Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Electric Power, Mobileye, PayPal, Phillips 66, Smith & Wesson, Viacom and More

June 17, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

The stock market managed to snap a six-day losing streak on Thursday, and the CBOE Volatility Index fell to about 19.50 after peaking at almost 23 on the same day. Stocks were also indicated to open higher on Friday. Is the trend of buying the dips already coming back into play?

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

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

American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $75 from $70 (versus a $66.88 prior close) at Jefferies. AEP has a consensus analyst price target of $67.76 and a 52-week trading range of $52.29 to $67.34.

Mobileye N.V. (NYSE: MBLY) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $51 price target (versus a $36.82 close) at Berenberg. It has a consensus price target of $56.00 and a 52-week range of $23.57 to $64.48.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started with an Outperform Rating and assigned a $43 price target (versus a $36.97 close) at Oppenheimer. It has a $44.06 consensus price target and a 52-week range of $30.00 to $42.55.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $90 from $105 (versus a $79.43 close) at Morgan Stanley. The consensus price target is $90.31, and the 52-week range is $69.79 to $94.12.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $28 price target (versus a $21.75 close) at Cowen. Craig-Hallum raised its rating to Buy from Hold with a $28 price target. The consensus price target is $28.89. The 52-week range is $14.71 to $30.44.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform and the price target was raised to $45 from $34 (versus a $45.05 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The consensus price target is $46.93, and the 52-week range is $30.11 to $68.47.

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Other top analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $48 price target (versus a $36.87 close) at Stifel.

Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: EVHC) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

HD Supply Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HDS) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $42 price target (closed at $34.57) at Credit Suisse.

HollyFrontier Corp. (NYSE: HFC) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $26 from $41 (versus a $24.76 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was reiterated as Buy with a $12 price objective at Merrill Lynch. The firm is more confident about the future execution on the First Merit integration and organic opportunities in its footprint.

Monogram Residential Trust Inc. (NYSE: MORE) was started as Outperform with a price target of $12.50 (versus $10.02 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus.

Parsley Energy (NYSE: PE) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $32 price target (versus a $25.97 close) at Wunderlich.

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE: PM) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $112 price target (versus a $100.15 close) at JPMorgan.

RadiSys Corp. (NASDAQ: RSYS) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $7.25 to $6.00 (versus a $4.80 close) at Jefferies. RadiSys was called a growth engine and a play on the SDN/NFV market.

Senior Housing Properties Trust (NYSE: SNH) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform by RBC Capital Markets, and the price target was raised to $23 from $18.

Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $30 from $28 (versus a $25.42 close) at Macquarie.

Synergy Resources Corp. (NYSEMKT: SYRG) was started with a Strong Buy rating and was given a $9.50 price target (versus a $6.78 close) at Raymond James.

Talen Energy Corp. (NYSE: TLN) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $14 price target (versus a $13.60 close) at Barclays.

THL Credit Inc. (NASDAQ: TCRD) was started as Neutral with a $12 fair value estimate (versus a $10.45 close) at Janney.

Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) was started with a Neutral rating and was given a $40 price objective (versus a $34.13 close) at Merrill Lynch. The rating is based on valuation, as the firm made very positive growth comments here.

WESCO International Inc. (NYSE: WCC) was started with an Outperform rating and was given a $68 price target (versus a $55.37 close) at Credit Suisse.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included AMD, BP, Cavium, Checkpoint Software, Jabil Circuit, Kansas City Southern, Yahoo and about a dozen more.

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