Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abbott Labs, Amex, Apple, Citrix, ConocoPhillips, Kinder Morgan, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Tesla and More

Investing

Published: April 21, 2016 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:30 am

Stocks were looking for direction on Thursday, but the market is effectively at the 2016 highs. Investors have clearly reverted back to the trend of buying pullbacks that prevailed from 2011 to 2015.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning with an aim to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen Thursday morning:

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) beat earnings but saw an unenthusiastic response. Cowen raised its price target to $48 from $44 while reiterating an Outperform rating. Goldman Sachs has a Neutral rating but raised its target to $46 from $44. Stifel raised its target price to $49 from $47. Shares closed at $43.47 and have a 52-week trading range of $36.00 to $51.74.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) managed to beat earnings. It was reiterated as Hold at Jefferies and the price target was raised to $60 from $58 (versus a $65.02 prior close). Merrill Lynch reiterated its Underperform rating and $56 price objective.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Outperform with a $120 price target at Oppenheimer ahead of next week’s earnings report. The firm did lower earnings estimates and said the supply chain news is negative, but the firm believes the focus will shift to the iPhone 7.