Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was maintained as Outperform at RBC Capital Markets, but the firm cut the price target to $91 from $105 in the call. A firm called Axiom Capital maintained its Buy rating but cut the target to $90 as well. Yesterday brought a downgrade from Wedbush to Neutral from Outperform. The moves are after a stock buyback.
Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) was reiterated as Buy with a $95.00 price target at Deutsche Bank, with similar calls seen in oil services sector here. This was the highest target price, versus a $58.60 close and against a $47.51 to $70.51 trading range in the past 52 weeks.
GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $76.00 price target (versus a $56.91 close) at Cowen. GoPro’s consensus price target is $76.54 and its 52-week range is $37.13 to $98.47.
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) was started as Buy with a $23.00 price target (versus a $17.90 close) at Goldman Sachs. Hertz has a consensus target price of almost $25 now, and the 52-week range is $15.56 to $31.61.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $70 price target (versus a $58.26 close) at BMO Capital Markets. It has a consensus target of $65.35 and a 52-week range of $52.49 to $63.62.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $55 price target (versus a $46.74 close) at Stifel Nicolaus. Microsoft’s consensus price target is $50.00, and the 52-week range is $40.12 to $50.05.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $52.00 price target (versus a $34.49 close) at Bernstein. Yahoo’s consensus target is $51.59 and its 52-week range is $33.85 to $52.62.
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Other top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from this Thursday were seen as follows:
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) was reiterated as Buy with a $61 price target (versus a $46.89 close) at Argus.
BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: BBEP) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was raised to Buy from Hold with $92 target (versus an $80.62 close) at Argus.
Copa Holdings S.A. (NYSE: CPA) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
EV Energy Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: EVEP) was downgraded to Underperform from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $8 from $17 at Credit Suisse. The firm sees its current super-high distribution payouts at risk. It closed at $9.81 and it has a 52-week range of $67.59 to $41.97.
Freshpet Inc. (NASDAQ: FRPT) was started as Outperform at William Blair.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was reiterated as Buy with a $68.00 price target at Deutsche Bank.
Memorial Production Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: MEMP) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at JPMorgan.
Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was raised to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was started as Outperform with a $23.50 price target (versus an $18.14 close) at BMO Capital Markets.
Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was reiterated as Buy with an $112.00 price target at Deutsche Bank.
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Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Annaly Capital Management, Gap, Google, Johnson Controls, Symantec, Williams Companies and over a dozen more companies.
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