Analyst Downgrades: Perrigo, QUALCOMM, and Verizon

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings and price targets on biotech Perrigo Company plc Ordinary Shares (PRGO), as well as chipmaker QUALCOMM, Inc. (QCOM) and communication stock Verizon Communications Inc (VZ)

Jan 23, 2017 at 10:39 AM

Analysts are weighing in on biotech Perrigo Company plc Ordinary Shares (NYSE:PRGO), as well as chipmaker QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), and communication stock Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ). Here's a quick look at today's bearish brokerage notes on PRGO, QCOM, and VZ.

PRGO is 2.3% lower at $73.37, after a price-target cut to $70 -- six-year low territory -- from $84 by Jefferies. PRGO has been on a steady decline since August 2015, shedding more than 50% year-over-year to touch a five-year low of $72.88 today. With 12 of 15 analysts rating Perrigo Company plc Ordinary Shares a lukewarm "hold," and not one "sell" or worse rating, a round of downgrades could put even more pressure on the stock.

QCOM is trading 14.2% lower at $53.94, after Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the chipmaker on Friday, alleging that QUALCOMM, Inc. had overcharged for its chips and failed to fulfill rebate promises. The lawsuit -- which QCOM called "baseless" -- comes not even a week after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took aim at the company. QCOM has since been hit with a downgrade to "neutral" from "buy" by Instinet, which also lowered its price target to $70 from $80. Likewise, CLSA downgraded QCOM to "underperform" from "hold," while Bernstein cut its price target to $65 from $80. Today's drop puts QCOM below its July bull gap levels, as well as its 200-day moving average. Ahead of QCOM's earnings report, due out on Wednesday, option bears have been hitting the stock harder than usual, with QCOM's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 0.98 sitting just 10 percentage points from an annual peak.
VZ is down 0.5% at $52.47, as its acquisition target Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) reportedly comes under fire from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether or not Yahoo should have notified investors of its security breach issues sooner. In addition to its continuing Yahoo! M&A drama, VZ received a downgrade to "market perform" from "outperform" from Wells Fargo. Due to report earnings tomorrow, VZ is still up 11.4% year-over-year, but has dropped the session after its last three earnings reports. On the option side, Verizon Communications Inc.'s Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.73 sits higher than 93% of all other readings from the past 12 months, indicating near-term option players are more put-skewed than usual.

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