Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: J.C. Penney, Micron, Twitter, NBG, SanDisk and More
May 16, 2014 8:50 am
Last Updated: May 16, 2014 10:32 am
Earnings season is winding down, but investors still want to find profits and to avoid catching the top or picking bad stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning for new ideas for its readers. These are this Friday’s top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.Source: Jon Ogg in NYC
Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) was started as Buy with a $53 price target (versus a $44.02 close) by Jefferies.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc. (NYSE: DANG) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
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J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) was maintained as Neutral but with raised estimates at Sterne Agee, but the firm does say not to chase the short squeeze after earnings.
Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $113 price target by Merrill Lynch.
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $145 from $122 at Credit Suisse.
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Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Buy with a $32 price target after recent weakness by Sterne Agee.
National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at J.P. Morgan.
Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NYSE: NSM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was raised to outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $78 from $65 at Credit Suisse.
Protective Life Corp. (NYSE: PL) was to Buy from Underperform with a $62 price target by Merrill Lynch.
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SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was reiterated as Buy with a $92 price target after recent weakness by Sterne Agee.
TheStreet Inc. (NASDAQ: TST) is not covered very often, so when it is covered it stands out. Jim Cramer’s house was started with a Buy rating and $4.15 price target by a firm named B. Riley.
Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was raised to Hold from Sell with a $38 price target by Wunderlich. This is the fourth such upgrade we have seen like this (Sell to Neutral equivalent) in the past two weeks.
ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $70 to $74 range at Wells Fargo.
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