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

Investing

Published: October 21, 2019 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 2:22 pm

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.