Q3 Earnings Season Starts With a Bang: Analysts Upgrade or Downgrade Apple, Opendoor, Petrobras and More

Markets exploded out of the gate on Monday morning, with the Nasdaq reaching gains of more than 3% and the S&P 500 and Dow Jones up 2.7% and 1.8%, respectively. If anything, investors appear to be very optimistic about this earning season, just based on trading thus far on Monday. However, this could be a bull trap.

Numbers from past week suggest that the third quarter is off to a weaker-than-expected start. So far, according to FactSet, of the 7% of companies within the S&P 500 that have reported third-quarter results already, only 69% have posted EPS above estimates. This falls short of the five-year average of 77%.

Be on the lookout for some more major bank earnings this week as well as a few other big names that will be posting, like Netflix and Tesla.

Here, 24/7 Wall St. is reviewing additional analyst calls seen on Monday. We have included the latest call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts. Note that analyst calls seen earlier in the day were on Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Nike, Tesla and more.

Albertsons Companies Inc. (NYSE: ACI): Guggenheim downgraded to a Neutral rating from Buy. The stock was last seen trading near $26, in a 52-week range of $24.34 to $37.99.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating and cut the price target to $177 from $180. Shares have traded as high as $182.94 in the past year but traded near $141 on Monday.

Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX): Morgan Stanley upgraded to an Equal Weight rating from Underweight with a $130 price target. Shares traded near $134 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $120.50 to $186.86.

Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE: NET): Wells Fargo upgraded to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight and raised the price target to $65 from $62. The 52-week trading range is $38.96 to $221.654, and the share price was near $51 on Monday.

Fox Corp. (NASDAQ: FOXA): Loop Capital downgraded to a Hold rating from Buy and cut the price target to $34 from $50. Credit Suisse downgraded to a Neutral rating from Outperform and cut the price target to $36 from $41. The shares traded near $29 on Monday. The 52-week range is $28.73 to $44.95.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR): Northcoast downgraded to a Neutral rating from Buy. The 52-week trading range is $38.22 to $62.78. Shares changed hands near $42 apiece on Monday.

Opendoor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN): Goldman Sachs downgraded to a Sell rating form Neutral and cut the price target to $2 from $7. Shares were last seen trading near $2.50. The 52-week range is $2.31 to $25.32.

Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR): Credit Suisse downgraded to a Neutral rating from Outperform and cut the price target to $16 from $20. Shares traded near $14 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $9.36 to $16.30.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN): Evercore ISI downgraded to an In-Line rating from Outperform with a $760 price target. The 52-week trading range is $538.01 to $761.05. Shares changed hands near $729 apiece on Monday.

There is potential for more market downside, so this may hardly seem like the time to get aggressive on technology. However, for investors looking to buy while there is “blood in the streets,” Goldman Sachs has six top software stocks it likes for a market recovery.

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