Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AK Steel, Altice USA, Biogen, Caterpillar, Gilead, Oracle and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: June 23, 2017 8:50 am

Last Updated: March 20, 2020 11:08 am

Stocks have recently hit all-time highs again, but the stock indexes seem to have gone sideways in recent days and they were looking for direction on a slow news Friday. The bull market is more than eight years old now, but equity investors keep proving that they will buy into any major pullback or sell-off. Those same investors are also looking for new investing and trading ideas for income and gains.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. Our goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Consensus analyst price target data are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service. Additional color and commentary has also been added on most of the daily analyst calls.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Friday, June 23, 2017.

AK Steel Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank. It closed up 1.8% at $6.30 on Thursday and was indicated to open up another 3% higher at $6.50 on Friday morning. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $3.87 to $11.39 and a consensus analyst price target of $8.47.

Altice USA Inc. (NYSE: ATUS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $38 target price at Pivotal Research. The firm was not an underwriter in the IPO held just one day ahead of the call, so it is not subject to quiet period analyst coverage blackouts. Altice USA priced at $30 per share and closed up 9% at $32.71 on its debut, with 31 million shares trading hands.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $315 price target at Deutsche Bank. Biogen closed up 0.7% at $280.57 on Thursday and was indicated up another 1.1% at $283.70 on Friday morning. It has a 52-week range of $223.02 to $333.65 and a consensus price target of $318.60.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank. The firm’s own earnings estimates are already above Wall Street consensus estimates, and it believes that all forward recovery and turnaround value is already fully reflected in the share price. Shares closed up 0.36% at $103.84 on Thursday and were indicated down 1% at $102.78 on Friday morning. Caterpillar has a 52-week range of $70.53 to $108.18 and a consensus price target of $107.07.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $79 price target at Deutsche Bank. The stock has bounced over the past two days and closed up 4.4% at $70.48 on Thursday. It was indicated up almost 1% more early Friday. The 52-week range is $63.76 to $88.85, and the consensus price target is $77.66.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) posted a Thursday breakout to the upside with an 8.6% gain to $50.30 after great earnings and guidance. Many analysts upgraded ratings and targets on Thursday. Now Argus has raised its rating to Buy from Hold and has assigned a $61 target price on Oracle shares. The 52-week range is $37.62 to $51.85.

You can follow @Jonogg on Twitter if you want the daily analyst calls and other research notes directly on your feed.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

AdvanSix Inc. (NYSE: ASIX) was started as Outperform and was given a $37 price target (versus a $30.02 prior close) at Cowen.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Antares Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: ATRS) was started as Buy with a $5 price target (versus a $3.01 closing price) at Chardan Capital.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) was last seen down 9.5% at $30.54 after disappointing earnings yet again were the outcome. Bed Bath & Beyond’s prior 52-week and multiyear low was $33.40 seen on the previous day. Jefferies, KeyBanc, Credit Suisse, Wedbush and more all slammed it lower on their target prices.

Belden Inc. (NYSE: BDC) was started with a Buy rating and given a $93 price target (versus a $74.01 close) at Goldman Sachs.

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Bioverativ Inc. (NASDAQ: BIVV) was started with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.

Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CWST) was started as Overweight and assigned a $19 price target (versus a $15.70 close) at Barclays.

Clovis Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: CLVS) was started as Perform at Oppenheimer.

DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (NYSE: DCT) was started as Hold at Jefferies.

Duke Realty Corp. (NYSE: DRE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

EnerNOC Inc. (NASDAQ: ENOC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan. The shares fell 1.5% to $32.66 on Thursday and were indicated down another 2% at $32.00 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $31.70 to $56.99.

Oclaro Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLR) was started with a Buy rating and given a $14 target price (versus a $9.44 close) at D.A. Davidson.

Prologis Inc. (NYSE: PLD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was raised to Buy from Hold by Needham.

Credit Suisse had two key theme calls from Friday. One was that homebuilding and building products continue to look favorable as the upturn remains on track. A second theme was that large cap banks’ 2017 DFAST results showed they all passed their respective stress tests and most have ample room for more capital returns to their shareholders.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Abercrombie & Fitch, Aqua Metals, CarMax, Oracle, Southwest Airlines, Valero Energy, Walmart and many more.