Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alcon, Analog Devices, Big Lots, CACI, CenterPoint, Cree, Lyft, Teva, WellCare and More

Investing

Published: June 3, 2019 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 8:06 pm

Stocks were indicated to open marginally lower on Monday on continued international market reactions to trade war and tariff woes. That excuse may be getting rather old, but each day brings new information, and that’s what’s driving the markets right now, that and a yield curve that has started to invert too much to ignore. Those fears of “sell in May and go away” proved to be right, at least for now, with the three major equity indexes down 7% to 9% from their highs. Investors should be considering how they want their portfolios positioned for the rest of 2019 and beyond.

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, June 3, 2019.

Alcon Inc. (NYSE: ALC) was started with an Outperform rating in recent weeks at Credit Suisse, and the firm reiterated that rating on Monday with a deeper explanation, as some investors still consider it to be expensive relative to its peers, noting that the margin and capital structure mechanics that drive these differences make the stock as attractive at current levels.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. (NYSE: ABC) was reiterated as Buy at Argus, with the independent research firm noting the PharMEDium consent decree.

Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $90 price target (versus a $96.62 prior close) at Nomura/Instinet.

Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) was downgraded to Underperform from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: BKI) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $68 from $58 (versus a $56.69 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (NYSE: BAH) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a target price of $70 (versus a $63.17 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS.

CACI International Inc. (NYSE: CACI) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $31 target price (versus a $28.44 close) at Mizuho.

Cortexyme Inc. (NASDAQ: CRTX) was started an Underperform rating and assigned a $14 target price at Credit Suisse. While the company’s target of Alzheimer’s disease speculation has a multibillion annual revenue potential if its COR388 proves to be marketable, Credit Suisse noted how basically every effort from other companies has come up way short and Cortexyme still has a lot to prove here. Canaccord Genuity started the stock at Buy with a $42 price target.