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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AMD, Amex, Broadcom, Citigroup, Conatus, Intel, Micron, Nvidia, Spotify, Wells Fargo and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: April 5, 2018 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 1:45 am

Stocks experienced a major recovery on Wednesday after opening down 2% early in the day. After closing positive on the day, the futures markets were pointing to a higher open on Thursday by about 0.5% on average. The bull market may be over nine years old, and the trend of buying pullbacks that worked over and over has run into headwinds as sellers and volatility have an easier time coming out on top. All 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 Thursday, April 5, 2018.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned an $11 price target at UBS. On the other side of the coin, Stifel started AMD with a Buy rating. The shares closed up 2.35 at $9.77 on Wednesday but were indicated up 2.76% at $10.04 on Thursday. The 52-week trading range is $9.04 to $15.65, and the prior consensus target price was $14.39.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $110 price target at Citigroup. The stock closed up 0.9% at $93.58 on Wednesday and was indicated up 1.3% more at $94.80 on Thursday morning. Amex had a consensus target price of $108.08 ahead of this call.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $58 price target at UBS. Its shares closed up 2.9% at $55.56 on Wednesday, and the stock was indicated up 0.6% at $55.91 on Thursday. The consensus target price was $70.62 coming into the call.

AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $750 from $670 (versus a $628.65 prior close) at Wedbush Securities.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the price target was slashed to $295 from $395 at Barclays. The shares closed up 2.2% at $272.40 on Wednesday, and the stock has a 52-week range of $244.28 to $370.57.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $350 price target (versus a $236.99 close) at UBS. Its shares have a 52-week range of $208.44 to $285.68, and the consensus target price was $322.03. The stock was indicated up 1.6% at $240.88 on Thursday.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $80 from $78 at UBS. Citigroup was up 1.2% at $69.31 on Wednesday, and the shares were indicated up 1.3% at $70.20 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $57.55 to $80.70.

Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNAT) was last seen down 28.5% at $4.30 after disappointing liver drug study news showed that the liver disease treatment did not meet its endpoints. Conatus has seen price target cuts at Oppenheimer and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) was started as Neutral with a $78 price target at Citigroup.

Finisar Corp. (NASDAQ: FNSR) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight but the price target was cut to $20 from $21 at Morgan Stanley. The shares were indicated up 6.3% at $15.63.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $70 price target at UBS. Yet, Stifel downgraded Intel to Hold from Buy. The shares closed up 0.5% at $49.99 on Wednesday and were indicated down 0.25% at $49.86 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $33.23 to $53.78.

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KLA-Tencor Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $150 price target at UBS. The stock was up 1.56% at $109.25 on Wednesday, and it has a 52-week range of $87.93 to $123.96.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $220 price target at UBS.

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $38 price target at UBS. Shares closed up 1.86% at $20.80 on Wednesday and were indicated up 3% at $21.43 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $14.58 to $25.18.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $35 price target at UBS. Its shares closed up 3.57% at $53.39 on Wednesday, but the stock was indicated down 1.4% at $52.63 on Thursday morning.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $250 price target at UBS. Shares closed up just 0.4% at $226.24 on Wednesday and were indicated up another 1.2% at $229.00 on Thursday.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $56 price target (versus a $54.99 close) at UBS. It was indicated up 0.6% at $55.35, and it has a 52-week range of $48.92 to $69.28.

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $180 price target at Stifel. Canaccord Genuity started Spotify with a Buy rating and assigned a $200 price target. Shares closed down 3.2% at $144.22 on Wednesday, and they were indicated up 2.5% at $148.55 on Thursday morning.

Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was started as Neutral and assigned a $37 price target (versus a $33.91 close) at Citigroup.

Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $49 price target (versus a $44.58 close) at UBS.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN) was started with a Sell rating and assigned an $85 price target (versus a $104.21 close) at UBS. Texas Instruments shares were indicated down 0.6% on Thursday despite index futures being higher.

Texas Roadhouse Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH) was reiterated as Outperform with a $64 price target (versus a $59.61 close) at Wedbush.

VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $120 from $110 at Cowen.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was raised to Buy from Neutral but the price target was cut to $60 from $63 at UBS. The shares closed up 1.6% at $52.91 on Wednesday and were indicated up 1.3% at $53.58 on Thursday.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Amazon.com, ADP, BHP Billiton, Cloudera, Expedia, Facebook, Hasbro, Mattel, Tesla, Transocean and many more.