Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apache, Caesars, Dell, Devon Energy, HPE, NetApp, Nordstrom, MetLife, Snap and More

Investing

January 16, 2019 9:00 am

Last Updated: January 31, 2020 1:57 am

IHS Markit Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFO) was reiterated as Hold at Argus, but the independent research firm sees it as on track for steady growth in 2019.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $53 price objective (versus a $44.06 close) at Merrill Lynch. It has a 52-week range of $37.76 to $55.21 and had a consensus target price of $50.81.

Parsley Energy Inc. (NYSE: PE) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $38 price target (versus an $18.70 close) at Barclays. The consensus target price is $29.76. The 52-week trading range is $14.17 to $33.43.

PG&E Corp. (NYSE: PCG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target is now just $10 at Wells Fargo. This call is among many other analyst downgrades in recent days around the bankruptcy fears, and its shares were down yet another 17% at $6.91 on Tuesday and indicated down another 8% at $6.35 or so on Wednesday.

PTC Inc. (NASDAQ: PTC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $115 target price (versus an $86.34 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. It was down 2.4% at $18.76 on Tuesday’s close, and it had a consensus target price of $22.20 and a 52-week trading range of $15.55 to $21.81.

SM Energy Co. (NYSE: SM) was started as Overweight and assigned a $27 target price (versus a $19.85 close) at Barclays.

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Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) announced that CFO Tim Stone would be departing the company to pursue other opportunities. After a 3.6% gain to $6.54 on Tuesday, its shares were indicated down about 10% at $5.85 on Wednesday. Wedbush maintained its Outperform rating and $12.25 target price but warned that if the departure was because of an inability to mesh with other management then it would revisit its thesis about improving management quality. Also, RBC Capital Markets downgraded Snap to Sector Perform from Outperform with an $8 price target.

Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch. After closing at $62.72, the stock had a consensus target price of $71.07, and its 52-week range is $56.01 to $75.98.

VBI Vaccines Inc. (NASDAQ: VBIV) was started as Outperform and assigned a $9 target price (versus a $1.77 close) at Oppenheimer. This one has a tiny market cap of just $172 million or so, and its shares were indicated up over 9% at $1.95 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $1.14 to $4.42.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was reiterated as Hold at Argus after earnings, with the firm observing a slight earnings beat but noting that its revenue challenges continue to hamper the company. Shares closed down 1.5% at $47.67 on Tuesday after the earnings beat, which was seen as helped by stock buybacks.

SunTrust has five internet stock predictions for 2019.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls were in AIG, Bunge, Cardlytics, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Deere, Dell Technologies, Edison International, Newmont Mining, Oracle, PG&E and many more.

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