Stocks were expected to take a breather on Tuesday after Monday’s post-trade and post-OPEC gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are right at all-time highs again, and there are warnings that earnings and guidance are likely to take a hit this summer after May and June weakness spread during the trade spat with China. Investors need to be considering how they want their portfolios and assets positioned for the second half 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 ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other 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 Tuesday, July 2, 2019.

Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy and the target price was cut to $80 from $88 (versus a $72.02 prior close) at Raymond James.

Bio-Techne Corp. (NASDAQ: TECH) was started as Buy and assigned a $270 target price (versus a $209.26 close) at Janney.

BlackLine Inc. (NYSE: BL) was downgraded to Sell from Buy with a $41 target price (versus a $53.24 close) at Goldman Sachs. It had a consensus target price of $55.00 and was trading down over 5% at $50.22 ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell.

Cars.com Inc. (NYSE: CARS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. After closing up 0.7% at $19.86, the stock was up almost 3% on Tuesday in early-bird indications, and it had a consensus target price of $27.31 and a 52-week trading range of $19.81 to $20.36.

Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was already rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm added it to the prized Conviction Buy list with a $32 price target (versus a $28.49 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Comerica Inc. (NYSE: CMA) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $70 target price (versus a $73.01 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Cummins Inc. (NYSE: CMI) was downgraded to Sell from Hold and the target price was lowered to $145 from $168 (versus a $172.86 close) at Loop Capital. The stock was indicated down 1.6% at $170.05 on Tuesday, and its consensus target price had been $168.14.

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

FTS International Inc. (NYSE: FTSI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was lowered to $6 from $8 (versus a $5.54 close) at Citigroup.

Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (NYSE: GWR) was up 8.85% at $108.85 on Monday after the announcement that it was being acquired. Credit Suisse raised it to Neutral from Underperform after the move.

Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $140 price target (versus a $127.69 close) at Jefferies.

Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) was reiterated as Buy at Stifel, and the firm raised its target price to $76 from $70 as its $62.00 share price is $10 lower than the IPO price.

Paccar Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was downgraded to Sell from Hold and the target price was lowered to $62 from $68 (versus a $72.24 close) at Loop Capital.

Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets. The call is after strong year-to-date gains of nearly 200%, and the firm believes the gain was justified based on continued robust growth and profitability. It is now more balanced on a risk/reward basis, but analyst Mark Mahaney would be more constructive again if Roku shares saw any major pullback.

Stryker Corp. (NYSE: SYK) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI. It closed up 0.5% at $206.54 and was indicated down 1% at $204.50 after the call.

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) was up 4.1% at $18.35 with other chip players with ties to China and Asia. Credit Suisse has reiterated its Outperform rating as its sector and company exposure (including Apple and Huawei) will help under the trade war ceasefire.

TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) was reiterated as Buy with a $62 price target (versus a $52.96 close) at Argus. The independent research firm noted that TJX has exceptional financial strength, cost efficiencies and an ability to deliver value-priced merchandise in an increasingly competitive retail environment.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) was started with a Hold rating and a $50 target at Stifel, with the firm noting that it will be a long road to profitability.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was reiterated as Outperform with a $187 target price at Wedbush Securities. Visa closed up 0.2% at $173.94 on Monday and has a consensus target price of $182.14. Wedbush believes that Facebook’s Libra is an unlikely disruptor.

Watts Water Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WTS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Janney, with the firm noting it as a valuation call as its price target was achieved. Shares closed at $93.26, and the consensus target price was $89.67.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $40 price target at Benchmark. Shares closed up 4.4% at $49.65 on Monday, but they were indicated down almost 3% at $48.20 on Tuesday. The consensus target price was $51.94.

Zacks has released its Bull of the Day with Trade Desk Inc. (NASDAQ: TTD) as its top Buy-rated stock, noting that the next generation advertising platform gives marketers precision data to target billions of consumers on every channel and device. Its Bear of the Day, a strong sell pick, is Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU), after seeing that even with top-line and bottom-line surprises analysts took down their 2020 estimates another 23% on weak global demand.

Goldman Sachs is very positive on four big energy stocks that could benefit from OPEC agreeing to continue with the production cuts that were in place.

Monday’s top analyst calls included Apple, Carnival, Generac, Lyft, Six Flags, Square, Tecnoglass, Yum! Brands, Western Digital, Zoetis and many more companies.

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.