Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Casper, CME, Deere, Disney, Domino's, Home Depot, Nike, RealReal, Salesforce, SolarEdge, Sunrun and More

Investing

Published: February 26, 2020 9:10 am

Last Updated: February 26, 2020 12:40 pm

Stocks experienced their worst two trading days in four years with close to a 1,900-point drop in the Dow Jones industrials alone to put the index now down 5.1% so far in 2020. The wider reports of the coronavirus spreading outside of China are major issues, and some investors and analysts are citing election risks with many business sectors being hit. Futures had traded down and in a wide range, but the markets looked like they were trying to stage the same small bounce as the prior morning started out with.

Despite this being an election year and despite the global economy being affected by the coronavirus, many investors have yet to make any major changes to their holdings after the incredible gains from 2019.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to try 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 analyst calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on many 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 from Wednesday, February 26, 2020.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V. (NYSE: BUD) was started with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed down 3.5% at $66.92 on Tuesday, with a $101.45 consensus target price.

Avadel Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: AVDL) was started with an Overweight rating and a $14 target price (versus a $10.22 prior close, after a 3.9% drop) at Piper Sandler.

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) was started with a Neutral rating and a $46 target price (versus a $47.88 close) at Goldman Sachs. It has a $45.20 consensus target price.

Casper Sleep Inc. (NASDAQ: CSPR) may have picked a very unlucky time for its $12 IPO in 2020. After initially surging after a low-end pricing, the stock has slid with the rest of the market in February and its shares closed down nearly 4% at $9.70 as of Tuesday. Wedbush Securities started it with a Neutral rating and a $10 target price.

CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $233 target price at UBS. Shares closed down about 0.5% at $208.32 on Tuesday and were indicated up over 1% at $210.75 on Wednesday.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was reiterated as Buy with a $185 target price (versus a $166.65 close) at Argus, with the independent research firm noting that the recent weakness is a buying opportunity based on management’s ability to understand and do a good job of managing its pricing and costs.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $420 price target at Argus. The stock was up over 1.5% at $368.66 on Tuesday despite the market drop, and this was a $297.10 stock just last week before its earnings report took shares up to $373.16 in one trading day.

Dyadic International Inc. (NASDAQ: DYAI) was maintained with a Buy rating and a $14 target price at Dawson James (versus a $5.30 close). The firm noted that the company now plans to work with Israel’s Institute for Biological Research to explore the C1 gene expression platform to express gene sequences and targets into an rVaccine candidate and monoclonal antibodies that may help combat the coronavirus outbreak.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) closed down 5% at $35.31 as of Tuesday’s close, and against a consensus target price of $46.43. Raymond James maintained its Outperform rating while lowering its target price to $50 from $65.

GW Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: GWPH) was down 3% at $117.05 on Tuesday and was indicated down over 8% at $107.00 on Wednesday. Needham maintained its Buy rating but trimmed its target price to $190 from $200.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $260 from $240 at JPMorgan. Raymond James reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target price to $270 from $250. Home Depot closed down only about 1% at $237.38 in its post-earnings reaction, with a $247.54 consensus target price and against a 52-week trading range of $179.52 to $247.36.

Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) was down 4.7% at $27.42 as of Tuesday’s close after reporting a loss but beating on revenue expectations. Raymond James reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $32 from $28.