Analyst Upgrades: Alphabet Inc, Barrick Gold Corporation, and Yahoo! Inc.

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL), Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX), and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)

Apr 11, 2016 at 9:28 AM

Analysts are weighing in on Internet powerhouse Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), precious metals miner Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX), and tech stock Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on GOOGL, ABX, and YHOO.

GOOGL saw its rating boosted to "buy" from "hold" at Pivotal Research, which also upped its price target to $970 from $800 -- representing record-high territory. Technically speaking, the stock has been unimpressive in 2016, down 2.4% year-to-date at $759.47 -- though it's tacked on 0.8% ahead of the bell. In recent weeks, Alphabet Inc has been consolidating just above the round $750 area. Meanwhile, brokerages are firmly in the stock's bullish corner, with 94% doling out "buy" or better recommendations, and not a single "sell" opinion to be found.

ABX has been a beast in 2016, more than doubling in value to trade at $15.18, and sitting not far from last month's annual high of $15.52. This positive momentum was met with a price-target hike to $16 from $12.50 at RBC, just the latest in a line of bullish brokerage notes for the outperforming stock. There's plenty of room for additional upgrades, too. Of the 14 analysts tracking Barrick Gold Corporation, 10 have handed out a "hold" or worse rating. Meanwhile, short-term options traders are extremely put-skewed toward the gold stock. ABX's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.35 sits just 2 percentage points from an annual high. In today's pre-market trading, the shares are perched 1.5% higher.

YHOO has been in the news lately as a number of companies vie for its assets, with the U.K.'s Daily Mail about to throw its hat into the ring. The collective buzz has helped the tech stock higher in 2016. At $36.07, Yahoo! Inc.'s year-to-date lead stands at a rock-solid 8.4%, and more upside could be just around the corner. Ahead of the open, the stock has advanced 1.2% after Pivotal Research dished out a price-target hike to $40 from $35 -- territory not charted since late June. Meanwhile, traders at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have bought to open 5.72 YHOO calls for every put during the past two weeks -- with the resultant ratio ranking just 7 percentage points from a 12-month high.

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