Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Check Point, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, UnitedHealth and Many More

Stocks were looking for direction on Wednesday after having hit fresh all-time highs last week. The bull market may now be over eight years old, but investors have proven for more than five years that they will buy every serious stock market sell-off. Those same investors are also looking for new investing and trading ideas.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

The consensus analyst price target data are the mean of the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service. Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst calls.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Wednesday, June 7, 2017.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started with a Positive rating and assigned a $132 price target (versus a $113.71 prior closing price) at Susquehanna. Check Point has a 52-week trading range of $74.34 to $114.04 and a $105.82 consensus analyst price target.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $46 target price (versus a $45.98 closing price) at BMO Capital Markets. It has a 52-week range of $39.88 to $46.06 and a consensus target price of $45.50.

Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) was started as Buy with a $102 price target (versus a $93.21 close) at Berenberg. It had a 52-week range of $79.69 to $97.77 and a consensus target price of $90.29.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $120 price target (versus a $117.70 close) at BMO Capital Markets. The 52-week range is $98.50 to $118.12, and the consensus analyst target is $122.10.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was started as Overweight with a $202 price target (versus a $180.82 close) at Morgan Stanley. UnitedHealth has a 52-week range of $132.39 to $181.06 and a consensus target price of $190.28.

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Other key analyst calls were in the following companies:

Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) was started as Overweight with a $162 target price (versus a $148.00 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) was reiterated as Buy and the fair value estimate was raised to $125 from $81 at Janney Capital.

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