24/7 Wall St.

Stocks have sold off handily this week, with an 800-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average in just two trading sessions. The markets were trying to open in positive territory on Thursday morning, but with 0.1% indicated gains the outcome seems far from locked in. The bull market is now well over 10 years old, and volatility has been elevated despite strong double-digit percentage gains in 2019. Now is a time that investors need to be considering what changes to make for 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 Thursday, October 3, 2019.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that there’s a big divergence between earnings and stock price here. Shares of Alibaba most recently closed at $165.77, with a consensus price target of $223.74.

Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) was started as Outperform with a $10 target price at RBC Capital Markets. The stock closed down 0.6% at $8.54 ahead of the call, and it was indicated up just 0.3% afterward. The mortgage real estate investment trust has a consensus target price of $9.39, and its dividend yield is still above 11%.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) fell 2.9% to $10.02 ahead of earnings, but it was indicated down another 6.5% at $9.37 after soft sales and announcing that up to 60 more stores would close. Wedbush Securities maintained its Outperform rating with the same $16 target price, and the firm noted a lot of progress has been made and more progress is coming as the company trims inventories.

Bonanza Creek Energy Inc. (NYSE: BCEI) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that this stock has been anything but a bonanza for investors. Its shares last closed at $21.76 and have a consensus price target of $28.40.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) was reiterated as Neutral with an $80 target price (versus a $85.60 prior close) at Wedbush.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started with a Hold rating and assigned a $115 target price (versus a $107.95 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) was down 1.3% at $149.35 after revising its 2019 guidance. Citigroup maintained its Neutral rating but lowered the target price to $163 from $167.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was set at $80 at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The 40% implied upside call noted that the cybersecurity company has the highest growth at scale of all peers and its differentiated approach and technology addresses a wide variety of security issues for companies. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $51.61 to $101.88, and its prior consensus target price was $90.53.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) was started with a Hold rating and assigned a $15 target price (versus a $13.82 close, after a 4.5% gain) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) closed down almost 3% at $5.13 ahead of earnings, but a lower guidance and poor report had shares down another 17% at $4.23 after the report. Wedbush reiterated its Neutral rating with a $5.50 price target.

Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $95 target price (versus a $73.04 close) at Mizuho.

Lyft Inc. (NASDAQ: LYFT) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $45 price target (versus a $38.39 close) at MKM Partners. It has a post-IPO trading range of $37.92 to $88.60, and its consensus target price was $72.36.

24/7 Wall St.
SunTrust Out With High-Conviction Technology Picks for Q4