24/7 Wall St.

Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher despite lower oil and despite a big loss in China’s stock markets. There is still a fight over the stance of selling into rallies and buying the dips. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, February 25, 2016.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was maintained as Outperform at Credit Suisse, but the price target was trimmed to $18 from $20 (versus a $12.13 prior close). The firm lowered 2016 and 2017 EPS estimates to $1.35 and $1.55, respectively. They introduced a 2018  estimate of $1.70 per share, based on lower Federal Reserve rate hikes and the cost of the weaker capital markets.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) was already rated as Buy at Jefferies, but now the firm has added it to its Franchise Picks list and it has an $8 price target. Encana closed at $3.68 and was called a well-funded outfit with high-quality assets trading at a sharp discount to its $8 value. RBC has a Sector Perform rating but raised its target to $8 from $7.

Energy Transfer Partners L.P. (NYSE: ETP) downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was cut to $28 from $30 (versus a $29.72 close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm is worried that Energy Transfer Equity may need to help on Energy Transfer Partners cash distribution sustainability after its EBITDA was almost 10% shy of the firm’s estimate, and they see a higher probability of a cash distribution cut at Energy Transfer Partners.

24/7 Wall St.
The 18 Companies That Will Buy Back the Most Stock in 2016