Investing
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Beyond Meat, Clorox, Domino's, Etsy, Intel, Roku, Square, 3D Systems, Tesla, Uber and More
March 19, 2020 10:07 am
These are not normal times when the Dow Jones industrial average closed under 20,000 for the first time since 2017 and was down over 300 points heading into the opening bell. It almost felt like a relief that it wasn’t worse. The past month has witnessed the raging bull market turned into hamburger meat, and the bear market is now roaring with drop of more than 30% in the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
24/7 Wall St. has been covering numerous analyst calls before and during the turmoil, and one of the latest trends has been waves of downgrades, but the more common theme is that analysts are just trying to adjust their target prices much lower due to the daily drops seen in the shares.
Right now, most analysts likely feel as though they have been hit by a train, just like most investors have been feeling. Anyhow, these are the top analyst calls seen on Thursday, March 19, 2020.
Aphria Inc. (NYSE: APHA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at BofA Securities. After closing down about 1% at $2.13 on Wednesday, it was up almost 3% at $2.17 early Thursday. That is down from a high of $10.17.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, but the target price was lowered to $300 from $345 in that call. Yesterday, the top bull Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities also maintained an Outperform rating but cut the target price to $345 from $400. As noted, that prior $331 target price is coming down, and it was already down to $322.17 on last look (with more room to come). Apple closed down 2.45% at $246.67, after hitting a low of $237.12 on Wednesday.
Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its target price was cut to $44 from $74 at B. Riley FBR.
Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities. Shares closed down 10.4% at $54.02 on Wednesday and were down almost 5% more at $51.50 on Thursday.
Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform but the target price was raised to $172 from $169 (versus a $190.95 prior close) at Credit Suisse. This is one of the few stocks that has been rising, because of its cleaning products (they do kill everything) being used against the coronavirus in all settings.
Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was raised to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target was cut to $41 from $61 at Roth Capital.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this may be worth considering in the midst of this market chaos. Shares most recently closed at $47.61 and have a consensus price target of $64.42.
Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy Argus. It saw a 23.7% drop to $42.45 on Wednesday is down from a high of $88.32.
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