Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Huntington Bancshares, Nucor, Orexigen, SanDisk, Square, VIVUS and Many More
February 29, 2016 8:45 am
Last Updated: January 13, 2020 12:35 pm
Stocks were indicated to open lower on Monday morning, but that is after two weeks of a rally. Is it possible that the trend of selling into every rally is migrating back to the buy the dip trend of the prior four years?
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or avoid.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, February 29, 2016.
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was reiterated as Buy with a $12.50 price target (versus an $8.95 prior close) at Jefferies. The firm noted that Huntington has decent organic growth prospects and that the First Merit merger approval process appears on track, and it said that asset quality is bottoming but remains healthy with less earnings downside ahead.
Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets. shares closed at $39.96. The consensus analyst target is $45.83 and the 52-week trading range is $33.90 to $50.70.
Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: OREX) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $1.00 price target (versus a $0.97 close) at RBC Capital Markets. This is after shares fell 31% on Friday. Orexigen had a consensus price target of $4.83 and a 52-week range of $0.95 to $9.37.
SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at Pacific Crest. SanDisk closed at $72.08, has a consensus analyst target of $76.33 and has a 52-week range of $44.28 to $87.43.
Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started as Sector Weight at Pacific Crest. The consensus analyst target is $13.42 and the post-IPO trading range is $8.06 to $14.78.
VIVUS Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $1.00 price target (versus a $1.08 close) at RBC Capital Markets. It was listed as having a consensus price target of over $8, but that is likely changing, with a 52-week trading range of $0.92 to $3.14.
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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations on Monday were seen in the following:
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