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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abbott Labs, Chevron, Cimarex, DocuSign, GE, IBM, Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Western Digital and More
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Stocks have been hitting all-time highs, but late-day selling on Wednesday has led to some additional selling on Thursday, after the European Central Bank voted to hold interest rates steady as its strategic review is underway. Many investors still have not made portfolio changes during and after a very strong market in 2019. The markets now are treating a risk-on trade as being better than selling the news, despite being in overbought territory heading into earnings season. 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 of the calls. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv sell-side research service.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Thursday, January 23, 2020.
Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) was up 2.4% at $91.86 on Wednesday, with a 52-week high of $92.45 and a consensus target price of $97.93. Evercore ISI hiked its target price to $96 from $85, and JPMorgan lifted its target to $101 from $96.
Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH) closed down 1.5% at $106.63 on Wednesday, with a 52-week high of $110.24 and a consensus target price of $115.00. Citigroup reiterated its Buy rating and added the stock to its U.S. Focus List.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) was raised to Sector Outperform from Sector Perform at Scotiabank. Chevron closed at $112.90, in a 52-week range of $110.42 to $127.34 and with a consensus target price of $136.29.
Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the target price was raised to $60 from $57 at Credit Suisse. Cimarex closed at $49.96 ahead of the call and the firm has cited double-digit oil production growth as being achievable in 2020 and that this could be an inflection year for the company.
Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) was up 1.1% at $119.23 ahead of earnings, and its shares rose 3.6% to $123.55 afterward. Wedbush Securities maintained it as Neutral with a $110 target price, but target hikes were seen by Robert W. Baird (to $115 from $105), RBC Capital Markets (to $123 from $110) and Jefferies (to $115 from $105).
DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was reiterated with an Outperform rating and $90 target price (versus a $74.42 close) at Wedbush, with the firm calling its business strong heading into 2020 and 2021.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that the business has been unable to adapt to the evolving economic landscape. Shares last closed at $4.56 and have a consensus price target of $4.45.
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its target price was raised to $14 from $11 at Morgan Stanley, with the firm noting that GE is seeing declining risks around its pension, long-term care and power business. And despite Boeing’s woes, GE’s aviation is being called best-in-class.
GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this company has been actively buying back its own stock on the notion that it is undervalued. Shares most recently closed at $71.96, with a consensus price target of $86.23.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was reiterated as Hold at Argus, with the independent research firm noting that Red Hat has aided on revenues and margins but core issues remain challenged.
Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was reinstated with a Neutral rating and assigned a $5.25 target price at Credit Suisse. Shares closed up 0.6% at $4.71, with a consensus target price of $5.90 ahead of the call.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated with an Outperform rating and $195 target price (versus a $165.70 close) at Wedbush, with the firm noting that it still sees Microsoft winning the $10 billion JEDI cloud contract over AWS despite Amazon formally filing its protest about the award. Piper Sandler reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target price to $190 from $158.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight and its target price was raised to $73 from $56 at Morgan Stanley. It closed at $59.17 a share ahead of the call and was indicated up 2% at $60.35 ahead of the open on Thursday. The prior consensus target price was $65.38.
Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Buy at UBS, which also raised its target price to $300 from $240. Shares previously closed at $250.05, and the consensus target price was $246.63.
PTC Inc. (NASDAQ: PTC) was up almost 1.4% at $79.95 ahead of earnings but the shares were trading up 7.5% at $86.00 in Thursday’s early post-earnings reaction. Robert W. Baird reiterated its Outperform rating, raised its target to $105 from $95 and named it as a Top Pick in industrial software. JPMorgan raised its target to $84 from $82, and RBC Capital Markets raised its target to $83 from $75. The shares have a 52-week high of $102.47, and the consensus target price was $87.50 ahead of these hikes.
Tesla Inc. (NYSE: TSLA) was resumed with a Sell rating at UBS, but the firm’s prior target price of $160 rose all the way to $410. Tesla shares closed up 4% at $569.56 ahead of the call, but they were indicated down 2.2% at $557.00 in early trading indications on Thursday.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) was up 1.9% at $133.34 ahead of earnings but the shares were indicated down about 1.4% at $131.50 in the post-earnings reaction on Thursday morning. With a $127.93 prior consensus target price, several target price hikes were seen: Citigroup ($150 from $135), Jefferies ($164 from $150), Susquehanna ($155 from $140), RBC ($135 from $125) and JPMorgan ($145 from $130).
Waste Connections Inc. (NYSE: WCN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and its target price was hiked to $88 from $64 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed at $68.64 ahead of the call, and its consensus analyst target was $68.99 ahead of the call.
24/7 Wall St.Merrill Lynch makes a very surprising addition to its U.S. 1 list of top stock picks, and it’s almost a contrarian call given how long and how far the utility sector has run.
Also worth a look is the 10 top tech leaders scoring big analyst target hikes and upgrades ahead of earnings for 2020 upside.
Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Amazon.com, Boeing, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, IBM, Netflix, Rio Tinto, Tesla, Verizon, Visa, Xerox and many more. Tuesday’s top analyst calls included AMD, Alibaba, AIG, Baidu, Broadcom, Costco, Intel, Ping, Pinterest, RingCentral, Shopify, Uber and more.
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