Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Alibaba, CRISPR, Iridium, McDonald's, Myriad Genetics, Shake Shack, Take-Two and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: October 10, 2018 9:00 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:38 pm

Stocks were looking to open lower on Wednesday after some choppiness in recent days. While the markets are still within a few percent of all-time highs, investors have been seeing lower upside from buying on market pullbacks than in prior years. Now the investing community has to consider how they want to position their investments for the rest of 2018 and into 2019.

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, October 10, 2018.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $86 from $84 (versus a $69.41 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. Agilent had a consensus analyst target of $78.79 and a 52-week trading range of $60.42 to $75.00.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was down 2.8% at $146.94 on Tuesday and was indicated down another 1.4% at $144.80 on Wednesday. Raymond James maintained it as Strong Buy but lowered the price target to $260 from $280. Also, KeyBanc Capital Markets maintained it as Overweight but cut the price target to $215 from $220.

CRISPR Therapeutics A.G. (NASDAQ: CRSP) was started as Outperform with a $65 price target (versus a $36.85 close) at Wells Fargo.

Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $40 from $30 (versus a $32.36 close) at Credit Suisse.

Ferrari N.V. (NYSE: RACE) was raised to Hold from Sell and the target price was raised to $130 from $94 (versus a $128.95 close) at Societe Generale.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) was reiterated as Strong Buy and the price target was raised to $23 from $20 (versus a $20.46 close) at Raymond James.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was raised to Buy with a $200 price target from a prior Neutral rating at Guggenheim. The firm notes that McDonald’s has an unjustified discount to its valuation relative to peers. The stock closed up 0.5% at $53.33 on Tuesday, and it has a consensus target price of $62.86.

Mellanox Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MLNX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $105 target price (versus $71.46 close) at Merrill Lynch.

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Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $54 from $51 at Morgan Stanley, and Piper Jaffray raised its rating to Overweight from Neutral and its target to $53 from $38 in the call. The shares closed up 0.4% at $43.19 on Tuesday.

Potbelly Corp. (NASDAQ: PBPB) was upgraded to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $15 from $13 (versus a $12.08 close) at Maxim Group.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK) was started with a Hold rating and assigned a $65 price target (versus a $61.75 close) at Stifel.

Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch. Its price objective was maintained as $46 in the call (versus a $44.12 close).

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) was started as Outperform and assigned a $175 target price (versus a $127.95 close) at Sanford Bernstein. The shares were indicated up 1.5% at $129.90 on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Apple, Baker Hughes, Blackbaud, Box, CSX, Intuit, Mylan, Tesla, Vodafone, Walmart and many more.

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