Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, eBay, Groupon, Home Depot, Micron, SolarCity, Tesla, Cerner, Intuit and More

June 23, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

Despite multiple days of pre-Brexit gains, stocks were indicated higher again on Thursday morning. Maybe the impetus changes each cycle, but investors have proven over and over that they want to buy their favorite stocks on every real stock market sell-off. This trend is now almost like clockwork, even if the timing has taken longer in the first part of 2016.

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 to avoid.

These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen by 24/7 Wall St.:

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $825 price target (versus a $710.60 prior close) at Maxim Group. The shares have a 52-week trading range of $425.27 to $731.50.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was started with a Buy rating and price target of $36 (versus a $24.34 close) at Maxim Group. It has a 52-week range of $21.52 to $29.83.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) was started with a Buy rating and a $5 price target (versus a $3.25 close) at Maxim Group. The 52-week range is $2.15 to $5.38.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $155 from $140 (versus a $127.60 close) at Nomura Securities. It has a 52-week range of $92.17 to $137.82.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was raised to Positive from Neutral and the price target was raised to $18 from $10 (versus a $12.72 close) at Susquehanna. The 52-week range is $9.31 to $24.24.

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Morgan Stanley after the Tesla acquisition offer, similar to a Stifel call the prior day. Morgan Stanley also cut the price target to $24 from $34. SolarCity closed at $21.88 after having been above $24.00 on Wednesday morning after the buyout news. This is versus a 52-week range of $16.31 to $61.72.

Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight by Morgan Stanley after the offer to buy SolarCity. Oppenheimer made a similar call on Wednesday. Tesla shares closed down 10.5% at $196.66 on Wednesday, losing more value than the whole of the SolarCity offering amount. Tesla’s 52-week range is $141.05 to $286.65.

You can follow @JonOgg if you wish to get analyst upgrades and downgrades directly on your Twitter feed.

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

CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CACI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $65 price target (versus a $55.28 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

CrossAmerica Partners L.P. (NYSE: CAPL) was started with a Buy rating and with a $27 fair value estimate (versus a $24.30 close) at Janney.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $108 price target (versus a $105.80 close) at R.W. Baird.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was maintained as a Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm added Intuit to the prized Conviction Buy list and raised its price target to $123 from $117 (versus a $106.45 close).

Sage Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SAGE) was started with a Buy rating and with a $56 price target (versus a $28.35 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Visteon Corp. (NYSE: VC) was started with a Market Perform rating at Raymond James.

Zendesk Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) was started with a Buy rating and $32 price target (versus a $27.27 close) at UBS.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included CenturyLink, Gold Fields, Papa John’s, Priceline, SolarCity, Tesla Motors, Unisys and many more.

Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor

Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to 3 fiduciary financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you’re ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.