Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, ADP, BHP Billiton, Cloudera, Expedia, Facebook, Hasbro, Mattel, Tesla, Transocean and More

Stocks have been looking for a base, but futures were down handily despite a strong jobs report from ADP. The culprit for Wednesday’s selling is more retaliatory tariff news out of China, with the Dow Jones industrial average indicated down 2.1% and the S&P 500 indicated down 1.5%.

You have heard over and over that the bull market is now over nine years old, but now the Dow and S&P 500 are challenging their 200-day moving averages for the first time in two years. The trend of buying pullbacks has worked for years, but now the sellers and volatility are more able to win than they have been able to in a long time. This is making it ever harder for investors to decide how they want their assets positioned for the rest of 2018 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of the daily analyst 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, April 4, 2018.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy with a $1,550 price target (versus a $1392.05 prior close) at Argus. The independent research firm also noted that its fair value metrics make it worth over $1,600 per share, and the firm noted that a tweet storm won’t change Amazon’s fundamentals.

AnaptysBio Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAB) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform and the price target was slashed to $86 from $144 at RBC Capital Markets, with the firm noting concerns over peanut allergies and asthma treatments.

Automatic Data Processing Inc. (NASDAQ: ADP) was maintained as Hold and the price target was cut to $126 from $133 (versus a $114.04 close) at Stifel.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets, with the firm noting that its coal exposure is a plus.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG) was started as Outperform with a $2,500 price target (versus a $2,065.88 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm noted a best-in-class OTA that is poised to capitalize on secular growth.

Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR) was up 4.7% at $22.24 ahead of earnings, but its shares were last seen down 32.5% at $15.01. Stifel maintained its Buy rating but lowered its target to $19 from $24. Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight, and Deutsche Bank downgraded it to Hold from Buy.

Dexcom Inc. (NASDAQ: DXCM) was up 0.2% at $74.69 on Tuesday but was indicated down almost 5% at $71.00 on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Dexcom with a Sell rating and assigned a $57 price target. The shares have a 52-week trading range of $42.62 to $82.30.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D) was maintained as Neutral but the price objective was cut to $70 (versus a $67.33 close) at Merrill Lynch. The 52-week range is $66.68 to $85.30.

Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was started as Neutral with a $117 price target (versus a $106.55 close) at Wedbush. The firm is awaiting a payback from ample investments.

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