target at Evercore ISI. Shares closed up 0.6% at $58.41, in a post-IPO range of $47.17 to $88.60 and with a consensus target price of $72.79.


Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $287 at Wedbush. The firm cited strong secular growth tailwinds from share gains for electronic payments away from cash and checks and from accelerated and ongoing monetization efforts. Shares closed at $263.85, in a 52-week range of $171.89 to $269.85 and with a consensus target price of $280.59.

Savara Inc. (NASDAQ: SVRA) was a $10.57 stock with a $399 million market cap as of Wednesday’s close, but a Phase 3 study from the orphan lung disease company knocked off 75% of the value in the after-hours. JMP Securities downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform.

Teladoc Health Inc. (NYSE: TDOC) was started with a Buy rating at Merrill Lynch.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) was started as Outperform and assigned a $60 price target at Evercore ISI. Shares closed down 0.7% at $42.17, in a post-IPO range of $36.08 to $45.75 and with a consensus target price of $53.33.

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the target price was lowered to $170 from $190 at Barclays.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $187 at Wedbush. As with Mastercard, the firm cited strong secular growth tailwinds from share gains for electronic payments away from cash and checks and from accelerated and ongoing monetization efforts. Shares closed up 0.8% at $171.59, in a 52-week range of $121.60 to $172.18 and with a consensus target price of $181.49.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $160 from $135 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed up 0.5% at $135.72, in a 52-week range of $100.35 to $142.37 and with a consensus target price of $149.26.

Xencor Inc. (NASDAQ: XNCR) was started with a Buy rating and given a $52 price target at Mizuho.

Zillow Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ZG) was started as Neutral with a $48 price target at Piper Jaffray.

Zacks Investment Research has released its Bull of the Day and Bear of the Day. The Bull of the Day is Berry Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: BRY) as a hidden gem in the battered oil stocks. Zacks’ Bear of the Day is Vishay Intertechnology Inc. (NYSE: VSH), noting that there seems to be no bottom in semiconductors yet.

SunTrust has some contrarian energy picks with oil down and out in an expensive market.

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Speaking of upgrades and downgrades for industries: A fresh report from Sun Life showed that the number of health insurance claims of $1.0 million, $1.5 million and even over $3 million have skyrocketed in the past three years. Also in an extreme, clean and renewable energy capacity in the United States looks as though it has surpassed the capacity of coal for the first time ever.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Beyond Meat, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Cisco Systems, Kraft Heinz, Lam Research, McDonald’s, Microsoft, NXP Semiconductor, Starbucks, Yum Brands and more.

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