Stocks were indicated to open marginally lower on Friday morning as earnings season is proving to be quite mixed. That said, the S&P 500 is still at or close to 3,000 and that makes the major index within 1% or so of its all-time high. It seems all those endless media calls for an imminent recession were at least a bit ahead of themselves. The 10-year old bull market has remained resilient and has managed to climb a wall of worry, but many risks and opportunities are out there. This is a time when investors need to consider 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 other rating changes seen for Friday, October 25, 2019.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: ADS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $115 target price (versus a $107.02 prior close) at Wells Fargo.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was up 1% ahead of earnings, but a partial miss and higher spending had its shares down 6.2% (or almost $113) at $1,668.00 in early trading indications on Friday. Wedbush Securities maintained Amazon as Outperform, but the firm cut its target to $2,000 from $2,350. Piper Jaffray maintained its Overweight rating and cut its target price to $2,150 from $2,225. Barclays maintained its Overweight rating but lowered its target to $2,000 from $2,175. Credit Suisse maintained its Overweight rating but lowered its target to $2,100 from $2,400, and Raymond James maintained its Outperform rating and lowered its target to $2,020 from $2,080.

Anaplan Inc. (NYSE: PLAN) was started as Neutral with a $49 target price (versus a $47.99 close) at Citigroup.

Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the target price was slashed to $32 from $46 at Deutsche Bank.

Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE: BX) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $60 from $57 (versus a $52.05 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James, with the firm noting that estimates appear to be overly optimistic about revenue growth and profit margins.

Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that its shares have climbed over 35% in 2019 and might still have room to run. Callaway most recently closed at $20.90 a share, with a consensus price target of $23.08.

CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $98 from $93 (versus a $94.29 close) at Mizuho. It had a prior consensus target price of $90.88, and its 52-week high is $94.97.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $45 target price (versus a $39.92 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Essa Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: ESSA) was started with an Outperform rating and an $8 target price (versus a $4.37 close) at Oppenheimer. This had a mere $91 million market cap, and its 52-week trading range is $1.41 to $4.54.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that FedEx stock has tumbled nearly 30% in the last 12 months, and the shipping giant lowered its earnings guidance as well. Shares last closed at $154.05, with a consensus price target of $171.12.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $33 from $32 at UBS.

Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and the target price was lowered to $93 from $101 at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed down about 0.2% at $104.05 on Thursday, and its consensus target price was $101.25.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) was started as Underperform and a $40 price objective (versus a $40.87 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was started with a Buy rating and a $350 target price at Guggenheim. Janney maintained its Neutral rating and the firm has a $305 target price. Shares closed up 0.9% at $315.50 on Thursday and were indicated down 3.3% at $305.00 on Friday, with a prior consensus target price of $329.25.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) closed up about 1% at $52.23 ahead of earnings but was last seen trading up 3.6% at $54.10 after beating earnings expectations and offering solid guidance that included expanded capacity to meet demand. Wedbush reiterated its Underweight rating and kept its $46 target price. Credit Suisse reiterated its Outperform rating and raised the target price to $65 from $58, and Northland Securities upgraded it to Outperform from Market Perform with a $69 target. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $65 from $64. Intel previously had a $53.13 consensus target price, and its 52-week trading range is $42.86 to $59.59.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $21 target price at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed up 0.2% at $20.44 and was indicated down 0.7% at $20.30 on Friday, with a prior consensus target price of $22.15.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was down 4.07% to $161.89 on Thursday after yet another disappointing earnings report. Morgan Stanley maintained it as Equal Weight but lowered the target to $165 from $173. RBC Capital Markets maintained its Sector Perform rating and lowered its target to $164 from $170.

Nasdaq Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target price was lowered to $107 from $113 (versus a $100.99 close) at UBS.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets, and the analyst there raised the target price from $217 to $251, a new street-high target. The view here is that the data center penetration remains low and using GPUs over CPUs for deep learning and parallel processing tasks was still rather new. Shares closed up 0.9% at $196.86 and were indicated up 1.25 at $199.25 on Friday, with a prior consensus target price of $193.70.

Paycom Software Inc. (NYSE: PAYC) was started with a Buy rating and a $262 target price (versus a $203.50 close) at Citigroup.

Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was up 2.5% at $124.45 on Thursday ahead of earnings, which were viewed as a solid “beat and raise” quarter, but it also included guidance where full-year billings was unchanged. Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating with a $140 target price.

Sanderson Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: SAFM) was started as Underperform with a $133 price objective (versus a $132.99 prior close) at Merrill Lynch.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) was maintained as Overweight and the price target was lowered to $57 from $62 (versus a $44.15 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) was down 1% at $110.25 on Thursday and was indicated down 0.2% at $110.00 on Friday morning. Goldman Sachs reiterated Target as Buy with a $120 target price.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed up 17.6% at $299.68 on Thursday after earnings and deliveries. Barclays maintained its Underweight rating, but the firm did raise its target price to $200 from $150.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was down almost 21% at $30.75 on Thursday after earnings fell short of estimates, and shares were up less than 1% on Friday. Wedbush reiterated Twitter as Neutral and cut the target price to $34.50 from $42.00, and JPMorgan maintained an Overweight rating but cut its target to $40 from $52. UBS maintained its Buy rating but lowered its target to $37 from $46, and Twitter was maintained as Equal Weight and the target was cut to $32 from $34 at Morgan Stanley.

Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was started as Buy with a $97 price objective (versus a $77.82 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) was started with a Buy rating and a $40 target price at Guggenheim. Shares closed up 0.7% at $33.28 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $28.31 to $47.08 and with a consensus target price of $49.00.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was up 2.8% at $176.16 on Thursday, and its shares were basically flat on Friday after the earnings report. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target price to $207 from $191. Visa’s prior consensus target price was $201.09, and the 52-week trading range is $121.60 to $187.05.

Vocera Communications Inc. (NYSE: VCRA) was up 0.3% at $24.29 on Thursday, but the stock was down 26% at $17.85 on Friday morning after earnings. Robert W. Baird downgraded it Neutral from Outperform.

Despite posting some big numbers and shooting higher this week, the Stifel analysts feel that semiconductor capital equipment stocks could be poised for an even bigger 2020.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included BankUnited, Caterpillar, Costco, eBay, Ford, Kellogg, Lyft, Microsoft, Oshkosh and many more.

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.