Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Equinix, HCA, Johnson & Johnson, Performance Sports, Tesla, Yandex and More

March 14, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were looking for direction Monday morning, having listed marginally lower. This is after a four-week rally after weeks of selling. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is almost back to flat in 2016. Investors now are wondering if they need to buy every dip like they did for four years. After all, the role of selling into every rally in the first six weeks of 2016 has not been present for close to a month.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from the top brokerage firms each day. Some analyst ratings are on stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. The goal is to find new ideas or hidden value for our readers.

These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from major research calls.

Equinix Inc. (NASDAQ: EQIX) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, based mostly on relative valuation. Equinix closed most recently at $318.00, with a consensus analyst target price of $325.59 and a 52-week trading range of $225.02 to $319.36.


HCA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HCA) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Shares closed at $74.95. The consensus target price is $86.18 and the 52-week range is $43.91 to $95.49.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed at $107.71, has a consensus analyst target price of $108.33 and has a 52-week range of $81.79 to $107.79.

Performance Sports Group Ltd. (NYSE: PSG) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. It was also one of the stocks that destroyed shareholders last week and took many downgrades. The stock closed at $4.24 after recovering some of its big losses. It has a consensus target price that is now closer to $10, and the 52-week range is $2.80 to $21.72.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $300 price target (versus a $207.50 close) at R.W. Baird. The consensus target price is $232.00 and the 52-week range is $141.05 to $286.65.

Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. Shares closed at $14.26, and they have a consensus target price of $16.88 and a 52-week range of $9.94 to $21.36.

Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades from Monday morning included the following:

  • Amec Foster Wheeler PLC (NYSE: AMFW) was downgraded to Underperform at Macquarie.
  • Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
  • Chemours Co. (NYSE: CC) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $10 price target at Goldman Sachs.
  • New Gold Inc. (NYSEMKT: NGD) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
  • Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at BMO Capital Markets.
  • Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
  • Quanex Building Products Corp. (NYSE: NX) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Wedbush Securities.
  • Team Health Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TMH) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Blackstone, Chevron, Diamond Offshore Drilling, Palo Alto Networks, Symantec, Total and over a dozen more.

You can follow @Jonogg if you wish for the analyst reports and daily research and market calls to appear directly on your Twitter feed.

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