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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, Apple, BofA, Boeing, Cheniere, Chipotle, CommScope, IBM, Peloton, Pinterest, Schlumberger and More

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Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Monday. Even with all the risks and pressure, the S&P 500 is back within the scope of hitting 3,000, and that basically is within 1% of the all-time high. Investors are having to grapple with a slower economy at the same time that the bull market is well over 10 years old. Now is a time 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 others 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 21, 2019.

Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE: AYI) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that this lighting play was the Bull of the Day 5 months ago, so what happened? Shares last closed at $122.93, with a consensus price target of $139.50.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was maintained as Buy at Merrill Lynch, but the price objective was lowered to $2,250 from $2,350 in the call. The stock closed down 1.7% (almost $30) to $1,757.51 ahead of the move.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $280 from $250 at Raymond James.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $34 from $33 at UBS.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was down sharply on Friday over reports of internal communications regarding safety issues ahead of its 737 Max crashes. Credit Suisse downgraded Boeing to Neutral from Outperform with a new $323 target price, down from a prior $415 target price, and UBS downgraded it to Neutral from Buy with a $375 target price lowered from a prior $470 target price.

Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG) was started as Outperform with an $84 price target (versus a $62.55 prior close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $890 from $845 at BTIG.

CommScope Holding Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: COMM) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was held steady at $16 (versus an $11.57 close) at Nomura/Instinet.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) was raised to Buy from Underperform at Merrill Lynch.


International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $140 from $170 at UBS. IBM previously closed down 0.1% at $134.09 on Friday, but that was after having been at $142.11 ahead of earnings last week.

Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) was reiterated as Strong Buy and the price target was raised to $170 from $151 at Raymond James.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI.

Owens and Minor Inc. (NYSE: OMI) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this stock has been on a run of late and it looks like it won’t stop until after it makes it to double digits. Shares most recently closed at $7.14, with a consensus price target of $4.38.

Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $30 target price at Needham. UBS also assigned a new Buy rating and $30 target. Barclays started it as Overweight with a $32 target price, Canaccord started it as Buy with a $33 target, and Cowen started it as Outperform with a $34 target. Stifel started the shares as Buy with a $35 target price. The stock closed down 1.4% at $23.52 and has a post-IPO trading range of $21.14 to $27.98.

Pinterest Inc. (NYSE: PINS) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform and the target price was raised to $35 from $30 at RBC Capital Markets. The stock previously closed at $25.31, and its prior consensus target price was $33.05.

Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was maintained as Outperform but the target price was lowered to $40 from $44 at Wells Fargo.

ShockWave Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: SWAV) was started with an Overweight rating and assigned a $39 target price (versus a $32.26 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target price was lowered to $88 from $92 at UBS.

State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was maintained as Neutral but the target price was raised to $68 from $60 at UBS. Keefe Bruyette & Woods raised its rating to Market Perform from Underperform and lifted its target price to $64 from $51. Morgan Stanley maintained its Underweight rating but raised its target to $57 from $55. The stock was up 6.1% at $63.34 on Friday alone, and its 52-week range is $48.62 to $77.00.

Teradyne Inc. (NYSE: TER) was maintained as Neutral but the target price was raised to $63 from $47 (versus a $58.93 close) at UBS.

Tradeweb Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: TW) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $49 from $47 (versus a $41.50 close) at UBS.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Agilent Technologies, Alphabet, Altria, Amazon.com, Boeing, Caterpillar, Chipotle Mexican Grill, E*Trade, Gap, Snap, Twitter and many more.

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