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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amex, Apple, Baidu, CONSOL, FireEye, JD.com, MetLife, SunPower, Skechers and Many More
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Stocks managed to close higher on Thursday, with a DJIA gain of 116 points. The S&P 500 closed up almost 10 points, and now stocks were last seen opening up over 25 more S&P 500 points and almost 200 Dow points. Investors have seen every rally in 2016 get sold off, but history shows that nothing lasts forever, even if calling an absolute bottom is not in the cards. Investors may also remember that through the end of 2015, every pullback was successfully bought for more than four years.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week. The aim is to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports are on stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
The most recent downside, bearish DJIA target using an average of the lowest analyst price targets of Dow stocks ticked lower to 14,961 from 15,076.
These are this Friday’s top analyst calls.
American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Credit Suisse lowered its target price to $66 from $71 and maintained its Underperform rating. Jefferies kept its Hold rating and lowered its target to $58 from $70.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Overweight with a $179 price target by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster ahead of next week’s earnings report. Munster believes that Apple could rise more than 50% going into the iPhone 7 launch, which he expects to come later in 2016. Apple is called a cheap stock with a historic low price-to-earnings ratio and with shares having pulled back handily. Apple closed down 0.5% at $96.30 on Thursday, and shares were indicated up 2% at $98.30 on Friday morning.
Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $180 from $200 (versus a $169.56 prior close) at Nomura. Baidu has a consensus price target of $216.11 and a 52-week trading range of $100.00 to $234.67.
CONSOL Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. The stock closed up 19% at $6.04 on Thursday and was still indicated up 4% on Friday due to market momentum. It has a consensus price target of $13.33 and a 52-week range of $4.54 to $34.56.
FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was maintained as Outperform and the price target was cut to $25 from $32 (versus a $14.79 close) at Imperial Capital. FireEye has a consensus target of $29.29 and a 52-week range of $13.28 to $55.33.
JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $35 from $27 (versus a $26.69 close) at Nomura. The consensus analyst target is $35.52, and the stock has a 52-week range of $21.55 to $38.00.
MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) was raised to Strong Buy from Market Perform with a $56 price target (versus a $42.70 close) at Raymond James. MetLife has a consensus analyst target of $56.64 and a 52-week range of $40.77 to $58.23.
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $32 price target (versus a $22.89 close) at Barclays. SunPower has a consensus analyst target of $37.32 and a 52-week range of $18.25 to $35.11.
Skechers USA Inc. (NYSE: SKX) was downgraded to Neutral from Positive with a $30 price target (versus a $28.02 close) at Susquehanna. The consensus target price is $41.26, and the 52-week range is $19.01 to $54.53.
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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Friday included the following:
ABB Ltd. (NYSE: ABB) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $86 from $84 (versus a $73.40 target) at Deutsche Bank. Credit Suisse lowered its target price to $84 from $90.
Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX) was started as Outperform with a $36 target (versus a $30.20 close) at Raymond James.
Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII) was maintained as Buy with a $17 target price at Canaccord Genuity.
First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: FR) was started as Buy with a $23 price target (versus a $19.48 close) at Jefferies.
FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC) was started as Outperform with a $40 price target (versus a $35.11 close) at Credit Suisse.
Foresight Energy L.P. (NYSE: FELP) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Hexcel Corp. (NYSE: HXL) was started as Neutral with a $44 price target (versus a $38.55 close) at Credit Suisse.
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