Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Blue Apron, Edison International, Goldman Sachs, Kohl’s, Nvidia, Perrigo and More

August 11, 2017 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open marginally lower on Friday after some selling pressure emerged this week after the markets kept hitting new highs. Still the one trend that dominated more than half of the eight-year bull market is that investors have managed to keep finding new reasons to buy stocks on weakness and after every sell-off. Those same 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. Our aim is 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 Friday, August 11, 2017.

Blue Apron Holdings Inc. (NYSE: APRN) shares fell 17.6% to $5.14 after its first earnings report as a public company showed mixed subscriber metrics. The stock was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, and Citigroup cut it to Neutral from Buy. Blue Apron has a post-IPO trading range of $5.03 to $11.00.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target to $90 from $85 (versus a $79.67 prior close) at Jefferies.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC. Goldman Sachs closed down 2.4% at $225.50 and was indicated down 0.8% at $223.80 on Friday.

Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $44 from $39 at Credit Suisse. Argus maintained its Hold rating but noted that it had some positive signs in a tough environment.

Luxoft Holding Inc. (NYSE: LXFT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $50 price target (versus a $60.80 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was maintained as Buy with a $180 target at Jefferies. Mizuho reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $180 from $170. Merrill Lynch reiterated its Buy rating and has a $180 price objective. The shares closed at $164.74 and were last seen trading down $12.44 at $152.30 before Friday’s opening bell.

Paylocity Corp. (NASDAQ: PCTY) was reiterated as Buy with a $50 price objective at Merrill Lynch. The prior price objective was $47 and shares closed at $43.35 on Thursday.

Perrigo Co. PLC (NYSE: PRGO) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs, but this call was after Perrigo shares rose over 15% to $76.84.

PNM Resources Inc. (NYSE: PNM) was reiterated with a Buy rating with a target price of $43 (versus a $41.40 close) at Argus.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was up 1.5% at $13.77 on Thursday but was indicated down over 12% at $12.00 on Friday. Snap was maintained as Outperform at Credit Suisse but with the target price cut to $17 from $25. Monness Crespi Hardt downgraded Snap to Neutral from Buy. RBC maintained its Outperform rating but cut its target to $20 from $31. Merrill Lynch maintained its Neutral rating but lowered its target to $17 from $20.

Thursday’s top analyst calls were in shares of Bank of America, Cerner, Delta Air Lines, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Stratasys, Synacor and more.

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