Analyst Upgrades: McDonald's Corporation, Bank of America Corp, and Micron Technology, Inc.

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on McDonald's Corporation (MCD), Bank of America Corp (BAC), and Micron Technology, Inc. (MU)

Dec 5, 2016 at 9:20 AM

Analysts are weighing in on Dow stock McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD), banking concern Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), and semiconductor name Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on MCD, BAC, and MU.

MCD is up 1.2% ahead of the opening bell, after Instinet upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral" and raised its price target to $139 from $126 -- all-time-high territory for the shares -- with the brokerage firm waxing optimistic over the company's "potential product pipeline heading into 2017," and projecting solid same-store-sales for November. On the charts, McDonald's Corporation's rally off its late-October lows around $110 was recently rejected near the $122 mark, and the stock closed Friday just a hair above its year-to-date breakeven level, at $118.24. Options traders appear to be increasingly betting on a breakout, however. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), MCD's 10-day call/put volume ratio has popped to 2.22 -- just 4 percentage points from a bullishly skewed 12-month high.
BAC saw its price target increased to $22 from $18 at Baird, helping the stock tack on 0.8% in electronic trading, after closing Friday at $21.23. The shares have enjoyed a strong post-election rally, along with the banking sector as a whole, and currently sit on a 26% year-to-date lead. In fact, shares of Bank of America Corp tapped an eight-year high of $21.94 last Thursday. Nevertheless, short interest surged 23% in the most recent two-week reporting period, suggesting expectations for a short-term breather are building. Elsewhere, BAC's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.87 sits higher than 97% of all readings from the past year, indicating near-term traders are more put-skewed than usual.
MU is set to add 1.6% at the open -- and possibly extend its 32.7% year-to-date lead, as of last week's finish at $18.79. Boosting the shares is a price-target hike to $25 from $23 at Brean Capital, territory not seen in roughly 18 months. The stock has been rallying hard off its May lows, though, hitting an annual peak of $20.44 in late November, after breaking through an area of previous congestion in the $17.50-$18 region. But options traders appear skeptical, and have been initiating Micron Technology, Inc.'s long puts over calls at a faster-than-average clip in recent weeks. The stock's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 0.49 ranks in the 83rd percentile of its annual range.

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