Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Anheuser-Busch, Arch Coal, BHP, Cars.com, Cigna, FireEye, Ford, 3M, Northrop Grumman, Take-Two, T-Mobile and More

August 6, 2019 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were indicated to open sharply higher on Tuesday, but this was after a huge drop on Monday as the U.S./China trade war was kicked up a notch or two. Despite a serious pullback over the past week, stocks only recently hit their all-time highs. This bull market is well over 10 years old, and investors should be considering exactly how they want their portfolios and assets positioned for the second half 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 traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

We have provided these calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on some of the calls. 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 on Tuesday, August 6, 2019.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V. (NYSE: BUD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ARCH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $80 from $115 at Jefferies.

BHP Group Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, after it closed down 3.1% at $50.43 and versus a prior consensus target price of $50.28.

Cars.com Inc. (NASDAQ: CARS) was maintained as Buy at Citigroup after poor earnings, but the firm cut its price target to $19 from $27. D.A. Davidson downgraded it to Neutral from Buy. Shares were down 34.5% at $11.82 on Monday.

Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein. The stock closed down 3.4% at $159.00 on Monday, and the consensus target price was $214.21.

CONSOL Coal Resources L.P. (NYSE: CCR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $16 from $20 at Jefferies.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was started as Buy and the price target assigned as $16 (versus a $13.29 close, after a 3.4% drop) at Nomura/Instinet.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) closed down just 0.5% at $9.23 on Monday after it was shown that the board chair, William Clay Ford Jr., spent about $8 million on an insider purchase of shares in recent days. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ford to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised the target price to $12 from $10. The prior consensus target price was $10.75.

KLA Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $152 from $149 at KeyBanc Capital Markets. JPMorgan reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $180 from $160. Shares fell 5.21% to $126.46 on Monday after earnings, and the prior consensus target price was $131.15.

L3Harris Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LHX) was started as Overweight and the target price was set at $259 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed down 1.5% at $210.39.


3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was reiterated as Underweight and its target price was lowered to $140 from $143 at JPMorgan. 3M closed down 3.4% at $164.71 on Monday, and its prior consensus target price was $179.60.

Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the target price was raised to $418 from $335 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed up 0.5% at $342.81 on Monday during the broad sell-off.

One Stop Systems Inc. (NYSE: OSS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $3.50 price target at Benchmark. It has a mere $24.5 million market cap, and its closing price is $1.69, in a 52-week range of $1.35 to $4.35.

Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $18 from $27 at Jefferies.

Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies. It closed down 2.1% at $52.14 on Monday, and the consensus target price was $64.04.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK) was reiterated as Equal Weight at Barclays, but the firm raised its target to $70 from $58 in the call. Wedbush Securities maintained its Neutral rating but raised its target to $75 from $70. Shake Shack was indicated up over 3% at $76.00 after earnings, and it previously closed down 2.6% at $73.34.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) was trading higher after earnings and guidance, but that was also after a big drop on Monday. Barclays reiterated its Overweight rating and raised the target price to $124 from $113, while Wedbush Securities reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $144 from $134. KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $150 from $145.

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) was reiterated as Strong Buy and the price target was raised to $94 from $86 (versus a $76.19 close) at Raymond James. T-Mobile has a consensus target price of $87.95.

Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE: WMB) was maintained as Buy but the target price was lowered to $27 from $31 at Citigroup.

Replimmune Group Inc. (NASDAQ: REPL) and SLM Corp. (NASDAQ: SLM) were removed from the Best Ideas List at Wedbush, with the firm noting that the removals were due to its investment price discipline, despite having Outperform ratings and big upside target prices.

Zacks has named Interactive Corp. (NASDAQ: IAC) as its Bull of the Day, saying that this owner of popular dating and media websites is well insulated from China trade Woes. The Bear of the Day is Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS). Zacks noted that this European bank is positioned on the wrong side of a downward trend in interest rates.

Monday’s top analyst calls included Alibaba, Baidu, Blackstone, Comerica, Dollar Tree, IBM, KKR, Target, Whiting Petroleum, Williams Companies and many more.

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