Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Juniper Networks, Netflix, MannKind, Xerox and More

July 1, 2014 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were firm on Tuesday morning during a shortened week that will be full of economic reports. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week for new ideas for our readers. Some of the analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, and some of them cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

As this is the first day of the second half of 2014, we already ran the best performing DJIA stocks and also the best performing S&P 500 stocks so far in 2014. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street firms.

Amicus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) already had a great Monday with a gain of more than 10% to $3.34, but the stock did rise as much as $4.06. Now we have two more upgrades: to Buy from Neutral at Janney with a $5 price target (from $2.50) and to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink Swann.

comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $41 (versus a $35.48 close) by Goldman Sachs.

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $90 price target (versus a $78.76 close) at Oppenheimer.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.

iGATE Corp. (NASDAQ: IGTE) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $43 from $39 (versus a $36.39 close) at Jefferies.

ALSO READ: The 10 Stocks That Will Take the DJIA to 20,000

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) was reiterated as Buy with a $33 price target (versus a $24.54 close) at Argus. The call is based on pressure from Elliott Management causing a dividend and buyback, and also on strong expected earnings growth in 2014 and 2015.

MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and was given an $11 price target at a firm called MLV & Co. This is on the heels of a post-FDA pop, so we would expect some upgrades and downgrades ahead too. You can participate in our MannKind poll: Where does MannKind’s stock go in 2015?

Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is surging on news that the movie and content download king was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs. The driving force here is that Goldman Sachs set a $590 price target, versus a $440.60 close. The consensus price target may have only been around $421 prior to the call, but the previous street-high target from all analysts was only $525 before Goldman Sachs jumped in.

Orbitz Worldwide Inc. (NYSE: OWW) was started as Perform by Oppenheimer.

Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) was started with an Outperform rating and given a whopping $1,450 price target (versus a $1,203 close) at Oppenheimer.

Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

ALSO READ: Eight Merrill Lynch Stock Picks With Huge Catalysts for the Third Quarter

Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) remains an unexciting stock that is also perhaps a value trap. Citigroup downgraded the office equipment player to Neutral from Buy.

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included of Charter Communications, DreamWorks, FedEx, Wells Fargo, Yahoo! and a dozen or so more companies. Also, here are nine stocks trading under $10 in which analysts see huge potential upside

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