Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Broadcom, Caterpillar, Sirius XM, Newmont, Palo Alto, Perrigo, Sarepta, Xerox and More

Stocks were indicated marginally higher on Tuesday, but the markets still seem to be looking for a new directional bias after weeks of rallies took the market back to 2016 highs. It still seems that investors have voted to remain buying pullbacks, as from 2011 to 2015, but that might not mean endless chasing the market higher.

As a reminder, the S&P 500 is now valued at 17.8 times its forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, after peaking at 17.9 last week.

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, whiles cover stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was maintained as Buy with a $200 price objective at Merrill Lynch, but the firm added it to the prized US 1 list as its target implies 33% upside. Broadcom has a consensus analyst price target of $179.04 and a 52-week trading range of $100.00 to $159.65.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus after last week’s earnings, and the firm established a price target of $92 (versus a $76.79 prior close). Argus noted that this implies upside of 20% from current levels, but noted that this is still 20% below the latest cycle highs. The consensus price target is $67.06, and the 52-week range is $56.36 to $89.62.


Liberty Sirius XM Group

(NASDAQ: LSXMA) was started as Buy with a 12-month price objective of $44 at Merrill Lynch. The firm believes that Liberty Sirius XM Group should benefit from solid underlying trends at Sirius XM, as well as a reduction in the net asset value discount.

Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $40 price target (versus a $31.11 close) at RBC Capital Markets. It has a consensus price target of $65.33 and a 52-week trading range of $47.11 to $75.72.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $190 price target (versus a $150.51 close) at Wunderlich. The consensus price target is $195.61, and the 52-week range is $111.09 to $200.55.

Perrigo Co. PLC (NYSE: PRGO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, and the price target was cut to $112 from $163 (versus a $99.40 close). The cut is on its CEO leaving to run Valeant, but also the firm expects big slowdowns in the 2016 guidance. Stifel downgraded Perrigo to Hold from Buy. Shares closed down 18% at $99.40 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $98.81 to $200.96. The consensus price target is $152.88.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) was indicated down more than 40% early Tuesday, at $8.40 or so, under its 52-week range of $10.20 to $41.97, after the FDA panel disappointed. Sarepta was maintained as Hold but the price target was slashed to $7 from $14 at Jefferies. The firm now sees no accelerated FDA approval after the panelists voted negative on eteplirsen efficacy despite strong pressure from points advocacy. Piper Jaffray downgraded Sarepta to Underweight from Neutral and cut its target price to $6 from $15. Oppenheimer cut its rating to Perform from Outperform.

Xerox Corp. (NYSE: XRX) was maintained as Neutral at Credit Suisse after earnings, but the firm cut the price target to $10 from $11 as the road to a breakup is not smooth. Brean Capital downgraded it to Hold from Buy. The consensus price target is $11.55, and the 52-week range is $8.48 to $11.88.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades from this Friday were seen in shares of the following:

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