Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, Ford, Gilead, Level 3, Sarepta, Western Digital, Whiting Petroleum and More

Stocks had a rough Thursday and futures were indicated lower on Friday. Despite the drop, we have yet to see any serious selling pressure in a while and investors still seem more than willing to buy the dips even with the S&P 500 trading at about 17.7 times forward its 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio.

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 on Friday morning:

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) blew past expectations on earnings with a strong AWS operating result. It closed down 0.75% at $602.00 but was indicated up over 11% at $673.90 on the news. Jefferies reiterated its Buy rating but raised its price target to $865 from $775. Merrill Lynch raised its price objective to $840 from $750. S&P kept its Buy rating but raised the price target to $745 from $685. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating but raised its target to $880 from $800.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch based on relative valuation and an expected earnings fade in the second half of 2016. That being said, the firm raised estimates and raised its price objective to $17 from $16 in the call. Ford closed up 3.1% at $14.09 on Thursday, but shares were indicated down 0.8% at $13.98 on Friday, versus a 52-week trading range of $10.44 to $15.94.


Gilead Sciences Inc.

(NASDAQ: GILD) was trading down 5% at $92.05 after earnings missed the mark on weak sales. Gilead was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Maxim Group. Jefferies maintained its Hold rating and the price target was cut to $96 from $101. Merrill Lynch maintained a Neutral rating and $105 price target. Credit Suisse kept Gilead at Outperform with a $120 price target. The 52-week range is $81.89 to $123.37.

Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch, but the firm maintained its $60 price objective (versus a $54.20 close). The firm said it was stepping back and awaiting further revenue story developments as its prior Buy thesis ran its course. The consensus analyst price target is $61.33, and the 52-week range is $40.86 to $57.08.

Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) rose over 19% to $13.80 on Thursday. It was downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies, but the price target was kept at $7, noting that the analyst continues to see low probability of approval by FDA PDUFA. The consensus price target is $18.73, and the 52-week range is $8.00 to $41.97.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Robert W. Baird. Shares were indicated down 5.5% at $43.50 after earnings, within a 52-week range of $38.64 to $99.93.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was down 3.7% to $11.77 on Thursday after earnings missed expectations. We saw RBC trim ratings and targets as well on Thursday. Now Sterne Agee CRT has downgraded it to Neutral from Buy. Shares were indicated up 3.6% at $12.20 on Friday, versus a consensus analyst target of $11.94 and a 52-week range of $3.35 to $39.15.

You can follow @Jonogg to get the daily analyst calls and market reports directly on your Twitter feed.

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

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