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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Allergan, Boeing, Facebook, GoPro, Microsoft, Pfizer, Shell, ServiceNow, Tiffany and More

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was reiterated as Buy with a $210 target price (versus a $181.77 close) at Argus, with the firm positive on its stronger earnings. McDonald’s has a consensus target price of $195.77.

Mesoblast Ltd (NASDAQ: MESO) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $6.50 price target (versus a $4.55 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded lower after earnings included a note that chip shortages helped keep revenues lower. Wedbush maintained the stock at Outperform with a $140 price target, and the firm noted that the Azure cloud services platform grew 76% year over year and continues to gain share from Amazon’s AWS. Nomura/Instinet maintained its Buy rating on Microsoft but lowered its target to $113 from $115.

Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE: NSC) was reiterated as Buy at Argus, with the firm raising earnings estimates for the rail giant.

Oshkosh Corp. (NYSE: OSK) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $86 price objective (versus a $72.78 close) at Merrill Lynch. Oshkosh had a consensus analyst target of $80.31.

Outfront Media Inc. (NYSE: OUT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup. After closing down 0.5% at $20.81 on Wednesday, the shares have a 52-week range of $16.81 to $22.52. The consensus target price was $23.88.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $55 target price at Argus. Also seen was an upgrade from Credit Suisse to Outperform from Neutral with a target price hike to $47 from $45. Credit Suisse talked about patent expirations slowing down and talked up its pipeline assets as underappreciated.

Quest Diagnostics Inc. (NYSE: DGX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus, but instead of being after news it was ahead of the earnings results. The stock was indicated down 0.9% at $86.13, and it has a consensus target price of $97.65.

Recro Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: REPH) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $13 price target (versus a $7.90 close) at Janney, with the firm noting that its March 24 PDUFA date for IV Meloxicam remains on track.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) was reiterated as Sell at Citigroup despite it beating earnings, with the firm noting that its dividend trends have been flat for five years while it uses cash for shareholder returns when it is struggling around the life of its reserves relative to peers. The American depositary shares were up 1.2% at $59.56 on Wednesday and were indicated up 4% at $62.00 on Thursday.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. (NYSE: SMG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $70 target price (versus a $71.44 close) at JPMorgan.

ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $235 from $205 (versus a $194.00 close) at BMO Capital Markets. The shares were indicated up 8% at $209.50 after earnings, and that is above its all-time high of $206.30. Its prior consensus target price was $212.57.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $112 price target at Atlantic Equities.

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. (NASDAQ: TROW) was raised to Outperform from In-Line with a $99 price target (versus an $89.24 close) at Evercore ISI Group.

UMB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: UMBF) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $70 price target (versus a $63.53 close) at Raymond James.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included Allergan, Apple, Carnival, Ciena, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin, Plug Power, Take-Two Interactive Software, United Continental, Zynga and many more.

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