Top Analysts Upgrades and Downgrades: Biogen, Coke, Crowdstrike, Kohl’s, ServiceNow, Snap, Travelers and More

Investing

Published: October 23, 2019 9:45 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 2:14 pm

The futures traded flat Wednesday morning as third-quarter earnings continue to pour in. If things were simple enough, it might feel like all that persistent uncertainty around trade wars, impeachment, armed conflict and even the global slowdown were not really a focus. Ditto for all those media calls for an imminent recession. The 10-year bull market has remained resilient and has managed to climb a wall of worry. This is a time where investors need to be considering how they want their assets positioned for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen for Wednesday, October 23, 2019.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ARCH) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $100 price target at Jefferies. That compares to the consensus target of $97.63. The stock closed Tuesday at $83.29.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Guggenheim, which raised the price target to $365. The consensus target is $270.31. The stock exploded yesterday when the company announced a revival of an Alzheimer drug that had failed in studies. The stock closed Tuesday at $281.87, up 26% on the day.

Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $72 price target at Raymond James. The shares ended Tuesday at $63.86.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CRWD) was started with a Buy rating and a $65 target price at Nomura. That compares to the consensus figure of $84.84. The stock closed Tuesday at $46.20.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS, which also raised its price target to $63. The consensus target for the soft drink giant is $57.87. The stock closed Tuesday at $53.85.

Elastic N.V. (NYSE: ESTC) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that enterprises flooded in data need the search stack from this Google of Big Data growing sales at 60%. Its shares most recently closed at $69.63, with a consensus price target of $107.27.

FB Financial Corp. (NYSE: FBK) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James. The stock closed Tuesday at $38.50.

iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that the Zacks Rank told investors to sell at $75 in July and the story hasn’t been cleaned up since. Shares last closed at $54.03, with a consensus price target of $77.29.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) was raised to Hold from Sell with a $124 price target at Deutsche Bank. The stock closed on Tuesday at $129.38.

Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI. The retailer’s shares closed trading on Tuesday at $52.94.

PPL Corp. (NYSE: PPL) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform and the target price was raised to $32.50 at Macquarie. The shares closed Tuesday at $32.74.

ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Mizuho, which lowered the price target to $230. The stock closed Tuesday at $228.34, down over 5%, and shares traded down another 6% early Wednesday.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan, which set a $20 price target, and that compares to the consensus target of $17.64. The shares closed Tuesday at $14.

Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE: TRV) was raised to Hold from Sell with a $140 price objective at Deutsche Bank. The stock closed Tuesday at $130.15, down over 8%.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NYSE: WBA) was downgraded from Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. The firm also lowered the price target to $63. Shares closed Tuesday at $54.28.

Tuesday’s the top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Dropbox, Electronic Arts, Halliburton, Intuit, Juniper Networks, ProLogis, Silicon Motion, Taiwan Semiconductor, Textron, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and many more.

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