Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Abercrombie, Arch Coal, Baker Hughes, BioMarin, Gilead, Hasbro, Snap and More

courtesy of Jon Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open higher on Thursday. The major stock indexes remain close to all-time highs and the trend that has prevailed for more than five years is that investors have managed to keep finding new reasons to buy stocks after every sell-off. Many investors are also hunting for new investing ideas and trading to generate gains and income.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these top analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other analyst calls cover stocks to sell or to 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 Thursday, August 31, 2017.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform with a $14 price target (versus a $12.48 prior close) at RBC Capital Markets. Abercrombie has a 52-week trading range of $8.81 to $17.82 and had a consensus analyst target price of $11.50.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ARCH) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $90 price target (versus a $76.55 close) at JPMorgan. Shares were indicated up 1.5% at $77.71 after this call. Arch Coal has a consensus target price of $97.57 and its post-restructuring high is $86.47.

Baker Hughes, GE Company (NYSE: BHGE) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $41 price target (versus a $33.51 close) at Barclays. Baker Hughes has a consensus target price of about $50.

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $98 price target (versus an $87.65 close) at Citigroup. BioMarin has a consensus target price of $111.75 and a 52-week range of $78.42 to $101.27.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $100 price target at Argus. It also was started with an Outperform rating at William Blair. The 52-week range is $63.76 to $82.07, and the consensus target price was recently seen at $80.11.

Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) was started with an Overweight rating and was given a $112 price target (versus a $95.28 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Hasbro has a consensus target price of $110.64 and a 52-week range of $76.14 to $116.20.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $12 price target (versus a $15.02 close) at Wedbush Securities. Snap has a consensus target price of $14.88 and a post-IPO range of $11.28 to $29.44.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. (NYSE: RDY) was raised to Outperform from Underperform at CLSA.

FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC) was raised to Buy from Underperform with a $103 price objective (versus an $84.48 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was started as Market Perform with a $15 price target at JMP Securities.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $14 price target at Drexel Hamilton.

Momo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOMO) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $56 price target (versus a $36.06 close) at Goldman Sachs. It was up 4.7% more at $37.78 a share on Thursday.

Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was maintained as Outperform and the price target was lowered to $46 from $50 at Credit Suisse. The firm’s lower target reflects a lower take-out probability.

Motorola Solutions Inc. (NYSE: MSI) was reiterated as Buy with a $105 price target (versus an $87.66 close) at Jefferies.

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PTEN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $22 price target (versus a $15.80 close) at Societe Generale.

STORE Capital Corp. (NYSE: STOR) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $27 price target (versus a $25.08 close) at Mizuho.

YY Inc. (NASDAQ: YY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $101 price target (versus a $69.52 close) at Goldman Sachs.

KeyBanc Capital Markets started many leisure and entertainment stocks with an Overweight rating: Acushnet Holdings Corp. (NYSE: GOLF), Brunswick Corp. (NYSE: BC), Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY), Camping World Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CWH), Cedar Fair L.P. (NYSE: FUN), Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) and Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN).

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of Blackstone, Ciena, Merck, Tempur Sealy, Universal Display and many more companies.

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