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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chipotle, Cree, First Solar, NVIDIA, Seaworld, SunPower, Time, TJX and Many More

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Stocks were mixed ahead of the key payrolls and unemployment report on Friday. Investors have proven repeatedly that they want to buy stocks on weakness or when there is value. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Amec Foster Wheeler PLC (NYSE: AMFW) saw its shares fall a whopping 25% to $8.50 on Thursday after earnings, a dividend cut and lower guidance. Now UBS has downgraded it to Neutral from Buy.

ChannelAdvisor Corp. (NYSE: ECOM) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel. Shares closed at $9.09, and it has a consensus analyst target price of $13.67 and a 52-week trading range of $8.22 to $22.47.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $675 price target at R.W. Baird. 24/7 Wall St. recently featured Chipotle as potentially having another $200 in downside if its problems persist.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was downgraded to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs. The firm also lowered its price target on Cree to $21 from $24 (versus a $27.02 prior close).

Iconix Brand Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ICON) was down by almost half to $8.00 in early trading Thursday after signaling that it has to restate its financials (accounting irregularities gone wild). Iconix Brand was downgraded to Hold at Brean, and Wunderlich has a Hold rating already but lowered its target price to $10.

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First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was Started as Outperform at Macquarie. The stock closed at $58.33, has a consensus target price of $64.35 and has a 52-week range of $39.18 to $65.50.

Markit Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRKT) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN) was maintained as Hold but the price target was cut to $49 from $50 (versus a $43.55 close) at Jefferies.
NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $38 from $34 (versus a $27.71 close) at Jefferies. Shares were indicated up almost 10% at $30.45 after stronger earnings. The stock saw price target hikes from Morgan Stanley (to $30), Roth (to $30) and RBC (to $32).

SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Pacific Crest. SBA closed down 6.7% at $109.75. It has a consensus price target of $133.80 and a 52-week range of $101.12 to $128.47.

Skullcandy Inc. (NASDAQ: SKUL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $5 from $17 (versus a $6.34 close) at Jefferies.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: SEAS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $20 from $25 (versus a $18.30 close and down 6% the prior day) at Goldman Sachs. The consensus analyst price target is $22.73, and the 52-week range is $15.11 to $22.68.

Stamps.com Inc. (NASDAQ: STMP) rose handily after beating earnings. Northland Securities raised its price target to $100 from $85.

Sun Life Financial Inc. (NYSE: SLF) was reiterated as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets, and the firm raised its price target to $52 from $50 (versus a $33.29 close and a $50.72 consensus price target).

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SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was Started as Outperform at Macquarie. SunPower closed at $27.44, has a consensus analyst price target of $35.57 and has a 52-week range of $18.25 to $35.11.

Men’s Wearhouse Inc. (NYSE: MW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $32 from $67 (versus a $40.10 close) at Jefferies. Mizuho also downgraded Men’s Wearhouse to Neutral. Shares were down 35% at $25.82 after its outlook.

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $10 from $7 (versus a $6.89 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Time Inc. (NYSE: TIME) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) was started as Outperform with an $82 price target (versus a $74.32 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

TripAdvisor Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim Securities. Oppenheimer lowered its rating to Perform from Outperform.

If you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Avon Products, Facebook, FireEye, InterXion, Oracle, Qualcomm, Time Warner, KeyCorp. and more.

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