Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Bluebird Bio, Check Point, Comcast, Eli Lilly, Hyatt, Lockheed Martin, Rite Aid and Many More

Investing

Published: January 6, 2016 8:40 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:23 pm

Stocks were pounded lower yet again on Wednesday, but this time on fears of a North Korean hydrogen bomb test. The stock market is off to a rocky start in 2016, but the trend that has prevailed from 2011 to 2015 was that investors bought every market pullback.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are the top analyst calls for Wednesday, January 6, 2016.

Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) was started as Buy with a $91.00 fair value estimate at Janney Capital Markets. The price targets have come cratering down elsewhere, with the consensus now $119.92, versus closer to $200 earlier in the fourth quarter of 2015. Bluebird Bio shares closed at $61.76 on Tuesday and have a 52-week trading range of $48.85 to $197.35.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $83.00 from $91.00 (versus a $79.08 prior close) at Barclays. The consensus analyst price target is $92.61, and the 52-week range is $65.09 to $88.49.

Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was reinstated as Outperform with a $63.00 price target (versus a $55.65 close) at Credit Suisse. The consensus price target is $70.32 and the 52-week range is $50.00 to $64.99. The firm’s view on Comcast is an updated US Media & Entertainment sector reiterated as Overweight for 2016, noting that despite 2015 being tough, 2016 will be dominated by the impact of various response strategies from the incumbents.