Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Five Below, Ericsson, United Rentals and More

Investing

Published: April 22, 2016 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:26 am

Stocks were looking for direction Friday morning, quite similar to Thursday morning. Still, with the market effectively being near 2016 highs, there has been a willingness for risk again. Investors have clearly reverted back to the trend of buying pullbacks that prevailed from 2011 to 2015.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investing and trading ideas. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen Friday morning:

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was up 0.6% at $780.00 going into earnings, but the stock was indicated almost 5% lower at $742.80 after earnings disappointed. The company formerly known as Google was maintained as Outperform with a $920 price target at Credit Suisse. Merrill Lynch maintained its Buy rating but said that earnings were not up to snuff, with the admission that fundamentals are intact, lowering its price objective to $925 from $945. Alphabet has a 52-week trading range of $532.24 to $810.35.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy at Merrill Lynch, but the firm lowered its price objective to $125 from $130 ahead of next week’s earnings, based on iPhone sales mix to reflect a lower selling price and margin from the iPhone SE. Merrill Lynch also said that it expects Apple to announce a new buyback authorization and dividend increase with earnings. Shares closed at $105.97, with a consensus price target of $133.64 and a 52-week range of $92.00 to $134.54.