Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AT&T, Capstone, ConAgra, Diamond Offshore, Hecla Mining and More

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

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was raised to Outperform with a $40 price target (versus a $35.57 close) at Cowen. On Wednesday afternoon we featured how it seems every AT&T analyst is raising targets and ratings into the DirecTV merger. AT&T’s 52-week trading range is $32.07 to $37.48.

Capstone Turbine Corp. (NASDAQ: CPST) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Northland Securities. This was after several recent target price cuts. Capstone closed at $0.40 and it has a 52-week range of $0.37 to $1.53.

ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $50 price target (versus a $44.60 close) at Morgan Stanley. This is just a day after Merrill Lynch raised its rating to Neutral from Underperform. ConAgra has a consensus price target of $44.40 and a 52-week range of $29.90 to $44.64.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) was reiterated as Underperform and the price target was cut to $20 from $24 (versus a $25.34 close) at FBR Capital Markets. Diamond Offshore has a consensus price target of $25.72 and a 52-week range of $24.93 to $50.50.

Hecla Mining Co. (NYSE: HL) was started as Sector Perform, but it was given a $3.25 price target (versus a $2.44 close after a 7% drop on Wednesday), at RBC Capital Markets. Hecla’s consensus price target is $2.92, and it has a 52-week range of $2.00 to $3.54.

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There were several other key analyst upgrades and downgrades from Thursday as follows:

Alliance Resource Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: ARLP) was raised to Buy from Hold with a price target of $36 (versus a $25.02 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Chambers Street Properties (NYSE: CSG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Green Plains Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: GPP) was started with a Buy rating and it was assigned a $20 price target (versus $15.29 close) at Roth Capital.

HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and it now has a $54 price target (versus a $46.46 close) at JMP Securities.

Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE: KOS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $10 price target (versus $7.93 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $20 price target (versus a $20.80 close) at B. Riley.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NYSE: TMUS) was started as Buy with a $50 price target (versus a $38.63 close) at Buckingham Research.

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Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Evercore ISI.

Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) was downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.

With many investors and economic watchers out or on short time this week, 24/7 Wall St. has also provided a recap of the analyst calls this week:

• Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of Brinker International, Cypress Semiconductor, Starbucks, Windstream, Willis Group and about a dozen more companies.
• Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Apollo Education, Petrobras, Shopify, Fitbit, Sarepta Therapeutics, Lowe’s and over a dozen more companies.
• Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in American Water Works, CenturyLink, Chesapeake Energy, Tesla, Macy’s, Chimera Investment and a dozen or so more.