Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Airlines, Boeing, Cabot Oil & Gas, Pandora, Southern Co., Vertex and Many More

August 1, 2017 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open higher yet again on Tuesday for all-time highs on the Dow and S&P 500. The one theme that has persisted through all the caution and worrying is that investors keep finding new reasons to buy the major indexes after each and every single sell-off. The eight-year-old bull market is still charging. Investors are also searching 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 our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

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

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Tuesday, August 1, 2017.

American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $61 price target (versus a $50.44 prior close) at JPMorgan. This is just a day after the stock was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $57 price target at Cowen. American Airlines has a 52-week trading range of $33.00 to $54.48, and it previously had a consensus analyst target price of $58.06.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $270 at Argus. Boeing saw many analysts upgrade their ratings and raise their target prices last week, and the stock has had one of its longest runs in years now. Boeing has a 52-week range of $126.31 to $246.49 and a consensus price target of $246.85.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (NYSE: COG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $31 target price (versus a $24.87 close) at Morgan Stanley. Cabot shares have a 52-week range of $20.02 to $26.74, and the consensus target price is $28.65.

Pandora Media Inc.  (NYSE: P) was down 5.5% at $8.95 ahead of earnings and was down another 4.4% at $8.55 afterward. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating. Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating and kept its $15 target in place. Stifel maintained its Buy rating but cut Pandora’s price target to $12 from $14. Pandora has a 52-week range of $6.76 to $14.98 and a consensus price target of $11.72.

Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $52 price target (versus a $47.93 close) at Deutsche Bank. Southern has a 52-week range of $46.20 to $53.73 and a consensus price target of $50.62.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $175 at Argus. Vertex has a 52-week range of $71.46 to $167.86 and a consensus price target of $178.22.

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Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Celldex Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDX) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $10 price target (versus a $2.29 close) at H.C. Wainwright. Celldex shares were indicated up 7% at $2.45 after this analyst call, suggesting about 300% upside if the firm’s view proves to be correct.

Credit Acceptance Corp. (NASDAQ: CACC) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James.

Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $29 price target (versus a $33.29 close) at Stifel.

Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $29 price target (versus a $24.60 close) at Citigroup. Discovery shares closed down 8.2% on Monday on the heels of the Scripps buyout. Credit Suisse maintained its Underperform rating by noting that this is a doubling-down on the cable network model.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) was maintained Neutral and the price target was cut to $52 from $66 at Credit Suisse, with the lower target coming from an increasing industry headwinds environment.

Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: GEMP) was reiterated as Buy but the price target was almost doubled to $32 (from $17, and versus a $21.07 close) at Jefferies. The firm noted that even with a $443 million equity value, the $32 target is a large discount to other metabolic pure play biotechs.

HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA) was reiterated as Buy with a $100 price target (versus an $80.34 close) at Jefferies.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) was reiterated as Buy at Jefferies, with the firm noting that the recent sell-off offers new buyers a great buying opportunity. The firm pointed out that Illinois Tool Works has a record of double-digit earnings and dividend growth and that it is likely to meet or beat street expectations.

Integrated Device Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: IDTI) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $27 price objective (versus a $26.14 close) at Merrill Lynch. This is pointing to sluggish organic growth, and shares were indicated down 7% at $24.30 on Tuesday after its earnings report.

Rockwell Collins Inc. (NYSE: COL) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $125 target price (versus a $106.53 close) at Canaccord Genuity. This is just a day after Rockwell Collins was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $115 price target at Cowen.

Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. (NYSE: SNI) was acquired, so now it has been downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus. Needham also cut its rating to Hold from Buy.

Merrill Lynch has five stock picks that would win bigly even under a mini-reform of taxes.

Are the markets ready to absorb softer payrolls growth this week?

Monday’s top analyst calls included American Airlines, Celgene, Citigroup, Facebook, Hertz, Hilton, Ulta Beauty and many more.

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