Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AppFolio, Cisco, Duke Energy, Goodyear, HyreCar, Illumina, Kinder Morgan, Micron, Pfizer, Tencent Music and More

July 30, 2019 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open lower on Tuesday after a mixed performance on Monday. The market is getting ready for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates on Wednesday, and a mixed earnings season is creating some very big wins or bad misses on individual stock prices. With all the trade uncertainty dominating the news, the major stock market indexes remain rather close to all-time highs. Investors have many reasons to remain cautious but also have to be considering how they want their assets positioned for the rest of 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 Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, July 30, 2019.

AppFolio Inc. (NASDAQ: APPF) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at D.A. Davidson.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was maintained as Neutral at Nomura/Instinet, which raised the price target to $53 from $50. The firm noted that its confidence has risen regarding its refresh story and appreciates its efforts to reboot its webscale switching business, but the firm is concerned that the macro-picture is beyond Cisco’s control and the firm suspects that fiscal 2020 estimates do not allow for slowing spending.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $33 target price at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Shares closed at $25.52, in a 52-week range of $20.37 to $45.29. The consensus target price is $35.12.

Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) saw its price target cut to $88 from $91 while its rating was maintained as Neutral at Citigroup. Shares closed up 1% at $87.79, in a 52-week range of $78.00 to $91.67. The consensus target price is $94.67.

Freshpet Inc. (NASDAQ: FRPT) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $45 target price at JPMorgan.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) saw its price target get cut to $14 from $16 though it was maintained as Neutral at Citigroup. Shares closed down 2.3% at $13.83, in a 52-week range of $12.56 to $25.41. The consensus target price is $17.66.

Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT) was reiterated as Outperform and its target price was raised to $9.00 from $6.75 at Raymond James.

HyreCar Inc. (NASDAQ: HYRE) was started as Buy and assigned an $8.25 price target at Ladenburg Thalmann, implying well over 100% upside from the prior $3.07 close for this microcap stock.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the target price was cut to $300 from $330 at Canaccord Genuity

iPic Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: IPIC) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Telsey Advisory.