Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alphabet, American Water, Apple, Facebook, Macy's, Southern Copper, Twitter, YY and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: December 6, 2018 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 2:05 pm

Stocks were set to open lower on Thursday after Wednesday’s market closures. The drop is on the heels of what already felt like a buyer’s strike of a major sell-off on Tuesday with the Dow falling almost 800 points. Investors have seen less upside from buying immediately after the big market sell-offs than in prior years, and now they have to consider how they want their investments and assets positioned for 2019.

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 these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others 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, December 6, 2018.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan, but the firm lowered its price target to $66 from $70. Shares closed down 0.17% at $46.52 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $46.34 to $84.68.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $1,330 price target at Guggenheim. The parent of Google, YouTube, Android, Waymo and so forth was down 4.8% at $1,062.47 on Tuesday during the sell-off, and it was indicated down 1.1% at $1,050.00 on Thursday.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was maintained with an Outperform rating at Wells Fargo, though the price target was lowered to $54 from $57.

American Water Works Co. Inc. (NYSE: AWK) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $103 target price at Robert W. Baird. The stock closed up eight cents at $95.78 on Tuesday despite the selling pressure, and its consensus target price was $92.75.

AppFolio Inc. (NASDAQ: APPF) was started as Neutral with a $66 price target at D.A. Davidson.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Neutral but the price target was lowered to $165 from $200 at Rosenblatt. Apple closed down 4.4% at $176.69 on Tuesday, and shares were indicated down another 2.3% at $172.60 on Thursday. The consensus target price is $229.82, and the 52-week trading range is $150.24 to $233.47.

Aqua America Inc. (NYSE: WTR) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $39 target price at Robert W. Baird.

AvalonBay Communities Inc. (NYSE: AVB) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $216 price target at BTIG.

Bluebird Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was slashed to $120 from $240 at Piper Jaffray.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) was raised to Outperform with a $60 price target at BMO Capital Markets.

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Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was started as Neutral and was given a $150 price target at Guggenheim. Stifel also downgraded it to Hold from Buy with a $150 price target, with the firm noting too many adversarial issues around the company.

Finisar Inc. (NASDAQ: FNSR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $24 price target at MKM Partners. Jefferies also downgraded Finisar to Hold from Buy.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral with a $28 price target at Atlantic Equities.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC) was maintained as Buy but the price target was lowered to $95 from $104 (versus a $63.34 close, after a 2% drop) at Citigroup.

Netease Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $300 price target at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed down 2.5% at $229.43 on Tuesday and were indicated down 2.1% at $224.60 on Thursday.

Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE: SCCO) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan, but the price target was lowered to $35 from $47 (versus a $32.81 close). The consensus target price is $39.14, and the 52-week trading range is $31.17 to $58.09.

Spirit Airlines Inc. (NYSE: SAVE) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the target price was raised to $77 from $59 at Credit Suisse. The stock closed down 2.2% at $63.13 on Tuesday and was indicated to open just under $63 on Thursday. The consensus target price was $67.71.

Synopsys Inc. (NASDAQ: SNPS) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $110 target price (versus an $89.45 close, after a 3.7% drop) at Benchmark.

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SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was lowered to $300 from $345 at Wells Fargo. The shares closed down 6% at $240.43 on Tuesday, and the consensus target price was $318.15 ahead of this call.

Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $27 target price (versus a $32.99 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The consensus target price was $38.86, and the 52-week trading range is $28.68 to $52.73.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $39 price target at Guggenheim. Twitter closed down 3.27% at $32.56 on Tuesday, and its shares were indicated down another 1.2% at $32.16 on Thursday. The consensus analyst target is $34.45. The 52-week trading range is $20.95 to $47.79.

Vulcan Materials Co. (NYSE: VMC) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $140 price target (versus a $100.56 close, after a 5.2% drop) at Nomura/Instinet. The 52-week range is $82.52 to $141.20.

YY Inc. (NASDAQ: YY) was raised to Buy from Neutral but the price target was lowered to $108 from $117 (versus a $65.97 close, after a 3.8% drop) at Goldman Sachs. Its 52-week range is $56.65 to $142.97.

If you want to get an idea of what the stock market may bring for 2019, check out the S&P 500 outlook targets from the likes of Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS and other top firms.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls included Abbott Laboratories, Apple, Apptio, Cheniere Energy, First Solar, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Smartsheet, UPS, Waste Management and many more companies.