Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Ally Financial, GE, HP, Monster Beverage, Oracle, Qualcomm, Zions Bancorp and Many More

Stocks were looking for direction Wednesday morning after a big rally on Tuesday. Investors have proved over and over that they will buy sell-offs and dips, a trend that is about four years old. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was maintained as Outperform with a $31.00 price target at Credit Suisse. What matters about this call is that GE was added to prized US Focus List and to the Global Focus List at Credit Suisse. The risk-reward is shown as favorable and the recent market drop is viewed as giving a favorable entrance.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) was maintained as Outperform and with that high $45.00 price target (versus a $27.11 prior close) at Credit Suisse. This is after the analyst day. The firm talked up cost cutting and said that it believes that several businesses are in the later stage of transition toward growth.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was downgraded to Outperform from Buy at CLSA. Monster was just featured as one of the recent share buybacks just too large to ignore.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) was raised to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The firm’s target price was set at $48 after a $37.99 close. This is an important call because it is the morning ahead of the corporate earnings report, due from Oracle after the close.

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Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was reiterated as Buy with an $80 price target at Argus. The firm believes the new processors and health opportunities have created a chance to buy the stock cheap on weakness.

Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ: ZION) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $35 price target (versus a $28.75 close) at Goldman Sachs. Zions was one of the banks at or under book value in a recent review as well.

Additional analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen in the following Wednesday morning:

Blue Bird Corp. (NASDAQ: BLBD) was started as Outperform with a $14 price target (versus an $11.58 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Cedar Fair L.P. (FUN) was started as Buy and the fair value estimate was $67.00 at Janney Capital Markets.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) was raised to Hold from Sell at Brean Capital.

Madison Square Garden Co. (NYSE: MSG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

Monro Muffler Brake Inc. (NASDAQ: MNRO) was started as Buy and with a $75 price target (versus a $63.88 close) at Jefferies.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY) was started as Buy and with a $290 price target (versus a $244.27 close) at Jefferies.

SAP A.G. (NYSE: SAP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: SIX) was started as Buy with a fair value estimate of $55.00 at Janney Capital Markets.

ALSO READ: 8 Buybacks and Dividends Just Too Big to Ignore

Sirona Dental Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel Nicolaus.

WebMD Health Corp. (NASDAQ: WBMD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $53.00 price target (versus a $39.81 close) at Cowen.

In case you missed out on Tuesday’s analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Fitbit, Kimberly-Clark, NiSource, Raptor Pharmaceuticals, Yelp, Sonic, Teradyne, UBS and over a dozen more.

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