Monday’s stock market rally was based on hope that the trade war will not get out of hand, as Friday’s news flow and sell-off in stocks might have indicated. Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Tuesday, but not by enough of a margin that the day’s bias and outcome were foregone conclusions. Despite the selling pressure last week, and despite all the recession worries, the bull market is well over 10 years old and the Dow Jones industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all remain up with double-digit percentage gains so far in 2019. This is a time when investors need to be considering how to position their portfolios and assets heading into late 2019 and as 2020 approaches.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while some 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 for Tuesday, August 27, 2019.
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) opened lower on Monday but ended up closing with a gain of almost 3.2% to $205.41 on news that it was acquiring the rights to a psoriasis drug to help Bristol-Myers Squibb and Celgene close their pending merger. BMO Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating on Amgen and raised its target to $240 from $230, while RBC Capital Markets reiterated its Sector Perform rating but still raised its target to $206 from $192. Amgen’s consensus target price was $210.05.
BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE: BWA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $41 price target at Nomura/Instinet. Shares closed up about 0.6% at $31.06 ahead of the call, and its consensus target price was $45.07.
Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE: CAH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Argus. It had closed up 2.4% at $43.83 ahead of the call, with a consensus target price of $49.47.
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) closed up 2.6% at $826.80 on Monday, and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $900 from $815. Chipotle has a 52-week trading range of $383.20 to $831.59, and its consensus target price was $771.92 ahead of this call.
Cree Inc. (NASDAQ: CREE) had traded lower in recent days after earnings and analyst downgrades, and JPMorgan has decided to upgrade its Underweight rating to Neutral with a $45 price target. The stock closed down 8.3% at $43.18 on Monday, and it had a $55.88 consensus target price. This had been a $58 stock before the earnings and guidance reaction took the stock much lower.
Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was reiterated with an Overweight rating at KeyBanc Capital Markets, and the firm raised its target price up to $148 from $140 in the call. The stock was up 1.6% at $139.22 on Monday ahead of the call, and it had a consensus target price of $142.23.
Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $60 from $56 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed up almost 1.8% at $45.68 ahead of the call, and the consensus target price was $52.34.
Nucor Corp. (NYSE: NUE) was maintained as Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets, but the price target was trimmed to $60 from $61. Nucor closed up 15 at $47.40 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $46.76 to $66.03 and with a consensus target price of $60.92.
PDC Energy Inc. (NYSE: PDCE) was up 17.4% at $29.65 on Monday on news it was acquiring SRC Energy in a $1.7 billion deal. Imperial Capital reiterated PDC Energy as Outperform with a $50 target, and MKM Partners reiterated it as Buy and raised its target to $50 from $48. The 52-week trading range is $24.13 to $57.41, and the consensus target price was $48.04.
Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at Merrill Lynch, and shares had closed down 1.46% at $34.39 ahead of the call, with a $34.56 consensus target price.
Simpson Manufacturing Co. Inc. (NYSE: SSD) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that new home building is not benefiting from ultra-low rates as prices rise and confidence falls.
STORE Capital Corp. (NYSE: STOR) was started with a Buy rating at Deutsche Bank. It closed up 0.7% at $36.95 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $26.93 to $37.30 and with a consensus target price of $38.00.
Tabula Rasa Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ: TRHC) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that medication safety is a top priority for care providers and this small-cap IT ninja is building the network’s intelligence.
Tellurian Inc. (NASDAQ: TELL) was maintained with an Outperform rating at Raymond James, but the firm lowered its target price to $12 from $13. Shares closed down almost 8% at $6.91 on Monday, with a consensus analyst target of $11.56. The 52-week trading range is $ 5.12 to $11.80.
T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, thus losing its target price. The shares had closed up just over 2% at $78.06 ahead of this call, in a 52-week range of $59.96 to $85.22 and with a consensus target price of $88.53.
Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) was raised to Outperform from Perform, along with a new $70 target price, at Oppenheimer. Verizon closed up 1.4% at $56.71 ahead of this call. Its 52-week range is $52.28 to $61.58, and its consensus target price is $60.09.
Weight Watchers International Inc. (NASDAQ: WW) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $35 target price (versus a $28.88 close) at Craig-Hallum. The stock was up over 4% on Monday, and its consensus target price was $28.90 ahead of this call.
Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: ZBRA) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $230 price target (versus a $198.41 close) at Atlantic Equities. The consensus target price was $241.00, and the 52-week trading range is $140.95 to $237.15.
Zymeworks Inc. (NYSE: ZYME) was reiterated as Buy at Citigroup, but the firm raised its target to $49 from $22 with a positive view on its breast cancer treatment. The stock closed down 0.5% at $24.87 ahead of the call, in a 52-week range of $10.72 to $27.19 and with a consensus target price of $24.88.
Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA) was rated as Outperform with a $9 price target (versus a $5.60 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm has added Zynga to its Best Ideas List as it thinks the key titles “Empires & Puzzles” and “Merge Dragons!” and three new releases later in 2019 and more beyond, have the combined potential to drive significant upside to consensus analyst expectations through 2021.
24/7 Wall St.24/7 Wall St. added a new layer of criteria on a list of 50 Credit Suisse stocks and got the list down to 30 names for sustainable dividends for cautious income investors. These all enjoy extremely healthy payout ratios, and their dividend yields are 3.5% to over 5%.
Jefferies sees some of the top bank stocks as having the best value in the S&P. Meanwhile, Robert W. Baird’s team sees several biotech and health care stocks as having massive upside potential.
In addition, these are the six most shorted Dow stocks as of mid-August.
Monday’s top analyst calls included Autodesk, Canopy Growth, Cree, Dish Network, Dynatrace, Elanco, Foot Locker, Lyft, Qualcomm and many more.
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