Stocks were indicated higher on Monday after last week’s selling. The culprit is a market rumor that Greece may reach a debt pact today, which maybe everyone should only believe it when they see it signed.
If one trend has held true it is that investors have lined up in droves for close to four years to buy their favorite stocks on each and every pullback. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.
Ambev S.A. (NYSE: ABEV) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Ambev’s American depositary shares (ADSs) closed at $5.75 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $5.51 to $7.56.
CTI BioPharma Corp. (NASDAQ: CTIC) was reiterated as Buy with a fair value estimate of $3.50 (versus a $1.94 close) at Janney Capital Markets. Shares were up 6% at $2.07 in early bird trading indications on Monday after a positive ASCO cancer data presentation.
Duke Energy Corp. (NYSE: DUK) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was set at $86.00 (versus a $75.73 close) at Bernstein. Duke’s consensus analyst target is $81.70, and it has a 52-week range of $68.81 to $89.97.
Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was moved to Not Rated at Bank of America Merrill Lynch after the merger rumors broke. The firm said that Anthem would be the most strategic fit (with Aetna and Cigna also mentioned) and that the deal would still be accretive at $250.00 per share.
Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) was reiterated as Buy with a $101.00 price objective (versus a $78.19 close) at Merrill Lynch and was said again to be the firm’s top pick in the sector.
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Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) was reiterated as Outperform and with a $55.00 price target (versus a $47.91 close) at Cowen. The call is after a tech and media conference and was based on strong guidance. Yelp’s consensus price target is $53.31 and its 52-week range is $37.91 to $86.88.
Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen this Monday were as follows:
Arctic Cat Inc. (NASDAQ: ACAT) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $25.00 (versus a $33.08 close) at BMO Capital Markets.
Atlas Resource Partners L.P. (NYSE: ARP) was started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE: BNS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at RBC Capital Markets.
Boyd Gaming Corp. (NYSE: BYD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $18 from $17 at Credit Suisse.
Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE: CLD) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and was given a $3 price target (versus a $5.77 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Enbridge Inc. (NYSE: ENB) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse after a recent a share price underperformance.
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Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.
Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Pier 1 Imports Inc. (NYSE: PIR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Wedbush.
Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $24 from $23 at Merrill Lynch.
Telecom Italia SpA (NYSE: TI) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.
VeriFone Systems Inc. (NYSE: PAY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $44.00 (versus a $38.17 close) at Raymond James.
In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included shares of Abercrombie & Fitch, Broadcom, Keurig Green Mountain, National Oilwell Varco, Transocean, Weatherford International and a dozen or so more companies.
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The post Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Ambev, CTI Bio, Duke, Humana, Occidental, Yelp and More appeared first on 24/7 Wall St..