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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AbbVie, Amazon, Anadarko, Broadcom, CA, Chipotle, ConocoPhillips, GE, Honeywell, J&J, 3M, NetApp, Netflix and More

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Stocks were indicated to open higher after Wednesday’s sell-off broke a five-day streak. Investors have had less faith and lower rewards by buying the dips in 2018 than in prior years. Many of those investors also have been concerned about how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections and into international trade concerns, as well as for the longer-term.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new investing ideas and trading ideas. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Thursday, July 12, 2018.

AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) was started with a Hold rating and assigned a $105 price target (versus a $94.96 prior close) at Berenberg.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $2,000 from $1,800 at Canaccord Genuity.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was started as Equal Weight with an $86 target price (versus a $73.35 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was started as Underweight in a more “equal weight” oil and gas call at Morgan Stanley. Its $42 price target is under the $47.68 closing rice.

Black Hills Corp. (NYSE: BKH) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is acquiring CA for $18.9 billion, and there are some mixed reviews on the deal. B. Riley downgraded Broadcom to Neutral from Buy with a $245 price target (versus a $243.44 close), while RBC Capital Markets maintained its Outperform rating with a $300 target price, but the firm removed it as a Top Pick.

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) was raised to In-Line from Underperform with a $44.50 price target (versus a $37.21 close) at Evercore ISI. CA shares were last seen up 18% or so at $44.00, based on the Broadcom acquisition of CA for $18.9 billion.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Hold and the price target was raised to $400 at Jefferies.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was started as Overweight with an $82 price target (versus a $70.05 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was started as Equal Weight with a $46 price target (versus a $44.12 close) at Morgan Stanley.

GDS Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: GDS) was started with a Strong Buy rating and assigned a $53 price target (versus a $44.00 close) at Raymond James. The 52-week trading range is $8.50 to $45.88, and the Chinese data center operator has a $5.5 billion market cap.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was resumed with a Hold rating and with a $15 price target at Deutsche Bank.

Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) was resumed with a Buy rating and a $166 price target at Deutsche Bank.

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Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was started as Overweight with a $362 price target (versus a $315.93 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $134 price target (versus a $126.24 close) at Goldman Sachs.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was resumed with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.

Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE: MRO) was started as Equal Weight with a $23 price target (versus a $21.30 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Nasdaq Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) saw at least three price target hikes on Thursday morning. Barclays went to $96 from $90, KBW to $97 from $95 and Jefferies to $90 from $87.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $94 price target (versus a $79.59 close) at Guggenheim. It also was recently identified as a company that is expected to beat earnings expectations.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $425 price target (versus a $418.65 close) at UBS. Netflix shares were last seen down 0.6% at $416.25 on Thursday morning. The consensus target price is $379.14.

Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE: NFX) was started as Equal Weight with a $32 price target (versus a $29.72 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) was started as Equal Weight with a $39 price target (versus a $35.89 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Omeros Corp. (NASDAQ: OMER) was started as Buy with a $30 price target (versus a $20.08 close) at Seaport Global.

Syndax Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $30 price target at H.C. Wainwright. This is a small $175 million market cap company, but the price target in this call is 300% higher than the $7.10 closing price. Syndax has a 52-week range of $6.61 to $15.20.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was reiterated as Buy at MKM Partners. The firm expects a “beat and raise” quarter and said it purging fake accounts is a good development.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of AT&T, Comcast, Hess, Netflix, Petrobras, Sirius XM, Texas Instruments, Verizon, Walt Disney and many more.

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