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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amazon, Avis, Blackstone, Illumina, Intel, Kinder Morgan, 3M, Nvidia, Tesla, Twitter, Uber, Visa and More

Stocks were indicated to open marginally lower on Friday morning as earnings season is proving to be quite mixed. That said, the S&P 500 is still at or close to 3,000 and that makes the major index within 1% or so of its all-time high. It seems all those endless media calls for an imminent recession were at least a bit ahead of themselves. The 10-year old bull market has remained resilient and has managed to climb a wall of worry, but many risks and opportunities are out there. This is a time when investors need to consider how they want their assets positioned for the rest of 2019 and into 2020.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv (Thomson Reuters) sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other rating changes seen for Friday, October 25, 2019.

Alliance Data Systems Corp. (NYSE: ADS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $115 target price (versus a $107.02 prior close) at Wells Fargo.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was up 1% ahead of earnings, but a partial miss and higher spending had its shares down 6.2% (or almost $113) at $1,668.00 in early trading indications on Friday. Wedbush Securities maintained Amazon as Outperform, but the firm cut its target to $2,000 from $2,350. Piper Jaffray maintained its Overweight rating and cut its target price to $2,150 from $2,225. Barclays maintained its Overweight rating but lowered its target to $2,000 from $2,175. Credit Suisse maintained its Overweight rating but lowered its target to $2,100 from $2,400, and Raymond James maintained its Outperform rating and lowered its target to $2,020 from $2,080.

Anaplan Inc. (NYSE: PLAN) was started as Neutral with a $49 target price (versus a $47.99 close) at Citigroup.

Avis Budget Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the target price was slashed to $32 from $46 at Deutsche Bank.

Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE: BX) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $60 from $57 (versus a $52.05 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James, with the firm noting that estimates appear to be overly optimistic about revenue growth and profit margins.

Callaway Golf Co. (NYSE: ELY) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that its shares have climbed over 35% in 2019 and might still have room to run. Callaway most recently closed at $20.90 a share, with a consensus price target of $23.08.

CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

Consolidated Edison Inc. (NYSE: ED) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $98 from $93 (versus a $94.29 close) at Mizuho. It had a prior consensus target price of $90.88, and its 52-week high is $94.97.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $45 target price (versus a $39.92 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Essa Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: ESSA) was started with an Outperform rating and an $8 target price (versus a $4.37 close) at Oppenheimer. This had a mere $91 million market cap, and its 52-week trading range is $1.41 to $4.54.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that FedEx stock has tumbled nearly 30% in the last 12 months, and the shipping giant lowered its earnings guidance as well. Shares last closed at $154.05, with a consensus price target of $171.12.

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $33 from $32 at UBS.

Genuine Parts Co. (NYSE: GPC) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and the target price was lowered to $93 from $101 at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed down about 0.2% at $104.05 on Thursday, and its consensus target price was $101.25.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL) was started as Underperform and a $40 price objective (versus a $40.87 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was started with a Buy rating and a $350 target price at Guggenheim. Janney maintained its Neutral rating and the firm has a $305 target price. Shares closed up 0.9% at $315.50 on Thursday and were indicated down 3.3% at $305.00 on Friday, with a prior consensus target price of $329.25.

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