Analyst Update: Chipotle, LinkedIn, Amazon.com

Analysts adjusted their ratings and price targets on Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Josh Selway

Mar 29, 2016 at 3:03 PM

Analysts are weighing in on restaurant stock Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG), professional networking site LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), and e-commerce concern Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN). Here's a quick roundup of today's brokerage notes on CMG, LNKD, and AMZN.

CMG is down 4% at $456.40, after Wedbush downgraded the stock to "underperform" from "neutral," and reduced its price target to $400 from $450 -- just above the stock's two-year low of $399.14 from Jan. 12. The firm added, "We believe a sales recovery by 2018 is the best-case scenario, not the basecase scenario." Analysts have been trimming their outlook on the stock recently, and, over the past 20 sessions, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. has trailed the broader S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 11.5 percentage points. As such, more puts have been bought to open over calls at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) over the past two weeks, according to CMG's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.08.

Barclays reduced its opinion on LNKD to "equal weight" from "overweight," while cutting its price target to $130 from $205, citing a slow and volatile outlook for the shares. The stock is up 0.8% at $109.95, paring its year-to-date loss to 51.2%. LinkedIn Corp could potentially face additional headwinds if more analysts throw in the towel. That's because over half of the brokerages covering the shares say they're at least a "buy," and none recommend selling them.

AMZN is up 2.3% at $592.98 following a price-target hike to $775 from $750 at Stifel. This mirrors the general opinion on Wall Street, as 84% of analysts rate the stock at least a "buy." Speculators have also been bullish, with Amazon.com, Inc.'s 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 1.18 outstripping nearly two-thirds of all other readings from the past year. The shares are now almost 8% higher in March, and but are running out of steam near their 80-day moving average -- a trendline not toppled on a daily closing basis since Jan. 28.

For other stocks in analysts' crosshairs, read Analyst Upgrades: Alder Biopharmaceuticals Inc, Ambarella Inc, and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc and Analyst Downgrades: eBay Inc, Puma Biotechnology Inc, and Micron Technology, Inc.

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