Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Encana, Fortinet, Halliburton, Red Hat, Sanmina, Stratasys, Vodafone and Many More

January 26, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated slightly higher on Tuesday, despite a big oil and Soros-influenced drop in China. Investors may have seen every rally in 2016 turn into a new wave of selling, but there was still a trend in place until the end of 2015 for investors to hold their nose and to buy every market dip.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week in an effort to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of the analyst reports are on stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Tuesday’s top analyst calls.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS. Its price target is now $4.50, versus an $8.34 consensus target and a 52-week trading range of $3.00 to $14.73.

Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $34 from $49 (versus a $27.21 prior close) at Deutsche Bank. Fortinet has a consensus analyst target of $45.00 and a 52-week range of $23.65 to $50.31.

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC. Shares closed down 3% at $29.28 on Monday, and it has a consensus target price of $42.28 and a 52-week range of $27.64 to $50.20.

Red Hat Inc. (NYSE: RHT) was downgraded to Neutral and the price objective was cut to $80 from $90 (versus a $71.74 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The consensus target price is $90.50, and the 52-week range is $62.43 to $84.44.