Buy tech stocks, appears to be the view from the Street on Monday as a number of brokers upgraded key names in the sector.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch now sees Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) as a ‘buy’, up from ‘neutral’.
Chinese ecommerce behemoth Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) was upgraded by TH Capital to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.
Maxim Group lifted its view of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’, and the broker’s target price increases to US$167 from US$144.
Computer accessories maker Netgear (NASDAQ:NTGR) was upgraded by Raymond James to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’.
Meanwhile, outdoors, there were as many as five broker downgrades for hunting, fishing and camping retail group Cabela’s (NYSE:CAB) which missed market expectations with last week’s third quarter earnings report.
Wells Fargo among the five brokers to cut the recommendation to a market or sector perform, from a more bullish position previously.
Internet radio group Pandora Media (NYSE:P) went one better (well, worse) as it was the subject of a total of six broker downgrades, similarly after disappointing third quarter results. RBC, Piper Jaffray and Oppenheimer were among those taking the axe to the stock.
Piper Jaffray took a hole out of its rating for Dunkin Brands (NYSE:DNKN) to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’.