Analyst Upgrades: Amazon.com, Cliffs Natural, and JinkoSolar

Analysts are weighing in on e-tailer Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), mining stock Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF), and solar stock JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (NYSE:JKS). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on AMZN, CLF, and JKS.

• AMZN is down 1.4% at $717.24, as broad-market headwinds overshadow an "outperform" initiation at William Blair, adding yet another endorsement to the stock's arsenal. Prior to today, 26 of 31 analysts considered AMZN worthy of a "buy" or better rating, without a single "sell" in sight. Amazon.com, Inc. stock shot up by over 67% within the past year, and on Monday touched a record high of $731.50. Still -- and despite its historical dominance in June -- option bears have been eyeing AMZN of late, as the stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 1.01 is in the 70th percentile of its annual range.
 

• CLF is up 3.4% at $5.28, muscling its way to gains after a tumble at the open. CLF yesterday raised its sales volume prediction for the year, and announced it would re-open a facility in Minnesota ahead of schedule (subscription required). Macquarie upgraded the stock to "outperform" from "neutral" and hiked its price target to $7.50 from $4 -- territory not charted since early 2015. Cliffs Natural Resources Inc has more than doubled since the beginning of 2016, and is now testing the waters in the $5.50-$6 area, which stifled a late-April rally. Prior to today, CLF had outperformed the greater S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 93.2 percentage points over the last 60 sessions. Despite the mining stock's meteoric rise, 38.8% of its float is sold short -- keeping the door open for a short squeeze.  More upgrades could fuel additional upside, too, as CLF has only one "strong buy" rating, compared to seven "holds" or worse.


• JKS is down 3.5% at $20.55, shrugging off an upgrade to "overweight" by J.P. Morgan Securities. The stock has spent 2016 running into resistance at its 320-day moving average, and -- like many other solar stocks -- has lost over a quarter of its value so far this year. Investors are skeptical of JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., with 15.9% of the stock's float currently sold short -- an amount that would take 6.5 days of trading, at JKS' average daily volume, to cover.