Analyst Upgrades: Apple, Amazon.com, Facebook

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings on Apple Inc. (AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), and Facebook Inc (FB)

Josh Selway

Apr 14, 2015 at 9:24 AM

Analysts are weighing in today on iPhone maker Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), online marketplace Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), and social media juggernaut Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on AAPL, AMZN, and FB.

AAPL has added 0.2% in pre-market trading, after yesterday announcing a joint initiative with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM). The two will be focusing on creating artificial intelligence to interpret health data gathered from personal devices. AAPL is also seeing a slight lift from a price-target hike at Susquehanna, to $150 from $145. In Apple Inc.'s options pits, speculators have grown more bearish than what's typically seen. AAPL's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.53 is higher than 77% of all similar readings from the past year. Simply put, put buying has been more popular than usual over the past 10 sessions. This, despite the equity's nearly 15% year-to-date gain to close Monday at $126.85 yesterday.

AMZN is up 0.8% in electronic trading, following news the company struck a deal with book publisher HarperCollins. Analysts approve of the agreement, with Credit Suisse and Jefferies raising their price targets to $412 and $465, respectively. Many of their peers on the Street are maintaining a wait-and-see approach, as fourteen brokerage firms consider Amazon.com, Inc. a "hold." However, more analysts may soon join the bulls' corner, since the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by almost 27 percentage points during the last three months, settling yesterday at $382.36 -- just a stone's throw from AMZN's annual high of $389.37, touched in late February.

Credit Suisse also weighed in on FB, raising its price target by $2 to $106, representing roughly 28% upside to the stock's close at $83.01 yesterday, and territory never before explored. Regardless, it wouldn't be a shock to see the shares make this jump, considering they've added 41% over the past 52 weeks. Facebook Inc options traders have been understandably bullish recently. At the ISE, CBOE, and PHLX, the security's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.62 outranks 93% of readings from the past year. Ahead of the open, FB is up 0.3%.

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