Stocks were indicated to open lower on Tuesday after a three-day weekend. Despite the Dow Jones Industrial Average not yet cracking the elusive 20,000 mark, there is a path for the 21,422 Dow in late 2017 or the start of 2018. The two themes that have remained are post-election market strength followed by investors wanting to buy pullbacks. The notion that this bull market is about eight years old and that valuations remain high just has not mattered.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, while some others cover stocks to sell or to avoid. We have covered these calls with color where appropriate, and Thomson Reuters has been sourced for consensus analyst price target data.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, January 17, 2017:
JPMorgan raised American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) to Overweight from Neutral with a $90 price target (versus a prior closing price of $76.62). The shares have a 52-week trading range of $50.27 to $78.00, and the consensus analyst price target is $77.80.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) itself was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with an $89 price target (versus prior close of $86.70) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. The shares have a 52-week range of $52.50 to $88.17. The consensus price target is$87.97.
Mizuho raised Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to Buy from Neutral with a $152 price target (versus a prior close of $133.70). The 52-week range is $79.95 to $133.93, and the consensus price target is $125.75.
Not only was Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) downgraded to Hold from Buy, but the price target was slashed to $40 from $62 (versus a $44.20 prior close) at Stifel Nicolaus. The 52-week range is $35.01 to $62.82, and the consensus price target is $53.15.
Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with an $18 price target (versus a $17.25 close) at UBS. It has a 52-week range of $13.73 to $25.25 and a consensus analyst target of $16.64.
Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
- Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AGIO) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $75 price target (versus a $41.55 close) at Oppenheimer.
- Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $118 from $81 (versus a $94.01 close) at Robert W. Baird.
- Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.
- Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
- Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) was reiterated as Buy with a $95 price target (versus a $77.40 close) at Argus, with the firm talking up Lilly’s strong new product pipeline.
- Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMCA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform but the price target was raised to $29 from $25 at FBR Capital Markets.
- Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $31 price target (versus a $26.09 close) at Sanford Bernstein.
- PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie.
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