Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: ABB, Apple, Baidu, Casper, GE, Groupon, JPMorgan, Micron, PPD, Verizon, Wayfair and More
Published:
Last Updated:
The markets may be off to a new week, but the stock market’s panic selling last week was the worst week since the financial crisis. It took only six trading days to enter the 10% correction mode from February’s all-time highs and the Dow Jones industrials were down 16% at the lows on Friday. China’s manufacturing data was the worst on record in a fresh readout from February, but the futures market indications had the major indexes indicated to open down just about 0.5% on Monday.
Despite the volatility around coronavirus outbreak fears and the added pressure coming from the political election cycle this year, many investors have not made that many major changes to their holdings after the incredible gains from 2019.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find 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. It is worth noting that many analysts are also not hitting the panic button as they are maintaining positive ratings on many of the top stocks, unless there has been a major change inside of a company.
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 Monday, March 2, 2020.
ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. It closed down 1.4% at $21.64 per American depositary share on Friday and traded down over 1% at $21.40 on Monday. Its consensus target price was $26.59.
Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was maintained as Overweight and its target price was raised to $72 from $67 (versus a $58.13 prior close) at Stephens.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $320 target price at Oppenheimer, with the firm calling Apple out as oversold and that its products and services will hold up better than competing products in uncertain times.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its target price was raised to $150 from $130 at JPMorgan. Daiwa lowered it to Outperform from Buy and cut its target to $135 from $160 despite the firm noting that Baidu’s core business is likely to grow again with stronger sales from health care and advertising. The stock closed up seven cents at $119.98 a share on Friday, and its premarket level was up 1.6% at $121.90 on Monday.
Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAM) was started with an Outperform rating and a $32 target price (versus a $22.49 close) at Wedbush Securities, which called it undervalued based on its differentiated and potentially best-in-class gene-editing platform of base editing. Jefferies started it as Buy with a $32 target price, and Barclays started it as Overweight with a $32 target.
Casper Sleep Inc. (NYSE: CSPR) has seen its quiet period come to an end after its $12 initial public offering this year, and the 0.2% drop to $9.02 on Friday is against a post-IPO trading range of $8.00 to $15.85. Goldman Sachs started it as Buy with a $16 target, and Citigroup started it as Buy with a $12 target. Morgan Stanley started it at Equal Weight with a $12 target price, and Piper Sandler started it at Overweight with a $15 target price.
Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE: CRL) was started with a Buy rating and a $190 target price (versus a $155.57 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ: DBX) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that it is finally looking ripe for a buy as this cloud storage giant falls to an attractive valuation. Shares most recently closed at $19.56, with a consensus price target of $28.92.
Estsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was reiterated as Buy and its target was raised to $75 from $65 (versus a $57.81 close) at Citigroup. It had a $65.56 consensus target price.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $32 target price (versus a $24.40 close) at Robert W. Baird.
Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that this dying company has been struggling to maintain its competitive edge in a saturating market. Shares last closed at $1.34 and have a consensus price target of $1.94.
Iqiva Holdings Inc. (NYSE: IQV) was started with a Buy rating and a $190 target price (versus a $139.49 close) at Deutsche Bank.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and assigned a $149 target price at Piper Sandler. JPMorgan shares closed down over 4.3% at $116.11 on Friday and were indicated down another 1.5% at $114.34 on Monday. The consensus target price was $138.92, and the 52-week trading range is $98.09 to $141.10.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the target price was raised to $55 from $45 at Robert W. Baird.
PPD Inc. (NASDAQ: PPD) has seen its quiet period come to an end and its shares closed down 2.4% at $27.88 on Friday, in a post-IPO range of $26.50 to $33.23. Goldman Sachs started it with a Buy rating and a $34 target price, Robert W. Baird as Outperform with a $35 target, Mizuho as Buy with a $32 target price, Barclays at Overweight with a $33 target and Credit Suisse as Outperform with a $32 target price.
Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with an $18 target price (versus a $13.52 close) at Robert W. Baird.
SmileDirectClub Inc. (NASDAQ: SDC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its target price was slashed to $9 from $18 (versus a $7.48 close) at UBS.
Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY) was maintained as Neutral at Cantor Fitzgerald, but the firm lowered the target price to $19.50 from $26.00. Shares closed down 0.7% at $14.43 on Friday, with a $24.00 consensus target price. The stock was indicated up over 2% at $14.75 on Monday.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) was raised to Outperform with a $61 target price at Cowen.
Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) was down 10.1% at $63.21 on Friday. Credit Suisse maintained it as Outperform but lowered its target price to $110 from $125, and Stephens maintained its Equal Weight rating but lowered its target price to $65 from $80.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target price was raised to $73 from $63 at Stifel.
While gold took a massive hit of 3.6% on Friday as investors locked in gains and used it as a source of funds, many investors from retail and institutional sides look at gold as a safe haven during uncertain times. Five key gold-mining winners could be seen on Wall Street’s partial view that gold could run up to all-time records if the coronavirus situation worsens.
If you are worried about the economic decay around the coronavirus fears, there are eight non-traditional economic strategies that the Federal Reserve and the government can take to keep the economy rolling if the situation gets far worse and if the dismal fresh report on economic activity in China becomes the new expectation here.
Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Beyond Meat, CBOE, Chesapeake Energy, Dollar General, FLIR Systems, Gilead Sciences, Lyft, Novavax, RBS, Uber, Zoom Video Communications and many more.
Credit card companies are at war. The biggest issuers are handing out free rewards and benefits to win the best customers.
It’s possible to find cards paying unlimited 1.5%, 2%, and even more today. That’s free money for qualified borrowers, and the type of thing that would be crazy to pass up. Those rewards can add up to thousands of dollars every year in free money, and include other benefits as well.
We’ve assembled some of the best credit cards for users today. Don’t miss these offers because they won’t be this good forever.
Flywheel Publishing has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Flywheel Publishing and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.