Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Arconic, Beyond Meat, Blackstone, Bloom Energy, Datadog, Delta, Netflix, Ping, Xilinx and More

October 14, 2019 by Jon C. Ogg

Stocks were originally indicated higher after trade talks resulted in some trade truce, but a report that China wants more talks before signing its phase one deal took the gains away on Monday morning. This is the week that the third-quarter earnings season kicks off, and this bull market is well over 10 years old. Now is a time that investors need to be considering what changes they should be making 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 sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Monday, October 14, 2019.

AMC Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCX) was downgraded to Underperform from In-Line at Evercore ISI.

Arconic Inc. (NYSE: ARNC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the target price was raised to $31 from $26 (versus a $26.45 prior close) at Cowen.

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) was started as Market Perform and a $125 target price at Wells Fargo. The stock closed down 3.4% at $131.39 a share on Friday and was indicated down almost 3% more at $127.65 on Monday. The prior consensus target price was $163.67.

Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE: BX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE) was started as Overweight with a $5 target price (versus a $3.17 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $43 target price (versus a $60.27 close) at Citigroup. Shares were down almost 2% on Friday, but the stock was indicated down 6% at $56.62 on Monday.

Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG) has seen its quiet period come to an end. Morgan Stanley started it as Equal Weight with a $39 target and Stifel started it as Buy with a $40 target. Jefferies started shares at Hold with a $34 target, while Goldman Sachs started it as Neutral with a $33 target and Barclays started it as Overweight with a $45 target. The stock closed up 0.2% at $35.67 on Friday and was indicated up 1.6% at $36.25 on Monday. Its post-IPO trading range has been $30.01 to $41.44.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and the target price was cut to $57 from $75 (versus a $52.95 close) at Stephens.

Envista Holdings Corp. (NYSE: NVST) has seen its quiet period come to an end. JPMorgan started it as Overweight with a $32 price target, Credit Suisse started it as Neutral with a $30 target and Jefferies started it as Buy with a $34 target. Also, Baird started shares as Outperform with a $33 target, and Morgan Stanley started the stock as Equal Weight with a $29 target price. Envista closed down 3.9% at $27.93 on Friday and the dental products company has a post-IPO trading range of $25.65 to $29.73.

Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) was downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.