Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Darden, Disney, DuPont, EOG, Lululemon, Micron, Occidental, Slack, Spotify, Ulta and More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: June 19, 2020 9:08 am

Last Updated: October 28, 2021 2:56 pm

Stocks surged higher on Friday morning, with the Dow Jones industrials, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all expected to be up 1%. The stock market has tried to discount every bit of bad news, with bad economic numbers, higher COVID-19 cases, civil unrest, weak earnings and international issues all being deemed temporary as the economy continues to reopen for business.

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, analyst calls basically have normalized, with fewer extreme target changes up or down. Some calls are praising growth over value, and others are focused on base economy stocks that already have 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, June 19, 2020.

Carlisle Companies Inc. (NYSE: CSL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $150 from $135 at BMO Capital Markets.

Concho Resources Inc. (NYSE: CXO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Mizuho.

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was lowered to $86 from $88 (versus a $74.13 prior close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $17 from $13 (versus a $12.95 close) at Mizuho.

DuPont de Nemours Inc. (NYSE: DD) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $65 from $60 (versus a $52.58 close) at Wells Fargo.

Dynatrace Inc. (NYSE: DT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $51 from $32 (versus a $40.41 close) at Goldman Sachs.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $70 from $50 at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Shares closed at $52.93 ahead of the call, which noted that it was one of the most opportunistic large E&Ps by materially flexing all operations and finances as appropriate. Independent of this call, EOG also was named on a list of 10 oil and gas companies that would still be thriving in 2030.

H&E Equipment Services Inc. (NASDAQ: HEES) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that new equipment sales have slowed as U.S. businesses get more cautious. Shares last closed at $18.17, with a consensus price target of $21.50.

Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc. (NASDAQ: HCCI) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $20 price target (versus a $16.53 close) at Needham.

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Seaport Global.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was reiterated as Neutral but the price target was raised to $300 from $230 at UBS. Lululemon closed at $302.98 a share and had a $314.35 consensus price target.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $65 from $55 (versus a $50.48 close) at Wells Fargo.

Murphy Oil Corp. (NYSE: MUR) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and its price target was raised to $16 from $8 at Mizuho. Shares closed up 2.1% at $14.91 ahead of the call, with a $12.27 consensus price target.

National Fuel Gas Co. (NYSE: NFG) was started as Buy with a $47 price target (versus a $41.58 close) at Stifel. It had a $48.00 consensus target price.

Nomad Foods Ltd. (NYSE: NOMD) was started as Buy with a $26 price target (versus a $21.63 close) at Citigroup.

Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $88 from $46 (versus a $59.27 close) at Cantor Fitzgerald. The stock was indicated up 7% at $63.45, and its consensus target price was $54.75.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target price was raised to $25 from $13 (versus a $19.67 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. The firm noted that Occidental is in a position to continue improving its balance sheet through internal and external means and it can generate free cash flow of more than $1 billion in 2020 and $2.8 billion in 2021.

PPG Industries Inc. (NYSE: PPG) was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $123 from $120 (versus a $104.42 close) at UBS.

Raven Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: RAVN) was started as Outperform with a $27 price target (versus a $20.89 close) at Oppenheimer.

Slack Technologies Inc. (NYSE: WORK) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $30 price target (versus a $34.22 close) at Goldman Sachs. It had a $33.60 consensus target price, and its shares had traded as high as $40.25 this year.

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $275 from $190 (versus a $225.28 close) at Rosenblatt.

Ulta Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $276 price target (versus a $218.97 close) at Barclays. The consensus target price was $264.27.

Vulcan Materials Co. (NYSE: VMC) was started as Overweight and a $145 price target (versus a $121.03 close) at Atlantic Equities.

Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) was reiterated as Equal Weight and its price target was raised to $118 from $107 at Wells Fargo. Disney closed at $118.37 a share on Thursday and had a $121.71 consensus price target.

Wayfar Inc. (NYSE: W) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that 2020 could be the turning point for this online retail king. Shares most recently closed at $200.65 and have a consensus analyst target of $171.92.

Ziopharm Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: ZIOP) was started as Buy with a $7 price target (versus a $3.29 close) at Jefferies. It had a $5.75 consensus target price, and its shares were indicated up over 6% at $3.50 on Friday morning.

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Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included American Express, Carnival, CIT, Cloudflare, Editas Medicine, FedEx, PayPal, United Rentals, Zscaler and more.