Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Best Buy, Cinemark, Co-Diagnostics, DraftKings, Energizer, Novavax, Nvidia, Palo Alto, Petrobras and More

Investing

Published: May 18, 2020 9:06 am

Last Updated: May 18, 2020 9:22 am

Stocks were surging on Monday on positive coronavirus vaccine news, with the Dow Jones industrials and S&P 500 both up close to 3% in early trading indications. Analyst ratings changes are still being seen with normal upgrades and downgrades now that the market has stabilized so much since just over six weeks ago.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new trading ideas for investors and traders. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while some cover stocks to sell or avoid. As noted above, ratings and or price targets are rapidly chasing down the earnings and revenue estimates.

As a reminder, no single analyst call should be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Monday, May 18, 2020.

Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI) was maintained as Equal Weight and its price target was cut to $95 from $97 (versus a $101.80 prior close, after a 3.5% drop) at Morgan Stanley.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Outperform with a $350 target price (versus a $307.71 close) at Wedbush Securities. Apple was noted as being caught between U.S. and China tensions after Friday’s major shot across the bow to China, as the U.S. Commerce Department blocked and banned shipments of semiconductors to Huawei and China now is ready to put U.S. companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and Cisco on an “unreliable entity list” as part of the country’s countermeasures.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA) was started with a Buy rating and a $62 price target (versus a $47.26 close) at Jefferies.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Telsey Advisory Group. Shares closed up almost 2% at $78.61, with an $80.22 prior consensus target price.

Caladrius Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: CLBS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Dawson James. The firm noted that the company lacks funds to develop its product for NORDA, and the Japan-CLI program is a reach at best, and its COVID plan makes no sense.

Capri Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: CPRI) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Sandler.

Chegg Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that shares have run up beyond their intrinsic value and it may be time to pull profits. Shares last closed at $971.75, with a consensus price target of $867.64.

Choice Hotels International Inc. (NASDAQ: CHH) was raised to Buy from Neutral with an $85 price target at Longbow Research.

Cinemark Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CNK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at B. Riley FBR.

Co-Diagnostics Inc. (NASDAQ: CODX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $35 from $20 (versus a $17.07 close, after a 22.9% drop) at H.C. Wainwright.

Deckers Outdoor Corp. (NYSE: DECK) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $155 from $145 (versus a $140.83 close) at Wedbush.