Stocks saw continued selling pressure in Monday’s post-coronavirus spreading trading, and some of this selling has coincided with very overbought conditions ahead of the rapid spreading of the number of reported viral cases in China and elsewhere. Stocks were at all-time highs just a few days ago. Many investors still have not made portfolio changes since the very strong market in 2019. This is also an election year in which much is at stake, and strategists overall are calling for single-digit percentage gains in 2020.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while some calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.
We have provided these analyst calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on many of the calls. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv sell-side research service.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, January 28, 2020.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Outperform with a $2,000 target price (versus a $1,828.34 prior close) at Wedbush Securities ahead of this week’s earnings report. Amazon is seen as having solid earnings from strong holiday trends but also having a cautious profit outlook.
Baker Hughes Co. (NYSE: BKR) was maintained with a Buy rating but its target was lowered to $31 from $32 at Deutsche Bank. Shares closed down 3.5% at $22.05 on Monday, and the consensus target price is still $29.09.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) very rarely receives analyst calls, and its shares closed down almost 2% at $222.45 on Monday with the market sell-off. UBS reiterated its Buy rating while raising its target price to $257 from $242 in the call with a view that insurance operations will improve in profitability in 2020 with a strong pricing environment. The Berkshire Hathaway A-shares saw their target price raised to $385,000 from $362,000.
Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) closed up over 4% at $124.75 on Monday after news that Denny’s will be carrying its products. JPMorgan downgraded the stock to Neutral from Overweight and has a $134 target price. This is a valuation call, as many positives are already baked into the stock after such a large rally.
Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) was maintained with an Outperform rating but its target was lowered to $51 from $54 (versus a $47.18 close) at Credit Suisse. Its consensus target price was $56.29.
E*Trade Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) was reiterated as Overweight and the target price was raised to $53 from $52 (versus a $44.34 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with a $100 target price (versus a $98.43 close) at Credit Suisse.
IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $290 from $245 (versus a $259.38 close) at Barclays.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was started as Equal Weight with a $300 target price (versus a $283.76 close) at Wells Fargo.
Masco Corp. (NYSE: MAS) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $54 from $48 (versus a $47.96 close) at Argus.