Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Brinker, Cypress Semi, Starbucks, Windstream and More

July 1, 2015 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated higher on Wednesday on hopes that the latest Greek overtures might get accepted by creditors. Yet again, investors have continued the nearly four-year-old trend of buying every single pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while others are about stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) was started as Buy with a $67.00 price target (versus a $57.65 close) at Goldman Sachs. The stock has a consensus price target of $65.60 and a 52-week trading range of $43.83 to $63.40.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) was started as Overweight with a $15 price target (versus a $11.76 close) at Barclays.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was maintained as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm removed the coffee destination giant from its prized Conviction Buy List.

Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and the price target was cut to $7.00 from $9.50 (versus a $6.38 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Willis Group Holdings PLC (NYSE: WSH) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $55 price target (versus a $46.90 close, after a 3.3% post-merger announcement gain) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

ALSO READ: 6 Analyst Stock Picks Called to Double

Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades this Wednesday were seen as follows:

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALDX) was started as Buy with a price target of $16 (versus a $7.76 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) was started as Buy at Mizuho.

American Campus Communities Inc. (NYSE: ACC) was maintained as Buy but the target price was lowered to $43 from $45 at Argus.

Autoliv Inc. (NYSE: ALV) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a price target cut to $119 from $131 (versus a $116.75 close) at BNP Paribas.

Axcelis Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ACLS) was started as Buy with a $4.50 price target (versus a $2.96 close) at Benchmark.

BankUnited Inc. (NYSE: BKU) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $42 price target (versus a $35.93 close) at JPMorgan.

Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) was started as Buy with a $28 price target (versus a $21.35 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) was started as Buy with a $195 price target (versus a $156.69 close) at Goldman Sachs.

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Carter’s Inc. (NYSE: CRI) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started as Market Perform at JMP Securities.

Cheesecake Factory Inc. (NASDAQ: CAKE) was started as Sell with a $51 price target (versus a $54.54 close) at Goldman Sachs.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.

Credit Suisse Group A.G. (NYSE: CS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

EPAM Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: EPAM) was started as Overweight with a $87 price target (versus a $71.23 close) at JPMorgan.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at BNP Paribas.

Gramercy Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: GPT) was started as Buy by Stifel Nicolaus, but it was started as Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.

Onconova Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTX) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $6.00 from $3.00 (versus a $2.37 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (NYSE: PNW) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Towers Watson & Co. (NYSE: TW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

United Rentals Inc. (NYSE: URI) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Valley National Bancorp (NYSE: VLY) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.

ALSO READ: RBC Gets More Positive on Wireless Carriers

In case you missed out on Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Apollo Education, Petrobras, Shopify, Fitbit, Sarepta Therapeutics, Lowe’s and over a dozen more companies. Also, Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in American Water Works, CenturyLink, Chesapeake Energy, Tesla, Macy’s, Chimera and a dozen or so more.

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