Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Blue Apron, Broadcom, Charter Communications, CVS, Delphi, eBay, Rite Aid, UPS and More

December 4, 2017 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks had a wild ride on erroneous reporting from ABC and around concerns over tax reform, but now tax reform has cleared the Senate. The Dow was indicated up almost 200 points and the S&P 500 was indicated up about 15 points on Monday morning. It is important to keep in mind that the major indexes are basically at all-time highs, and we have to consider that the primary trend that has continued to prevail for more than five years is for investors to buy all the big market sell-offs. Many investors are hunting for new investing and trading ideas to generate gains and income ahead.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. The goal is to find at least some of those new investing and trading ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of the daily analyst reports and research reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary has been added on most of these daily analyst calls. The consensus analyst price targets mentioned and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Monday, December 4, 2017.

Blue Apron Holdings Inc. (NYSE: APRN) has ousted its CEO, and Barclays raised its rating to Equal Weight from Underweight and raised its price target to $4 from $3. Blue Apron shares closed up 8% at $3.23 on Friday, in a post-IPO trading range of $2.94 to $11.00 and with a prior consensus analyst price target of $5.69.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $300 from $275 at Oppenheimer. This call is ahead of this week’s earnings and accounts partly for its well reported Qualcomm acquisition efforts.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays. The stock closed up 3% at $336.27 on Friday, and it has a 52-week range of $267.01 to $408.83.

CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) has confirmed that it will acquire Aetna in a $69 billion deal, versus its own $76 billion market cap. CVS was started as Buy with a $90 price target at Deutsche Bank. Jefferies maintained its Hold rating and $76 target price on CVS and said that the Aetna deal is transformative but comes with execution risk.

Delphi Technologies PLC (NYSE: DLPH-WI) was started as Outperform with a $60 price target (versus a $51.99 prior close) at RBC Capital Markets. This is ahead of the spin-off and it is a “when-issued” trading share.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $45 from $40 (versus a $35.20 close) at BMO Capital Markets. eBay has a 52-week range of $28.03 to $39.28 and a consensus target price of $39.03.

Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) was started as Hold with a $2.25 price target at Deutsche Bank. The stock was down 4.5% at $1.92 on Friday, and it has a consensus target price of $2.18 and a 52-week range of $1.38 to $8.77.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $135 from $125 at Deutsche Bank. Shares closed down 0.9% at $120.31 on Friday and were indicated up 1.5% at $122.10 on Monday. The 52-week range is $102.12 to $122.00, and UPS has a consensus target price of $121.74.

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Other key analyst calls were seen as follows:

Apellis Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: APLS) was started as Overweight with a $31 price target (versus a $14.02 close) at JPMorgan.

Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) was down 1.5% at $58.21 as of Friday’s close, in a 52-week range of $45.10 to $60.18. Two price target changes were seen on Monday: Barclays to $54 from $51 and Raymond James to $67 from $60.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $30 from $32 at Guggenheim.

Crestwood Equity Partners L.P. (NYSE: CEQP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $75 price target at Deutsche Bank.

InflaRx N.V. (NASDAQ: IFRX) was started as Outperform with a $31 price target at Leerink Swann. It was started as Outperform and assigned a $31 price target at BMO Capital Markets. The stock was also started as Overweight with a $30 price target at JPMorgan.

McKesson Corp. (NYSE: MCK) was started as Buy with a $175 price target (versus a $146.39 close) at Deutsche Bank.

ObsEva S.A. (NASDAQ: OBSV) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $20 price target (versus a $10.15 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) was already rated as Outperform but was added to the Top Picks list at RBC Capital Markets.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.

Prestige Brands Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PBH) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at William Blair.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPN) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target is $47 (versus a $37.20 close) at Janney. The firm noted that Supernus is the best positioned of its covered companies to be an immediate beneficiary of the lower corporate tax rates that now appear highly likely for 2018, and the firm has an improved confidence in its ability to continue the growth of Trokendi XR following recent uptick in prescription trends.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NASDAQ: WBA) was started with a Hold rating and with a $78 price target at Deutsche Bank.

Waters Corp. (NYSE: WAT) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Jefferies has four biotechs it thinks will explode higher in 2018.

Friday’s top analyst calls included AT&T, E*Trade, PG&E, Plug Power, Priceline, Tiffany, VMware and many more.

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