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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Citigroup, Facebook, JPMorgan, Mattel, Netflix and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: April 11, 2018 8:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 1:33 am

Stocks surged on Tuesday as trade war fears abated, but tweets about sending missiles at Syrian targets and the Russia implications had futures lower on Wednesday. The bull market is now over nine years old, and it has become more obvious that the trend of buying pullbacks has become much more vulnerable to sellers, volatility and each major news headline. All in all, it is making it more difficult 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 analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and some 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 11, 2018.

AeroVironment Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was maintained as Overweight at Morgan Stanley, but the price target was cut to $91 from $95 (versus a $66.64 prior close).

Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AGIO) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $95 from $80 (versus an $83.46 close) at Credit Suisse.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has a new analyst covering the stock at Monnes Crespi Hardt, and coverage was assumed as Buy, and the parent of Google was assigned a $1,280 price target. The stock closed up 1.6% at $1,036.50 a share on Tuesday and was indicated down 0.9% at $1,027 on Wednesday.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) also has a new analyst covering the stock at Monnes Crespi Hardt, and coverage was assumed as Buy and with a $2,000 price target. Amazon shares closed up 2.1% at $1,436.22 on Tuesday but were indicated down 0.5% at $1,423 on Wednesday. The consensus target price is $1,670.65.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was started as Buy with a $235 price target at Monnes Crespi Hardt. The stock closed up 1.9% at $173.25 on Tuesday but was indicated down 0.6% at $172.15 on Wednesday. Its consensus target price was $191.85.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $85 from $82 at HSBC.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was started as Overweight and assigned a $50 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has a new analyst covering the stock at Monnes Crespi Hardt, and coverage was assumed as Buy with a $200 price target. Facebook closed up 4.5% at $165.04 after Zuckerberg’s Senate testimony went better than expected. The shares were indicated down 0.7% at $163.85 on Wednesday.

LM Ericsson PLC (NASDAQ: ERIC) was started as Hold at Berenberg, and while it is expected to win from 5G, the firm sees the roll-outs not impacting shares until 2020 or so.

Globalstar Inc. (NASDAQ: GSAT) was started as Equal Weight and assigned a $70 price target at Morgan Stanley.

Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) was reiterated as Hold but the price target was raised to $16.50 from $16.00 (versus a $14.00 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) was maintained as Neutral with a $44 price target (versus a $42.38 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm noted a continued retail decline and trade concerns weighing on the risk/reward.

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Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was maintained as Underweight but the price target was raised to $170 from $157 at Morgan Stanley.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was started as Hold with a $111 price target (versus a $112.51 close) at HSBC.

Keane Group Inc. (NYSE: FRAC) was maintained as Overweight but the price target was cut to $23 from $24 at Morgan Stanley.

Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was reiterated as Hold but the target price was raised to $4.20 from $4.00 (versus a $3.67 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Mattel Inc. (NASDAQ: MAT) was raised to Hold from Underperform and the price target was raised to $13 from $12 (versus a $13.52 close) at Jefferies. Mattel had a consensus target price of $15.08.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was started as Buy with a $350 price target at Monnes Crespi Hardt. Cowen raised its price target to $325 from $275.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NYSE: PANW) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $224 from $205 (versus a $186.82 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was started as Buy and with a $152 price target at Monnes Crespi Hardt.

Simply Good Foods Co. (NASDAQ: SMPL) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $15 from $16 at Deutsche Bank. SunTrust Robinson Humphrey cut its target to $16 from $17.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was started as Neutral at Monnes Crespi Hardt. Shares closed up 2.3% at $14.48 on Tuesday but were indicated down 0.4% at $14.43 on Wednesday.

Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Mizuho.

Tenaris S.A. (NYSE: TS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Tupperware Brands Corp. (NYSE: TUP) was maintained as Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $47 from $60 (after an 11.5% drop to $41.74) at Morgan Stanley.

Varonis Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: VRNS) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $70 from $60 (versus a $62.25 close) at Stifel.

Bitcoin has been dealt two ghastly analyst calls. Barclays said that bitcoin is an infectious disease, sucking in three types of investors: susceptible, infected and immune. And it sees the speculative froth phase and maybe peak prices have been seen. Merrill Lynch also called the bitcoin and cryptocurrency bubble as having popped.

RBC Capital Markets issued a lower target for the S&P 500 and downgraded its technology weighting. At the same time, RBC has shown some top MLP picks for upside in the second quarter with solid yields to boot.

Stifel sees three hot software stocks as takeover targets.

Merrill Lynch sees top oil as the safe spot now.

Even the cautious analyst reports on Zscaler see it having major growth and being a new cybersecurity disruptor.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls were in shares of Alphabet, Cognex, Facebook, Monsanto, Netflix, Nvidia, Tesla, Ulta Beauty, Zscaler and many more.