Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: CalAmp, Fiat Chrysler, Lowe’s, Plains All American, Ulta Beauty and Many More

August 28, 2017 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open higher on Monday and the major indexes remain close to all-time highs. Energy stocks and insurers are expected to be volatile after Hurricane Harvey (now a tropical storm) is causing so much damage to Houston and the energy infrastructure region there in Texas.

It is also important to keep in mind that more than half of the eight-year bull market has been dominated by the trend where investors keep finding new reasons to buy stocks after every sell-off. Many investors are also hunting for new investing and trading ideas to generate gains and income.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the top analyst reports cover stocks to buy, but some calls cover stocks to sell or avoid.

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

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Monday, August 28, 2017.

CalAmp Corp. (NASDAQ: CAMP) was started as Neutral at JPMorgan.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with an $18 price objective (versus a $14.85 prior close) at Merrill Lynch.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was maintained as Overweight but the price target was cut to $81 from $88 (versus a $73.35 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Plains All American Pipeline L.P. (NYSE: PAA) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform with a $24 price target (versus a $20.19 close) at Raymond James. Jefferies maintained its Buy rating and reaffirmed its $23 target on the stock.

Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was down 9.1% at $212.36 on Friday, and it was maintained as Sector Perform but the price target was cut to $250 from $310 at RBC Capital Markets.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CMTA) was started as Outperform with a $26 target price (versus a $16.11 close) at Wedbush Securities. Morgan Stanley started Clementia as Overweight with a $27 price target. Leerink started it as Outperform and assigned a $23 price target.

Fairmount Santrol Holdings Inc. (NYSE: FMSA) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $5 from $8 (versus a $2.58 close) at Jefferies.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was maintained as Buy with a $52 price target (versus a $40.40 close) at Jefferies.

Harris Corp. (NYSE: HRS) was started as Outperform with a $144 price target at Credit Suisse.

NuVasive Inc. (NASDAQ: NUVA) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Needham.

Plexus Corp. (NASDAQ: PLXS) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Sientra Inc. (NASDAQ: SIEN) was started as Buy with a $14 price target at Canaccord Genuity.

Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: TTPH) was started as Overweight with a $14 price target (versus a $6.51 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Total System Services Inc. (NYSE: TSS) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $75 price target at RBC Capital Markets.

US Foods Holding Corp. (NYSE: USFD) was started as Equal Weight at Barclays.

Venator Materials PLC (NYSE: VNTR) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $25 price target at Goldman Sachs. Barclays started it with an Equal Weight rating and $22 target price, and Instinet started it as Buy with a $24 price target.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Abercrombie & Fitch, Dollar Tree, Domino’s GoDaddy, Intuit, Starbucks, Twitter, Ulta Beauty, Wix and many more.

Follow @Jonogg on Twitter to receive the daily analyst calls and other market research calls directly on your feed.

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