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

Investing

Published: April 29, 2016 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 10:06 am

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.