Investing

17 Key Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades for Friday

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Friday was a day full of analyst calls, and due to timing issues we have broken it up into two segments. The first was the top analyst calls from the major companies with news, and here is a slew of companies with regular analyst calls with news or just on valuation.

Stocks were indicated lower on Friday after a disappointing payrolls report, and the Dow is down over 500 points from April’s peak. Investors are caught in the middle of deciding whether to buy the dips or sell the rallies, now that the S&P 500 is close to 17.6 times forward earnings.

24/7 Wall St. has featured more than a dozen analyst research reports for its readers this Friday. Some of these may be new investing and trading ideas, others may be after events. Either way, these are the stocks analysts are telling their clients are stocks to buy or stocks to sell.

Here are many of this Friday’s analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls:

Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $181 price target (versus a $148.74 prior close) at Goldman Sachs, just a day after it was downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James. That’s what makes for a ballgame.

American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR) was maintained with a Sell rating but the fair value estimate was cut to $35 from $36 (versus a $39.60 close, after selling off by 6.8% the prior day) at Janney.

Bank of the Ozarks Inc. (NASDAQ: OZRK) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $46 price target (versus a $37.01 close) at Piper Jaffray. This was up at $41 before being called a Short Sell by Muddy Waters Carson Block at the Sohn Conference this week in New York.

BankUnited Inc. (NYSE: BKU) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Churchill Downs Inc. (NASDAQ: CHDN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at a firm called Hilliard Lyons, which is not so coincidentally close to the Kentucky Derby race.

Copa Holdings S.A. (NYSE: CPA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

CONE Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: CNNX) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform and the price target was raised to $20 from $12 (versus $15.20 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Endo International PLC (NASDAQ: ENDP) was last seen down 32% after cutting its annual guidance on an impairment charge after a loss in the first quarter. Several downgrades were seen: Mizuho (to Underperform), Piper Jaffray (to Neutral) and Leerink (to Market Perform).

Federal Realty Trust (NYSE: FRT) was downgraded to Underperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

Gastar Exploration Inc. (NYSE: GST) was last seen trading down 26% at $1.60 after missing estimates on earnings and revenues. Gastar was downgraded to Sector Weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets, and was also downgraded to Hold from Buy at Topeka Capital Markets.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $305 price target (versus a $254.02 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Macerich Co. (NYSE: MAC) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

Marin Software Inc. (NYSE: MRIN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was halved, from $6 to $3 (versus a $2.56 close), at Deutsche Bank.

MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) was started as Overweight with a $29 price target (versus a $21.87 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Tallgrass Energy GP L.P. (NYSE: TEGP) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $30 target (versus a $21.13 close) at Robert W. Baird.

Total System Services Inc. (NYSE: TSS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $61 price target (versus a $51.57 close) at Cowen.

Watts Water Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WTS) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $64 price target (versus a $54.58 close) at BB&T Capital Markets.

You can follow @Jonogg to get the daily analyst calls and market reports directly on your Twitter feed.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Activision Blizzard, Berkshire Hathaway, FireEye, Immunomedics, Square, SunPower, Weatherford, Williams and Yelp.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Dick’s Sporting Goods, Randgold Resources, Royal Dutch Shell, Sysco, Tesla Motors and more than a dozen other companies.

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