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Analysts upwardly revised their ratings on GPRO, MU, and CRM
Analysts are weighing in today on mobile camera maker GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), semiconductor issue Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), and cloud computing expert Salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on GPRO, MU, and CRM.
- Wedbush started coverage on GPRO with an "outperform" rating and $81 price target. This bullish brokerage note is relatively rare for the stock, which has received just two "strong buy" endorsements, compared to seven "holds" and one "strong sell" recommendation. On the charts, while GoPro Inc shares have more than doubled in value since going public in late June, they've shed 34% since hitting a record high of $98.47 earlier this month, and now rest at $64.91. On the fundamental front, GPRO will release third-quarter earnings this Thursday evening.
- Following the announcement of MU's $1 billion stock buyback initiative yesterday, the equity saw its price target raised to $42 from $41 at RBC, and to $36 from $34 at Morgan Stanley, which maintained their respective "outperform" and "equal weight" ratings. Technically speaking, Micron Technology, Inc. has been a beast, tacking on 48.5% year-to-date to trade at $32.30. Nevertheless, traders at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have been buying to open puts over calls at an accelerated rate lately. Specifically, MU's 50-day put/call volume ratio across those exchanges is 0.34, which ranks higher than 87% of comparable readings from the last year. While some of these positions may have been initiated by shareholders looking to hedge, an unwinding of the "vanilla" bears could result in tailwinds.
- Finally, CRM was added to Morgan Stanley's "Best Ideas" list. What's more, the brokerage firm upped its price target on the security to $80 from $79, and underscored its "overweight" rating. Elsewhere, shares of Salesforce.com, inc. have added 10.5% year-over-year to trade at $59.11, and over the past three months, have outperformed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 9.2 percentage points. Nevertheless, short-term option speculators have rarely been more put-skewed than they are now, per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.27, which sits just 2 percentage points from a 12-month peak.