Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Activision, Biogen, Deere, DocuSign, Ford, Freeport-McMoRan, GM, Lattice Semi, Qualys, Shopify, Under Armour and More

February 13, 2019 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Wednesday, but the markets closed up strong on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrials now up over 2,700 points from the lows in early January. Prior to the January rally continuing into February, particularly seen in the final weeks of 2018, investors faced less reward from buying immediately after every big market sell-off. Now investors need to consider 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 Wednesday, February 13, 2019.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was up 3.9% at $41.67 on Tuesday and was indicated up another 2% at $42.50 on news of layoffs with earnings. Wedbush Securities maintained it as Outperform but lowered its price target to $56 from $64 as revenue fell below guidance and estimates because of weaker Call of Duty sales and in-game monetization for other titles. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating but cut its target price to $64 from $70, and Merrill Lynch cut its price objective to $54 from $58 in its call.

Aquantia Corp. (NYSE: AQ) shares were indicated down over 20% at $7.65 after weak first quarter-guidance and earnings. Morgan Stanley downgraded it to Equal Weight from Overweight and Raymond James downgraded shares to Market Perform from Outperform.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was maintained as Market Perform and the price target was lowered to $318 from $337 (versus a $319.43 prior close) at RBC Capital Markets. The firm expects no growth in its stock price with its MS drug revenues at potential, with flat or even lower sales trends ahead.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $45 from $43 at Argus. Shares closed up almost 2% at $40.04 on Tuesday. The consensus target price is $42.22 and the 52-week trading range is $25.93 to $40.33.

Clovis Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: CLOV) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $40 price target (versus a $25.19 close) at H.C. Wainwright. This stock has been quite volatile, with a 52-week range of $11.50 to $65.24, and its consensus target price was last seen at $28.10.

Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) was downgraded to Underperform from In-Line at Evercore ISI Group. The stock was indicated down 0.7% at $78.00, after closing up 0.4% at $78.57 on Tuesday, and it has a consensus target price of $78.50.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was lowered to $170 from $173 at Merrill Lynch. Shares were last seen down 3.3% at $159.74 on Wednesday morning, after closing up 2% at $165.19 on Tuesday. The consensus target price was $176.71.