Analyst Upgrades: Chipotle, Oracle, United Continental

Analysts are weighing in today on burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), enterprise software firm Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), and airline United Continental Holdings Inc (NYSE:UAL). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on CMG, ORCL, and UAL.

• CMG saw its price target lifted to $700 at Jefferies, which also reiterated its "hold" rating. The bullish brokerage note is well-deserved, considering the shares have rallied 26.6% year-over-year to trade at $667.69, and last week came within less than $2 of their record high of $697.93. Traders at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have also displayed optimism toward Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. of late. The stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio across this trio of exchanges is 1.10, which ranks in the 86th annual percentile.


• Piper Jaffray upgraded ORCL to "overweight" from "neutral," and raised its price target to $49 from $44, citing potential growth in the firm's cloud business due to higher spending among existing customers. This positive opinion comes less than two weeks after the stock hit a record high of $46.71 in the wake of an earnings beat -- although the shares have since pulled back to their 20-day moving average, and are currently sitting at $43.59. Options traders have taken notice of Oracle Corporation's strong price action, too. The security's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 6.17 rests just 2 percentage points from a 12-month high.


• Finally, Buckingham boosted its price target on UAL to $89 from $67, while underscoring its "buy" assessment. This isn't surprising, as the stock has rallied 68% year-over-year to trade at $66.15, and last Friday touched a record peak of $68.08. Indeed, the brokerage bunch is overwhelmingly optimistic toward United Continental Holdings Inc. Ten out of 12 covering analysts rate the shares a "buy" or better, and the security's consensus 12-month price target of $74.79 stands at a healthy 13.1% premium to current trading levels. Looking ahead, UAL is tentatively slated to step under the earnings spotlight later this month.