Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Eagle, Facebook, Nutrisystem, Pfizer, Roku, SeaWorld, Valero, Zynga and More

Stocks were trying to open higher for a third day on Thursday, and the market has bounced handily from the very recent lows during the October sell-off. Many investors may still be bullish long-term, but they have seen lower upside after buying immediately after the big market pullbacks in 2018 than in prior years. The investing community needs to consider how they want to position their investments for the rest of the year 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 Thursday, November 1, 2018.

Aegion Corp. (NASDAQ: AEGN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity, a day after its shares slid 15% to $19.36.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with an $18 price objective at Merrill Lynch, which noted that there is a lack of margin improvement becoming a larger concern.

Autoliv Inc. (NYSE: ALV) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Longbow.

BHP Billiton PLC (NYSE: BBL) was raised to Buy from Hold by Investec.

Entercom Communications Corp. (NYSE: ETM) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $8.50 price target (versus a $6.49 prior close) at Guggenheim.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) saw many analysts maintain their positive ratings but lower their price targets after earnings. The independent research firm Argus has maintained its Buy rating but lowered its target to $206 from $210, noting that revenue and earnings growth are strong but decelerating and management also has warned of further slowdowns into 2019 as the social media giant pivots to support new applications.

Hamilton Lane Inc. (NASDAQ: HLNE) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $38 price target (versus a $38.38 close) at JPMorgan.

Maxar Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: MAXR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at CIBC.

New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (NYSE: EDU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the target price was lowered to $55 from $105 at Deutsche Bank.

Nutrisystem Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRI) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the target price was raised to $36 from $28 (versus a $35.56 close, after a 6.6% gain) at D.A. Davidson.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets. Pfizer closed up 0.4% at $43.06 ahead of the call, but it was indicated down 0.3% at $42.92 after the call. The 52-week trading range is $33.20 to $45.81, and the consensus target price was $43.28.

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