Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

August 11, 2014

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Achillion, Gap, GNC, King Digital, Pepsi, Tesla and More

PrintEmail

 
Stocks were firm on Monday morning, looking to add to the recovery bounce from Friday. Investors have now been given an opportunity to look for stocks that have pulled back that perhaps they have previously missed. Each morning of the week, 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports to find new investment and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while other research reports cover stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.
 
These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street analysts.

Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray with a $10 price target (versus $7.36 close and versus $7.90 early indications), and it was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo.

Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ: CETV) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Chuy’s Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHUY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $42 price target (versus a $36.49 close) at Argus.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was reiterated as Buy and the price target to $110 from $90 at Argus. The call reflects strong Sovaldi sales for Hep-C and continued growth from both new and established products.

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was started as Neutral at Credit Suisse.

GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $43 price target (versus $32.67 close) at Credit Suisse.

Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H) was raised to Buy from Hold at Stifel Nicolaus.

King Digital Entertainment PLC (NYSE: KING) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform by Pacific Crest.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

2U, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWOU) had a massive run last week, rising from under $14 to just over $17. Now we have word that Goldman Sachs has downgraded the SaaS player for universities and non-profits to Neutral from Buy.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was raised to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank, and the price target was moved all the way up to $310 from $222 (versus $248 close). This was on the heels of a new Outperform rating and $316 price target from Pacific Crest last week.

Thoratec Corp. (NASDAQ: THOR) was pounded on poor results last week, as well as several downgrades. Now, a day-after downgrade has been seen from Northland Securities, which downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform and cut the price target down to $26 (versus $23.27 close).

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, but what stood out the most was the price target cut — down to $76 from $89 (versus $74.67 close).

ALSO READ: 4 Biotechs That Analysts See Rising 100% or More

In case you missed Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included shares of Zynga, Barrick, Allergan, BioCryst, Mylan, NVIDIA and a dozen or so more companies. Also on deck and of importance for this week:

Search

RECENT PRESS RELEASES