Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AIG, BHP Billiton, Cypress Semi, Encana, Newell Rubbermaid, Oracle, Twitter, Visa and Many More

Investing

Published: December 15, 2015 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 4:05 pm

Stocks were indicated to rebound handily on Tuesday. The six-year bull market has perhaps stalled at the end of 2015, but the trend that has been in force for four years now is that investors have found a host of new reasons to buy each and every one of the pullbacks.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $72 from $65 (versus a $58.42 prior close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. AIG shares have a consensus analyst price target of $67.94 and a 52-week trading range of $48.68 to $64.93.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, which is now modeling a 50% cut in the progressive dividend, but this still leaves BHP Billiton with 5.5% yield. Following a more than 30% fall in the share prices, Credit Suisse showed that the valuation is now at more than a 15% discount to Rio Tinto, and the firm thinks that BHP shares have more than priced in a worst case scenario for the Samarco situation. The stock closed at $23.67 and has a 52-week range of $23.21 to $52.98.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: CY) was started as Outperform with a $14 price target (versus a $9.63 close) at Oppenheimer. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $13.13, as well as a 52-week range of $8.11 to $16.25.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $9.50 price target at Jefferies. Encana closed down over 8% at $5.54 on Monday, and shares were indicated up 3.8% at $5.75 early on Tuesday. Its consensus analyst price target is still listed as over $10, and its 52-week range is $5.43 to $14.73. Jefferies said that Enacana’s severe relative share price weakness was exacerbated by a surprise dividend cut, but this appears to be prudent and the stock looks inexpensive at a discount to the firm’s risk-adjusted asset value.