5 Analyst Upgrades and Target Hikes Too Large to Ignore

November 3, 2015 by Chris Lange

After having the strongest October in the past four years, where do the broad markets go from here? To answer this we can check analyst and investor sentiment, and what they see going forward. Investors just keep proving that they want to buy value or undiscovered opportunities when they can. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. While we cover many analyst reports of stocks to buy via upgrades or initiations, there are some that come in later in the morning or that simply get missed. Many of those are too important to ignore, and they are acting to further support shares on good news.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included shares of Activision Blizzard, Gulfport Energy, MedAssests, NVIDIA and T2 Biosystems, and over a dozen more companies. Here are five of the analyst upgrades, reiterated ratings with price target hikes and positive initiations from Wall Street analysts that were just too big to ignore on Tuesday.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as a Buy rating at Deutsche Bank, which also raised its target price to $800 from $725. This upgrade follows a slew of analyst price target upgrades from last week. Shares were last seen trading at $625.53, with a consensus analyst price target of $718.13 and a 52-week trading range of $285.25 to $630.72.

Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) may still have some neutral or cautious views from analysts, but the shares have rallied after solid earnings and after analysts raised their price targets as follows:

  • Deutsche Bank raises target price to $22 from $21.
  • Iberia Capital raised shares to Sector Perform from Underperform and raised its target to $22 from $18.50.
  • RBC Capital Markets raises price target to $20 from $18.

Shares of Diamond Offshore recently traded at $23.48, with a consensus price target of $19.07 and a 52-week range of $16.51 to $40.00.

ALSO READ: 3 Tech Stocks to Own for a Possible End of the Year Rally

Ringcentral Inc. (NYSE: RNG) hit a 52-week high after beating earnings and revenue estimates. Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $25 from $23, while Raymond James has a Strong Buy rating and raised its target price to $28 from $27. Another firm named Summit Research has raised its rating to Buy with a $25 price target. Shares were trading at $21.27, with a consensus price target of $23.50 and a 52-week range of $11.19 to $21.95.

Sanmina Corp. (NASDAQ: SANM) was up huge after a strong fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat. As a result, Needham has a Buy rating and raised its target price to $27 from $25, and RBC kept its Underperform rating but raised its target to $18 from $16. Shares were trading at $24.86, with a consensus price target of $21.43 and a 52-week trading of $17.55 to $26.08.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) reported earnings on Monday, but also announced that it would be acquiring its European counterpart in its biggest acquisition ever for $23.4 billion. While BMO cut its target price to $83 from $84 with its Outperform rating, others raised their targets. Credit Suisse has an Outperform rating and raised its target price to $85 from $82. Pacific Crest (Overweight) raised its price target to $80 from $76, while RBC has an Outperform rating and raised its price target to $91 from $82. Shares were trading at $78.00, with a consensus price target of $84.03 and a 52-week range of $59.78 to $78.89.

ALSO READ: Could Chipotle Shares Drop Another $200?

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