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.


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