May 29, 2016

7 Major Analyst Upgrades Too Big to Ignore


The stock market had a solid week, and the notion of “sell in May and go away” seems to have not prevailed so far in 2016. Investors keep proving that they will buy the dips, even after the crazy selling in the first six weeks of 2016. The Dow was up 400 points from its lows of the week at one point on Friday, and the index is now positive for the year.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week. This ends up being hundreds of calls each week. Our goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other reports feature stocks to sell or to avoid.

Of those reports with Buy ratings, many of these analyst calls end up having upside targets or having opinions that are just too big to ignore. The typical Dow or S&P 500 Index upgrade or new Buy rating typically comes with upside projections of 10% to 15%, so you have to consider that when an analyst is telling you to look for upside considerably higher. Some of these analyst calls stood out because they were just different from the consensus views.

Before chasing any analyst call, investors must understand that this should be only a starting point rather than an end decision. After all, analysts often have no more information than the rest of us. They also can end up being seriously wrong in their assumptions. Other times predictions fail just because things change or they just don’t work out.

These were seven top analyst upgrades, which mostly came from blue-chip companies or industry leaders, for the week ending May 27.


Source: 24/7 Wall St.