Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chipotle, Gap, IBEX, Murphy Oil, NeoPhotonics, Qualcomm, Renewable Energy, Square, Tesla, Zoom and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: September 1, 2020 9:05 am

Last Updated: July 30, 2021 12:34 pm

The S&P 500 has continued to surge to new all-time highs, and the index just had its best August monthly gains in about 24 years. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s pledge to keep interest rates incredibly low and allow inflation to run hot has driven the interest into stocks rather than the ultra-low Treasury yields. Many investors missed the recovery as the recession forced them out of the market. Investors also have been looking for new ideas for how to be positioned in the rest of 2020 and ahead of the election.

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

Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Tuesday, September 1, 2020.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was maintained as Underweight at Morgan Stanley, but the firm did raise its target price to $42 from $41, after a 1.5% drop to $36.98 on Monday. The consensus target price was $44.31.

Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $20 target at Deutsche Bank, and Raymond James raised its rating to Strong Buy from Outperform with an $18 price target.

Checkmate Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CMPI) was started with a Neutral rating and a $19 price objective at BofA Securities.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Outperform at Wedbush Securities after a $1,310.28 prior close, but the firm raised its target to $1,600 from $1,320 after noting that its growth of store sales went twice as much under post-COVID-19 that pre-COVID-19.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that with interest rates stabilized by the Federal Reserve and equities rallying, derivatives are seeing reduced demand. Shares last closed at $175.87 and have a consensus price target of $178.67.

Cytosorbents Corp. (NASDAQ: CTSO) was started with an Outperform rating and a $15 target price (versus an $8.44 prior close) at SVB Leerink.

Freeline Therapeutics Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: FRLN) was started as Outperform and a $28 target price at Wedbush. This is after its initial public offering of more than 8.8 million American depositary shares at $18 apiece, and the upside from the recent $16.11 close was noting that shares could have significant upside from its potential to develop best-in-class AAV gene therapies targeting hemophilia, Gaucher and lysosomal storage disease.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was maintained as Neutral at Morgan Stanley, but its target price was raised to $16 from $11 in the call.

IBEX Ltd. (NASDAQ: IBEX) was started with a Buy rating and a $22 price target (versus a $15.99 prior close) at Truist Securities. Robert W. Baird started it as Outperform with a $22 price target, and Citigroup issued a Buy rating and the same $22 target price.

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NeoPhotonics Corp. (NASDAQ: NPTN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $9 price target at B. Riley FBR. The stock closed down 3.7% at $6.66 and was indicated up 15% at $7.66 on Tuesday after the company gave a business update following the U.S. Department of Commerce’s recent tightening of restrictions on Huawei.

Newmark Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRK) was maintained as Neutral but it still had a $6 target price (versus a $4.43 prior close) at Wedbush. The company has handily lowered its earnings targets for 2020 through 2022 to reflect continued stress in the company’s primary CRE markets that are reducing activity levels.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $150 from $137 at Canaccord Genuity. Shares closed up 0.7% at $119.10 on Monday, and the stock had a $119.26 consensus price target.

Renewable Energy Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REGI) was started with a Buy rating and a $70 price target (versus a $33.43 prior close) at Truist, with the “double your money” upside prediction being based around the renewable diesel first-mover advantage. Credit Suisse started it with an Outperform rating but a more modest $51 price target.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this brand new Dow component continues to beat the estimates and raise guidance. Shares most recently closed at $272.65 and have a consensus price target of $268.14.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was reiterated as Neutral with a $140 price target (versus a $159.56 prior close) at Wedbush. Where the call stood out was that the analyst offered up a so-called bull case that takes the stock to $250 to $300, assuming a combination of CashApp reaching a 200 million user base (from 30 million now) with the seller segment recovering from COVID-19-related challenges.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) managed to close up over 12.5% at $498.32 after enacting its major stock split. Tesla just saw its target price from RBC Capital Markets raised to $290 from $170 on a post-split adjusted basis, noting that it remains fundamentally overvalued despite the insatiable demand for EV shares from investors.

Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VKTX) was reiterated as Buy with a $28 price target (versus a $6.83 prior close) at Truist, but that call came after weakness from Friday’s fatty liver drug data presentation. This stock had been above $8 mid-week before the data.

Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) closed up 8.6% at $325.10 a share ahead of earnings, but a “beat and raise” report had its shares up over 35% at $440 in early trading on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal Weight rating and raised its target to $350 from $240, and Rosenblatt reiterated it as Neutral and raised its to $350 from $260. Needham raised its rating from Neutral to Buy with a $440 price target, and Goldman Sachs raised its rating to Neutral from Sell and raised its target to $402 from $187.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included AT&T, Beyond Meat, BigCommerce, Cedar Fair, T-Mobile, Vail Resorts and Walmart.