Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cree, Domino’s, Encana, International Paper, Kraft Heinz, Marvell, Netflix and More

March 7, 2018 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were down handily on Wednesday morning, with much of the news being dominated by Gary Cohn having resigned as President Trump’s top economic advisor in the White House. The bull market has turned nine years old this week, and the one trend that has prevailed for more than five years is for investors to buy the pullbacks. Investors still have to decide how they want to be positioned for the rest of 2018 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst reports and research reports cover stocks to buy. Others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets 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 Wednesday, March 7, 2018.

B&G Foods Inc. (NYSE: BGS) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the target price was slashed to $21 from $34 (versus a $30.50 prior close) at Credit Suisse. The firm noted that higher growth acquisitions have raised volatility in its business and financial leverage has gotten high.

Coeur Mining Inc. (NYSE: CDE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with an $8.50 price target (versus a $7.86 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The 52-week trading range is $6.71 to $10.24, and the consensus analyst target price is $10.50.

Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) was raised to Neutral from Sell with a $39 price target (versus a $41.76 close) at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed up 9.7% on Tuesday but were indicated down 1.6% at $41.07 on Wednesday. Cree had a consensus target price of $34.90, and the 52-week range is $20.50 to $42.80.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus, which assigned a $260 target price (versus a $221.44 close). Domino’s has a 52-week range of $166.74 to $236.00 and a consensus price target of $237.85.

D.R. Horton Inc. (NYSE: DHI) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $50 price target (versus a $43.44 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm believes that the recent pullback appears to be overdone.

Encana Corp. (NYSE: ECA) was raised to Outperform from In-Line with a $16 price target (versus a $10.84 close) at Evercore ISI. The 52-week range is $8.01 to $14.31, and the consensus target price is $16.13.

Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim. It closed down 0.6% at $9.33 on Tuesday and was indicated down over 6% at $8.75 on Wednesday.

International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $60 price target (versus a $57.70 close) at Wells Fargo. BMO Capital Markets downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform with a $65 price target. The stock was down 2.1% at $57.70 on Tuesday and indicated down 1.8% more at $56.67 on Wednesday.

Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) was maintained as Buy at Argus, but the firm handily lowered the price target to $74 from $93. Shares closed up 0.5% at $67.77 on Tuesday and were indicated down 0.4% at $67.50 on Wednesday. Kraft Heinz had an $82.52 consensus target price.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $28 price target at Argus. Shares closed up 0.3% at $23.57 on Tuesday but were indicated down 1.4% at $23.23 Wednesday morning.

Meritage Homes Corp. (NYSE: MTH) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $58 price target (versus a $44.75 close) at JPMorgan.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel, but the firm raised its price target to $325 from $283. Netflix was up 3.2% at $325.22 on Tuesday, and shares were down 1.5% at $320.50 on Wednesday. The consensus target price was $273.23 ahead of this call.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $116 target price (versus a $104.14 close) at Argus.

Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ: RUN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $10 price target (versus a $7.43 close) at JMP Securities. The consensus target price is $10.13 and the 52-week range is $4.21 to $7.78.

Synovus Financial (NYSE: SNV) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight with a $53 price target (versus a $51.67 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Turtle Beach Corp. (NASDAQ: HEAR) was reiterated as Outperform with a $1.50 price target (versus a $0.56 close) at Wedbush. The firm pointed to anticipated revenue growth and further gross margin expansion as allowing the company to increase profitability while reinvesting in growth opportunities.

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at BNP Paribas. The stock closed up 0.7% at $28.56 on Tuesday and was indicated up 0.4% at $28.67 on Wednesday.

Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) was reiterated as Buy with a $19 target price (versus a $16.60 close) at Argus.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls were in shares of Archer Daniels Midland, Cardlytics, Dermira, E*Trade, Herbalife, Mylan, UPS, VMware, Western Digital and many more.

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