Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alexion, Ciena, Dell, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Marvell, PPL, Republic Services, Tesla, VMware, Zscaler and More

Investing

Published: May 29, 2020 9:09 am

Last Updated: May 29, 2020 9:27 am

Stocks sold off on Thursday due to tensions with China, but the market had been frothy as the S&P 500 was back over 3,000 and the Dow Jones industrials were back over 25,000. Friday’s indications had futures opening down close to 0.5% ahead of a press conference at the White House regarding China relations. On the last trading day of May, investors have to consider an upcoming election, ongoing risks of illness versus reopening, and a weak consumer and weak business spending environment, on top of international issues.

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.

Now that stocks have recovered so much, it seems that the analyst calls with ever lower price targets have ended. In many cases, analysts are raising their outlooks and targets, even if they have cautious macro views or earnings caution. Some calls are praising growth over value, and others are focused on base economy stocks that have already begun recovering.

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 29, 2020.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALXN) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $159 from $150 at SVB Leerink. The stock closed up almost 8% at $114.42 on Thursday, and its consensus price target was $139.45.

Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA) was started as Neutral at Robert W. Baird.

Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $16 from $12 (versus an $11.40 prior close, after a 5.9% drop) at Jefferies.

Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $61 from $51 (versus a $54.79 close) at Raymond James.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was up 7.2% at $48.85 after earnings. Morgan Stanley reiterated it as Equal Weight but raised its price target to $50 from $35, and Nomura/Instinet reiterated its Neutral rating and raised its target to $55 from $35.

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $110 from $90 (versus a $97.64 close, after an 11.5% gain) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Also, Morgan Stanley reiterated it as Equal Weight and raised its target to $105.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $210 from $200 (versus a $184.11 close, after a 1.6% drop) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $218 from $200.

DXC Technology Co. (NYSE: DXC) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.