Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Anadarko, Buffalo Wild Wings, GoPro, LifeLock, Rite Aid, SunPower and More

October 29, 2015 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were trading lower on Thursday, a day after the Federal Reserve sounded a touch less dovish (but still not hawkish) despite no rate hike. However, investors keep proving that they want to buy the pullbacks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Some of those analyst reports cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer. Anadarko closed at $65.55 per share, has a consensus price target of $86.31 and has a 52-week trading range of $58.10 to $95.94.

Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo. CLSA downgraded it to Underperform from Buy. Shares were indicated down 15% at $156.50 after a poor earnings report.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral and the price target was cut to $20 from $25 (versus $30.21 prior close, but $24.85 post-earnings indications) at Piper Jaffray. GoPro had a 52-week range of $26.68 to $87.50.

LifeLock Inc. (NYSE: LOCK) was surging after earnings and after ending its suits against it, rising to $13.50 from a $9.69 close. Wunderlich raised its rating to Buy from Hold and raised its target price to $19 from $9.50. Dougherty raised its rating to Buy from Neutral as well.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $9.00 price target at Goldman Sachs. Credit Suisse lowered its rating to Neutral from Outperform, and the price target was cut to $9 from $10. Rite Aid closed at $8.06 over merger review concerns, and the deal may undervalue Rite Aid on a fundamental basis.

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SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was reiterated as Neutral with a $23.00 fair value estimate (versus a $23.78 close) at Janney Capital Markets. Shares were last seen up 6% at $26.25 after news of selling projects and after earnings. It has a consensus price target of $36.71 and a 52-week range of $18.25 to $35.11.

Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen in the following Thursday morning:

Cavium Inc. (NASDAQ: CAVM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Diageo PLC (NYSE: DEO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.

Diamond Foods (NASDAQ: DMND) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform but the price target was raised to $40 from $35 (based on merger news) at BMO Capital Markets.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

HealthSouth Corp. (NYSE: HLS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Novadaq Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: NVDQ) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $15 price target (versus an $11.16 close) at First Analysis.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was reiterated as Buy with a $44.00 price target at Jefferies. The firm even said it was surprised that shares traded lower after earnings and guidance.

Realty Income Corp. (NYSE: O) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $46.00 price target (versus a $50.60 close) at UBS.

ALSO READ: Why Do Apple Analysts Look So Confused Now?

Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE: RIO) was reiterated as Market Perform and the price target was cut to $40 from $48 at Cowen.

Silicon Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: SLAB) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

SINA Corp. (NASDAQ: SINA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup. Shares closed at $48.35 and have a 52-week range of $31.92 to $61.25.

Steiner Leisure Ltd. (NASDAQ: STNR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Synchronoss Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SNCR) was raised to Strong Buy from an already-positive Outperform rating at Raymond James.

Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $23 from $32 (versus a $20.82 close) at JPMorgan.

In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Akamai Technologies, Apple, Devon Energy, GrubHub, JetBlue Airways, Kroger, Twitter, UBS, Yelp and many more companies.

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