Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alibaba, Baidu, Bristol-Myers, Cimarex, Deere, Deutsche Bank, Micron, NeoPhotonics, Target, United Continental and More

Investing

Published: May 20, 2019 8:45 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 8:36 pm

Stocks were down another 0.6% or so in Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 futures on Monday morning as further realizations and expectations normalize into a belief that the trade war with China will not end quickly. Investors have now seen multiple reasons that might amplify their belief that “sell in May and go away” might be a better strategy, particularly as the major market indexes are still quite close to all-time highs. Now investors need to be considering how to position their portfolios for the rest of 2019.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new trading and investing ideas for our readers. Some of these 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 20, 2019.

AGCO Corp. (NYSE: AGCO) was downgraded to Underperform from an already cautious Neutral rating at Merrill Lynch. Shares closed down 4% at $67.41 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $49.50 to $75.56 and with a consensus target price of $73.53.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $225 from $220 at Barclays. Shares closed down 3% at $169.57 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $129.77 to $211.70 and with a consensus target price of $208.54.

American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) was reiterated as Overweight but the price target was lowered to $48 from $60 at Barclays. Morgan Stanley downgraded it to Underweight from Equal Weight. Shares closed down nearly 2% at $31.74 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $28.81 to $45.82 and with a consensus target price of $42.22.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was maintained as Equal Weight but the target price was lowered to $160 from $200 at Barclays. Shares closed down 16.5% at $128.31 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $126.91 to $274.00 and with a consensus target price of $209.00.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus. Shares closed down less than 1% at $46.85 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $44.30 to $63.69 and with a consensus target price of $57.30.

CarGurus Inc. (NASDAQ: CARG) was started as Market Perform at Cowen.

Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) was raised to Buy from Hold at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Shares closed down 1% at $68.55 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $55.62 to $103.91. The consensus target price is $91.52.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was maintained as Overweight but the price target was lowered to $170 from $180 at Barclays. Also, RBC Capital Markets maintained it as Outperform and lowered the price target to $175 from $190. Shares closed down over 7% at $134.82 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $128.32 to $169.99. The consensus target price is $174.83.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed down 1% at $54.89 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $45.08 to $61.32. The consensus target price is $66.42.

Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at UBS in an overseas research call citing ongoing risks for the German bank. The American depositary shares closed down 1% at $7.58 on Friday and were indicated down another 2.2% at $7.41 on Monday morning.