Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Barrick Gold, Home Depot, Kroger, Newmont Mining, SolarCity and More

August 2, 2016 by Jon C. Ogg

The stock market has hit new highs but the S&P 500 and Dow futures were indicated to open down 0.1% to 0.2% on Tuesday after oil challenged the $40 mark to the downside again. Even though the S&P 500 is trading at 17.8 times forward earnings, investors are looking for new ideas. They have also proven repeatedly for five years now that they will buy stocks on every pullback.

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

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

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was started as Buy at Citigroup in a broader mixed gold mining call. Shares closed at $22.23 on Monday and were indicated up at $22.35 early Tuesday. The 52-week trading range is $5.91 to $23.47, and the consensus analyst price target is $22.56.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $157 price target (versus a $138.77 prior close) at Stifel. It has a 52-week range of $92.17 to $138.94 and a consensus price target of $147.89.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $35 price target (versus a $34.01 close) at BMO Capital Markets. The 52-week range is $27.32 to $42.75, and the consensus price target is $40.59.

Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was started with a Buy rating at Citigroup. It closed most recently at $44.16, in a 52-week range of $15.39 to $44.24. It has a consensus price target of $46.05.

SolarCity Corp. (NASDAQ: SCTY) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $25 from $37 (versus a $24.72 close, after a 7.4% drop on the formal merger) at Robert W. Baird. The 52-week range is $16.31 to $61.72, and the consensus analyst target is $25.97.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgraded were seen in the following:

Comtech Telecom Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) was started with a Hold rating and was given a $14 price target (versus a $13.43 close) at Jefferies.

Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR) was started with a Market Perform rating and was given a price target of $85 (versus an $81.50 close) at Cowen.

Duluth Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTH) was started with a Buy rating and $30 price target (versus a $25.53 close) at Wunderlich.

InterOil Corp. (NYSE: IOC) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $50 price target (versus a $49.25 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: KERX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $7 from $13 at FBR Capital. Keryx was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Brean Murray. The stock closed down almost 36% at $4.72 on Monday on poor study results for chronic kidney disease on dialysis.

Lowes Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was started with a Buy rating and given a $100 price target (versus an $82.31 close) at Stifel.

Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE: MTH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $38 from $41 (versus a $36.74 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $175 price target (versus a $157.23 close) at Barclays.

Portland General Electric Co. (NYSE: POR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Also check out seven analyst stocks under $10 with huge upside target prices.

On Monday, Goldman Sachs downgraded its equities weighting to Underweight for the next three months — effectively through the election. It maintained a Neutral weighting for the next year.

Monday’s key analyst upgrades and downgrades included Citrix Systems, Enbridge Energy, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, ArcelorMittal, Generac and many more.

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