Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Bed Bath & Beyond, Celgene, Dow, Fannie Mae, Intel, Lennar, Snap, UGI, Viacom, WEX and More

Investing

April 5, 2019 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 10:26 pm

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS, just two days after being downgraded to Neutral from Positive at Susquehanna. It closed down 0.5% at $74.80 on Thursday and had a prior consensus target price of $76.00.

Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) was started as Underweight and given a $49 price target at JPMorgan. Shares closed up almost 5% at $59.71 on Thursday ahead of the call.

Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), or Fannie Mae, was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $2.50 price target at B. Riley FBR. Shares closed at $2.90 and have a 52-week range of $0.98 to $3.18.

Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo, but the firm did raise its target price to $60 from $55 in the call. The firm pointed out lower demand in 2019 and also more competition from the likes of AMD. Intel shares closed up 0.8% at $55.92 ahead of the call, with a consensus target price of $53.50.

International Paper Co. (NYSE: IP) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.

Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was already rated as Overweight at JPMorgan, but the firm added the stock to its Focus List as the firm sees earnings upside potential coming from multiple fronts.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (NYSE: MMC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo, just a day after Credit Suisse screened it as an example of the type of company with the type of valuation that Warren Buffett would buy.

Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was cut to $25 from $34 (versus a $13.55 close) at Wedbush Securities, with the firm calling the target lower after revising its expectations for its MCLA-128 in metastatic breast cancer.

ALSO READ: Why Goldman Sachs Is So Bullish on Disney After the Fox Acquisition

PotlatchDeltic Corp. (NYSE: PCH) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $42 price objective (versus a $38.03 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was maintained as Neutral but the price objective was raised to $12 from $10 at Merrill Lynch. Shares closed up 1% at $11.28 ahead of the call and were indicated up 1.5% at $11.45 on Friday morning. The consensus target price was $8.85 on last look.

UGI Corp. (NYSE: UGI) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $60 from $54 at Jefferies. Shares closed up 0.4% at $52.50 ahead of the call, with a consensus target price of $58.60.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets, with the firm noting that Viacom’s recent pact with DirecTV for carriage will pave (or repave) the way for merger talks with CBS.

WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) was started with a Neutral rating at Robert W. Baird.

Thursday’s top analyst calls included Carbon Black, Etsy, Facebook, KeyCorp, Micron Technology, Nio, Roku, Smart Sheet, Vail Resorts, Waste Management and many more.

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