Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AK Steel, CRISPR, Dell, DocuSign, Grubhub, NRG, US Steel, Vale, Wayfair, Zynga and More

Investing

Published: January 28, 2019 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 31, 2020 1:31 am

Stocks were indicated to open lower on Monday after Friday’s gains, but the Dow Jones industrial average is now over 2,000 points higher than its lows from the start of 2019. Investors have noticed that the prevailing trend of buying all the dips generally has been followed by less upside or additional losses, and the volatility late in 2018 shook the confidence of many investors over how they want their assets positioned for 2019 and beyond.

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 were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, January 28, 2019.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed up almost 7% at $2.80 on Friday, with a consensus target price of $3.95 and a 52-week trading range of $2.05 to $6.50.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (NYSE: CNQ) was started as Outperform with a $48 price target at Credit Suisse.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE: CVE) was started as Outperform with a $15 target price (versus a $7.79 prior close) at Credit Suisse.

CRISPR Therapeutics A.G. (NASDAQ: CRSP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its target price was slashed to $40 from $78 (versus a $33.20 close) at Goldman Sachs. The stock was up almost 3% on Friday but was indicated down almost 5% at $31.55 on Monday, and it had a consensus target price of $63.72. Its 52-week trading range is $22.22 to $73.90.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $56 price target (versus a $45.91 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The 52-week range is listed as $35.97 to $59.37, and Dell has a $56.25 consensus target price.

KBR Inc. (NYSE: KBR) was started as Market Perform with a $20 price target at Cowen.

DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $59 target price (versus a $48.57 close, after a 4% gain) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The 52-week range is $35.06 to $68.35, and the consensus target price is $57.56.

Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the target price was raised to $130 from $125 (versus an $80.77 close) at Credit Suisse. It closed up over 4.5% on Friday and was indicated up another 4% at $84.00 on Monday. The stock has a consensus target price of $115.68 and a 52-week trading range of $66.07 to $149.35.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Imperial Oil Ltd. (NYSE: IMO) was started as Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a target price of $77 (versus a $63.77 close) at Cowen. It has a 52-week range of $55.17 to $82.24 and a consensus target price of $83.07.

Marchex Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHX) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $7 target price (versus a $3.94 close) at Roth Capital. It has a 52-week range of $2.47 to $4.00, but its market cap was just $163 million ahead of Monday’s 4% higher indications.