Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Cheniere, Comcast, ConcoPhillips, DowDuPont, Ford, JPMorgan, Nike, Schlumberger, Seagate and More
September 26, 2018 9:05 am
Last Updated: January 11, 2020 5:19 pm
Stocks were marginally higher on Wednesday after profit taking on Tuesday. The markets are expecting a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rate hike on Wednesday afternoon, and the odds are still high for another interest rate hike as soon as the December FOMC meeting. Many investors also have seen lower upside from buying on market pullbacks than in prior years. Now the investing community has to consider how to have investments positioned for the rest of 2018 and as 2019 approaches.
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 reports cover stocks to buy, but some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Wednesday, September 26, 2018.
Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley. The stock was up 0.9% at $68.54 a share on Tuesday but was indicated up 2% at $70.00 on Wednesday.
Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $43 from $38 at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Comcast closed down 0.6% at $35.40, and it is down from $37.90 before it won the overseas bidding for Sky.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $85 from $84 at Morgan Stanley. ConocoPhillips closed up 1.3% at $78.11 on Tuesday but was indicated down 0.5% at $77.69 on Wednesday. The consensus target price is $81.74, and the 52-week range is $48.70 to $78.61.
DowDuPont Inc. (NYSE: DWDP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target was lowered to $76 from $81 at Nomura/Instinet. DowDuPont closed down 0.37% at $67.95 on Tuesday and was indicated down another 0.8% at $67.40. The consensus analyst target was $81.82 ahead of this call.
Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was maintained as Equal Weight at Barclays, but the firm lowered its target price to $11 from $12 in the call. The stock was down 2.1% at $9.39 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $9.22 to $13.48 and with a prior consensus target price of $10.84.
GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was surging on an Oppenheimer upgrade to Outperform from Perform with a $9 price target. That target was 36% above the prior closing price of $6.62, and its shares were indicated up 5%. It feels like this was the first real analyst upgrade in quite some time. The report talked up the new lineup of Hero wearable cameras having image stabilization and live streaming capabilities. GoPro had a $6.09 consensus target price and a 52-week range of $4.42 to $11.89.
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