Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alaska Air, Altria, GoDaddy, GoPro, LinkedIn, Navistar and More

June 14, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated lower on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and decision on interest rates. Long-term bund yields in Germany also just went negative for the first time. Investors have shown that they are more than willing to buy stocks during each pullback, but just last week the S&P 500 hit a peak value of 18 times expected 2016 earnings per share, before selling off a bit.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to dig up new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others feature stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James, and the price target was lowered to $88 from $105 (versus a $64.29 prior close) at Raymond James. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $85.79 and a 52-week trading range of $58.92 to $87.17.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $74 price target (versus a $64.84 close) at Berenberg. The shares have a consensus price target of $65.57 and a 52-week range of $47.41 to $66.19.

GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a price target of $37 (versus a $32.45 close) at Raymond James. The consensus price target is $35.96, with a 52-week trading range of $21.04 to $35.35.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was started with a Neutral rating at Longbow Research. The stock closed down 2.8% at $9.97, and it has a consensus price target of $11.88 and a 52-week range of $8.62 to $65.49.

LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD) is being acquired by Microsoft in an all-cash deal for $196 per share. Now analysts are making their downgrades on LinkedIn: Jefferies cut to Hold from Buy, Wells Fargo cut to Market Perform from Outperform, Axiom Capital cut to Hold from Buy, Argus cut to Hold from Buy and First Analysis cut to Equal Weight from Overweight. Also Goldman Sachs downgraded to Neutral from Buy.

Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $10 price target (versus a $13.15 close) at Stifel. Shares were indicated down 3% or more in the premarket. Navistar had a consensus target price of $44.14 and a 52-week range of $28.01 to $51.33.

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Other top analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:

Achaogen Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $10 from $7 (versus a $3.79 close) at Wedbush Securities.

CareDx Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNA) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value estimate of $11 (versus a $4.70 close) at Janney. The firm sees positive kidney transplant clinical results potentially increasing its available market tenfold.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was started as Overweight with a $265 price target (versus a $223.28 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $45 price target (versus a $43.54 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Entellus Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTL) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $22 price target (prior close at $18.58) at BTIG.

GigPeak Inc. (NYSEMKT: GIG) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $3.50 price target (versus a $2.11 close) at Needham. Investors might want to keep in mind that this is the week after GigPeak sold 11.3 shares for $2 apiece and Needham was in the syndicate.

Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNS) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer. It was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel. Shares fell almost 70% to $1.62 after its trial for a treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy failed to meet its goals.

Mesoblast Ltd. (NASDAQ: MESO) was indicated down 36% at $4.50 after the company provided an update on the global heart failure program and on news is that it had regained full rights to the stem cell heart failure treatment. The stock was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut in half to $5 (versus a $7.07 close) at Credit Suisse.

South Jersey Industries Inc. (NYSE: SJI) was started with a Neutral rating and $31 target price at JPMorgan.

Tractor Supply Co. (NASDAQ: TSCO) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $110 price target (versus a close of $91.27) at Guggenheim.

Monday’s top analyst calls included Advanced Micro Devices, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Baidu, Diamond Offshore Drilling, LyondellBasell, Occidental Petroleum and over a dozen more stocks.

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