Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Barrick, Facebook, Halcon, Qualcomm, Synchrony, Texas Instruments and More

April 23, 2015 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to take a breather on Thursday, but this week has so far been one of recovery rallying. If there is a trend that was set in stone, it has been that investors keep buying stocks on weakness. Is it a trend after almost four years, or is that secular? 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of research reports from analysts each day in order to get new trading and investment ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

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

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was maintained as Neutral or Equal Weight at Barclays.

Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) may have popped up after earnings, but Northland Securities downgraded it to Underperform from Market Perform and cut the price target to $5.50 from $7.25 (versus a $6.46 close).

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was started as Neutral at Credit Suisse. Its price target of $13 is slightly higher than the $12.37 closing price.

Citrix Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CTXS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Colony Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: CLNY) was started as Buy with a price target of $29 (versus a $26.23 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

ALSO READ: 5 Cheap Large Cap Stocks to Buy in an Expensive Stock Market

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was reiterated as Neutral with an $80 fair value target at Janney Capital Markets. Brean Capital reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $100 from $96. RBC Capital Markets kept its Outperform rating and raised its target to $105 from $88. Credit Suisse reiterated its Neutral rating and said that its discounted cash flow-based price target was kept at $106.

F5 Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $140 (versus a $120.42 close) at Needham.

Halcón Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $1 from $2 (versus a $1.60 close) at R.W. Baird.

Omnicare Inc. (NYSE: OCR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse. The firm raised its price target to $91 from $85, but its take on a merger hope is that, deal or no deal, the standalone risk-reward is now balanced.

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $38 (versus a $42.28 close) at Citigroup.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $38.50 price target (versus a $32.49 close) at HSBC.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $68 from $78 (versus a $68.94 close) at BNP Paribas. Brean kept its Buy rating, but cut the target price to $80 from $87. Shares were indicated down 2.5% at $67.25 after poor guidance with earnings.

Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $92 (versus a $75.84 close) at B. Riley.

ALSO READ: 5 UBS High Conviction Stocks to Buy for Volatile Markets

Stillwater Mining Co. (NYSE: SWC) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at BB&T Capital Markets.

St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE: STJ) was raised to outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $84 from $74 at Credit Suisse.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $35 price target (versus a $31.04 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and the price objective was cut to $59 from $62 (versus a $58.73 close). Shares were indicated down 8% at $54 after earnings and guidance.

Texas Capital Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: TCBI) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy with a price target of $55 (versus a $51.17 close) at Raymond James.

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $193 (versus a $149.64 close) at Jefferies.

Total S.A. (NYSE: TOT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Altera, Amazon.com, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Halliburton, MGIC Investment, Nokia, SAP, Teva Pharmaceutical and a dozen more companies.

ALSO READ: Why an Analyst Thinks This High-Yield MLP Has 50% Upside

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