Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AMD, Altice, Century Aluminum, Cerner, Chipotle, Cigna, GE, Micron, Noble Energy and More

Stocks were mixed on Monday, but Tuesday’s indexes were indicated higher after core inflation remained under 2%. Now that the bull market is over nine years old, investors have to weigh the recent volatility and decide how they want to be positioned for the year ahead and beyond. The one trend that has prevailed for more than five years and has been working for investors so far is to buy all the big pullbacks.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst 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 Tuesday, March 13, 2018.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was reiterated as Buy with an $18 price objective (versus an $11.52 prior close) at Merrill Lynch. The firm was positive on second-generation Ryzen chipset momentum continuing in 2018 after the April debut. The firm sees AMD as at the cusp of launching several new products that should help expand operating margins above consensus expectations. AMD has a 52-week trading range of $9.70 to $15.65 and a consensus analyst target price of $14.64.

Altice USA Inc. (NYSE: ATUS) was already rated as Buy at Goldman Sachs, but the firm added it to the prized Conviction Buy list with a $28 price target (versus a $19.91 close). Altice was indicated up almost 5% at $20.90 on Tuesday, and the consensus target price was $28.85 before this call. The 52-week range is $17.80 to $35.29.

Century Aluminum Co. (NASDAQ: CENX) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $30 price target (up almost 50% from the $20.82 close) at Cowen. Shares were last seen up 3.4% at $21.50 on Tuesday, and that was after a positive BMO note about stronger post-tariff demand helped Century Aluminum shares rise 3.3% on Monday.

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus, with the independent research firm concerned as its margins contract. The stock closed at $64.65 on Monday, and it has a 52-week range of $54.49 to $73.86 and a consensus target price of $71.55.

Chegg Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $22.50 price target (versus a $22.70 close) at Citigroup.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was maintained as Neutral with a $310 price target (versus a $323.76 close) at Wedbush Securities, with the firm noting that a low bar is in place with a new CEO but an inflection point for 2019 seems no closer than it was three months ago. Chipotle’s 52-week range is $247.52 to $499.00, and the consensus analyst target is $308.46.

Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) was started with a Market Perform rating and assigned a $194 price target (versus $167.31 close) at Bernstein. Cigna closed down 3.5% on Monday but was indicated up 1% at $169.55 on Tuesday.

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