Analyst Update: GoPro, Twitter, and UnitedHealth

Analysts are weighing in today on wearable camera maker GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO), microblogging platform Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), and blue chip UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH). Here's a quick look at today's brokerage notes on GPRO, TWTR, and UNH.

• FBN Securities reiterated its "outperform" rating and $75 price target on GPRO, with the analysts saying in a statement that they "strongly recommend purchase as the company continues to grow at robust growth rates … while its shares have meaningfully pulled back." Today, the shares are up 1.2% to hit $42.33, trimming their year-to-date loss to 33%. Short sellers have taken notice of this negative price action, as short interest has increased by 18.8% over the past two reporting periods, and now accounts for 37.6% of GoPro Inc's available float. Meanwhile, the brokerage bunch is mostly bearish on the equity, as eight out of 13 covering analysts rate the stock a "hold" or worse, with the remaining five doling out "strong buy" opinions.


• On the other hand, Pivotal Research cut its rating on TWTR to "hold" from "buy," sending the shares down 2.1% to hit $50.40. Looking back, Twitter Inc has been on fire in 2015, up roughly 40.6%. However, puts have been popular in the options pits, as TWTR's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.81 sits in the 80th percentile of its annual range. Simply stated, short-term traders have rarely been this put-skewed over the past year. Additionally, the security's consensus 12-month price target of $53.43 is a chip-shot away from current levels, leaving plenty of room for potential price-target hikes to boost the equity higher.


• UNH received a round of analyst attention this morning, as Mizuho Securities initiated coverage on the equity with a "buy" rating and a $140 price target, while UBS reaffirmed its "buy" opinion and hiked its price target by $4 to $135. On the charts, United Health Group Inc. -- which notched a fresh-all time high of $121.53 on March 20 -- has been a technical juggernaut, with the shares up 17.2% year-to-date to hit $118.47, including a 0.3% gain today. Sentiment in the options pits is more put-skewed than usual, though, as UNH's SOIR of 1.07 ranks in the 68th percentile of all equivalent readings taken over the past year. Furthermore, the stock's consensus 12-month price target of $126.35 stands at only a 6.2% premium to current trading levels, paving the way for a round of price-target hikes to provide tailwinds.