Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Agilent, Aurora Cannabis, Best Buy, Box, Marvell, Nvidia, Palo Alto, Roku, Splunk, TJX and More

Investing

Published: May 22, 2020 9:12 am

Last Updated: May 22, 2020 9:25 am

Stocks have bounced around all week after Monday’s big gains, but Thursday’s losses were recovered only partly on Friday morning. Investors are now moving past earnings season and looking beyond bad economic readings in what was a major recovery since the panic selling lows of March. Some investors now should be considering new ideas for how to be best positioned ahead of summer and the rest of 2020.

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

Analysts are still making many upgrades, downgrades, reiterations and initiations ahead of and after key earnings reports. While many analysts are still cutting price targets and earnings estimates for the coming quarters and for the year, some are still maintaining their prior official ratings. Another observation is that a lot of the stocks have now recovered enough that they are trading above what the analyst pack would consider to be fair value.

Remember, no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision. Consensus analyst target prices are from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst calls we have seen on Friday, May 22, 2020.

Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN) was started with a Neutral rating Piper Sandler. The stock had closed at $193.55, and its consensus price target was $188.22.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $95 from $90 (versus an $80.75 prior close) at SVB Leerink.

Apollo Investment Corp. (NASDAQ: AINV) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup.

Aquestive Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AQST) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $15 from $13 (versus a $6.15 close) at H.C. Wainwright. Shares were indicated up almost 9% at $6.70 after a royalty program it was involved in with Sunovion Pharmaceuticals received FDA approval.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies, although its Canadian price target was raised to C$14 from C$12, after noting that its 36% gain after earnings and an acquisition seemed unsustainable. The U.S.-listed shares were indicated down over 5% at $16.19 on Friday morning.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $85 from $75 at Barclays. Best Buy closed down over 4% at $77.98 on Thursday, with an $80.22 consensus price target.

Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX) was reiterated at Overweight and its price target was raised to $21 from $17 at Morgan Stanley. The stock closed at $17.89 and had a $17.75 consensus price target.

Brinker International Inc. (NYSE: EAT) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that the future is uncertain for the owner of Chili’s and Maggiano’s. Shares last closed at $24.50 and have a consensus price target of $27.79.

Chegg Inc. (NYSE: CHGG) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that online education tools likely will be vital for students and teachers going forward. Shares most recently closed at $62.25, with a consensus price target of $44.50.

Chuy’s Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CHUY) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $21 from $17 at Wedbush Securities.