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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alexion, American Water Works, Apple, Schwab, Crowdstrike, FedEx, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia, Ryanair, Tesla and More

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Stocks have been putting in new all-time highs at the start of 2020 after an incredibly strong 2019. The futures were indicated higher on Monday morning ahead of this week’s top bank earnings reports. For the investors who have not made portfolio shifts and changes during a very strong market in 2019, there is still time to get positioned for 2020. There are many market risks, concerns and headlines that may come with worry, but trade tensions are abating and global growth may see a rekindled strength this year, while interest rates are expected to remain stable. This is also an election year in which much is at stake, and strategists are by and large calling for single-digit percentage gains in 2020.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while some calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

We have provided these analyst calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on many calls. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv sell-side research service.

Our 2020 Bull/Bear Outlook sees the Dow rising by about 7.4% to 30,650 this year, but there are outliers that could help the Dow rise by over 10% after a very strong 2019. The upside scenario puts Dow 32,000 easily within reach if only a few things go right this year.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Monday, January 13, 2020.

Advance Auto Parts, Inc. (NYSE: AAP) was removed from the Best Ideas List at Wedbush Securities due to the firm’s investment price parameters. Its shares closed down 2.5% at $149.01 on Friday and were indicated down another 2.9% at $145.00 on Monday, in a 52-week trading range of $130.09 to $182.56.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) was reiterated as Outperform with a $149 price target (versus a $110.74 prior close) at Wedbush, with the firm noting that the company pre-announced a beat for 2019 on the top line and said that its Ultomiris continues to gain traction and expectation that it will see a continued growth potential.

Alliant Energy Corp. (NASDA: LNT) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $60 from $57 at Argus.

American Tower Corp. (NYSE: AMT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $270 from $204 (versus a $230.80 close) at Goldman Sachs.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was maintained as Underperform but the price objective was raised to $128 from $125 at Merrill Lynch. Shares previously closed at $122.56 and had a consensus target price of $126.91.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $375 from $300 at D.A. Davidson.

Apollo Global Management Inc. (NYSE: APO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Market Outperform at JMP Securities, but another call out of Merrill Lynch raised the target price to $155 from $152. The stock closed at $49.87 ahead of the calls, with a $50.25 consensus target price.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) was reiterated as Neutral and the price objective was raised to $51 from $50 (versus a $47.80 close) at Merrill Lynch. The consensus target price is $53.50, and the 52-week range is $34.58 to $51.65.

Crowdstrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that cybersecurity threats will become global warfare this decade and one cloud falcon is winning the hearts and minds. Shares most recently closed at $57.20, with a consensus price target of $78.00.

DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the target price was raised to $132 from $125 at Credit Suisse, with the firm noting its shares are now a better bargain.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was maintained as Underperform and the price objective was raised to $96 from $95 at Merrill Lynch. Shares closed at $90.44 and have a consensus target price of $96.00.


FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that Fred Smith pulled no punches on the call blaming a weaker global economy on tariff uncertainty and bad politics. Shares last closed at $156.63 and have a consensus price target of $170.52.

Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse after evaluating its Woodward Inc. (NYSE: WWD) merger, with Woodward shares also raised to Outperform and with a $145 target price.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform and the target price was lowered to $145 from $160 at Evercore ISI, with the firm noting that macro headwinds and a difficult setup for the first half of 2020 warrant caution for Big Blue shares. The firm also noted that IBM’s purchase of Red Hat positions the company well to bring in more hybrid cloud sales from large enterprises but fourth-quarter expectations might have been too high based on a slower enterprise backdrop and after comments from rivals like Cisco and Dell.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $180 from $155 at Credit Suisse. The firm sees Microsoft on a path to having a $100 billion commercial cloud operation with market share gains, and the firm even set a blue-sky valuation scenario of $200 if it outperforms the strong expectations.

New Relic Inc. (NYSE: NEWR) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $98 from $68 (versus a $67.30 close) at UBS. It closed down 3.1% on Friday but was indicated up 2.2% at $68.80 on Monday, and its prior consensus target price was $74.93.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $300 from $240 (versus a $244.32 close) at Argus. The independent research firm said Nvidia shined at CES with more realistic lighting and shadowing in games in its video cards and from its showings in autonomous driving and robots. Needham also raised its rating on Nvidia to Hold from Underperform after management meetings at CES.

Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) was reiterated as Buy at HSBC and the firm raised its overseas target price to indicate about 10% implied upside with a strong summer 2020 outlook and soft comparisons against last summer.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Outperform and the target price was raised to $215 from $185 (versus a $179.60 close) at Credit Suisse. The firm believes that Salesforce will outperform in 2020 after having underperformed lately and that the move will be driven by its ability to enable digital transformations and its ability to execute against this secular trend.

SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $280 from $214 (versus a $244.83 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated as Outperform at Oppenheimer, but the firm boosted its target by almost 60% to $612 from $385 in the call. The firm believes that Tesla has now reached a critical scale that can generate sustainable positive free cash flow as the company has key advantages over competitors in its powertrain design and battery technology.

WEC Energy Group Inc. (NYSE: WEC) was maintained as Buy and the target price was lowered to $102 from $105 at Argus.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Adobe, Alphabet, Amazon.com, Aurora Cannabis, Dropbox, Facebook, Lyft, Microsoft, Shopify, Snap, Tesla, Uber and more.


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