Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Express, Cablevision, Groupon, Salesforce.com, T-Mobile, Yelp and More

February 26, 2015 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were marginally higher on Thursday after hitting new highs, but this was ahead of several key economic reports. What has been set in stone is that investors buy stocks after every single pullback, a trend that is now over two years old. After all, each pullback has been a chance to buy stocks they wanted to own or that are overlooked.

24/7 Wall St. goes over dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week to find new investment and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (NYSE: AB) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $32 price objective (versus a $27.46 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $90 price target (versus a $82.17 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Brean Capital. Canaccord Genuity maintained its Hold rating and lowered estimates, based on weak results. Sterne Agee maintained its Neutral rating and lowered estimates.

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Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

DineEquity Inc. (NYSE: DIN) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan, and the price target was put at $116 (versus a $111.85 close).

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was started as Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

GrubHub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

HomeAway Inc. (NASDAQ: AWAY) was started as Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) was started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Lumber Liquidators Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI, after news that it would be negatively featured on 60 Minutes drove the stock down 26%.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was indicated up 12% at $70.70 after solid earnings. Mizuho reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $80 from $70. Canaccord Genuity raised its target to $80 from $70, and Sterne Agee maintained its Buy rating and $70 target while raising estimates. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating but raised its target to $80 from $75.

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Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $56 price target (versus a $46.99 close) at Argus.

State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse and to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $40 from $37 (versus a $32.19 close) at Citigroup.

Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James & Associates.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in were in Coeur Mining, Comcast, First Solar, Marvell Technology, Melco Crown Entertainment, ONEOK, Whole Foods and many more.

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