Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Acacia, Aqua America, Dish Network, Disney, Expedia, First Solar, PagerDuty, Pinterest and More

May 6, 2019 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open broadly lower, with the three major equity index futures indicating an opening of −1.5% to −2.0% in early trading indications. The big rub for the markets was President Trump’s tweets pushing back on China in trade talks and higher tariffs. This is only going to exacerbate those thoughts to “sell in May and go away,” and investors need to be considering how they want their portfolios positioned for the rest of the year and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new trading and investing ideas for our readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, but others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary and trading data have been added on some of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, May 6, 2019.

Acacia Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ACIA) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Merrill Lynch. After closing down 2.5% at $59.00, the shares were indicated down 2.4% more at $57/60 on Monday morning. The prior consensus target price was $57.04.

Aqua America Inc. (NYSE: WTR) was reiterated as Buy and the price target (fair value estimate) was raised to $44 from $41 (versus a $38.09 prior close) at Janney. The firm noted that this is the new valuation when you combine Peoples Gas into the mix, but the combined company’s integration is now moved from the second quarter of 2019 to the beginning of the third quarter of 2019 for the combined estimates.

Arrow Electronics Inc. (NYSE: ARW) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch. After closing up 1.3% at $76.15 ahead of the call, the stock had a consensus target price of $86.56.

Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE: BHVN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $92 price target (versus a $57.06 close) at Goldman Sachs. This stock has a 52-week range of $26.40 to $64.83 and a consensus target price of $68.94. The market cap is $2.5 billion.

Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.

Expedia Group Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was downgraded to Neutral from Positive at Susquehanna.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was reiterated as Overweight at JPMorgan, but the firm added First Solar to the U.S. Focus List on Monday. After closing up over 3% at $61.76 ahead of the call, it was indicated down 1.8% at $60.65 on Monday.

Five Below Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays, mainly on valuations as it seems fully valued around the $140 level.

Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc. (NYSE: FBHS) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $64 from $55 (versus a $55.58 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Inphi Corp. (NYSE: IPHI) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Merrill Lynch.

Navistar International Corp. (NYSE: NAV) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Longbow Research.

PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Longbow Research.

PagerDuty Inc. (NYSE: PD) has seen its quiet period come to an end with shares closing at $46.40 on Friday. William Blair started it as Outperform, and it was started as Overweight at both Piper Jaffray and JPMorgan. RBC Capital Markets started it as Sector Weight, and Morgan Stanley started it as Equal Weight. The post-IPO range is $36.00 to $48.43, after its initial public offering priced at $24.00 and the first opening trade was $36.75.

Pinterest Inc. (NYSE: PINS) was down 4.6% at $28.36 on Friday and was indicated down another 3.5% at $27.35 on Monday. Susquehanna started it with a Neutral rating and assigned a $35 price target. The post-IPO trading range is $23.05 to $35.29.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was last seen down 1.1% at $132.80 with weaker markets on Monday, but UBS reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $165 from $128. This is also just days ahead of earnings and after several other firms have rerated Disney shares higher after the Fox asset acquisition and the details were released on the Disney+ over-the-top offering that will compete against Netflix and others.

These were the top large stock losers on Monday’s China trade talk news.

As expected, Warren Buffett did not show any massive stock repurchases in the first quarter relative to Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization.

Analysts see five new stocks under $10 as having massive upside potential.

Friday’s top analyst calls were in shares of included American Express, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Electronic Arts, Fortinet, Lyft, Target, Tilray, Walmart and many more.

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