Analyst Upgrades: Lululemon, GlaxoSmithKline, Xerox

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings on Lululemon Athletica inc. (LULU), GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (GSK), and Xerox Corp (XRX)

Apr 8, 2015 at 9:09 AM

Analysts are weighing in today on yoga apparel maker Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline plc (ADR) (NYSE:GSK), and business technology company Xerox Corp (NYSE:XRX). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on LULU, GSK, and XRX.

Sterne Agee raised its opinion on LULU to "buy" from "neutral," sending the shares about 2.5% higher in electronic trading. The upgrade is unsurprising, given the shares of Lululemon Athletica inc. have added over 19% year-to-date to close yesterday at $66.41. Options traders have been bearish on the stock, though, as LULU's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 1.32 stands in the 96th percentile of its annual range. Likewise, more than 10% of LULU's float is dedicated to short interest, representing more than seven sessions' worth of pent-up buying demand, at the stock's average pace of trading.

The shares of GSK are up 1.5% ahead of the bell, after Deutsche Bank raised its price target on the equity to 1,600P from 1,300P while keeping its "hold" rating. On the charts, GlaxoSmithKline plc has been on the mend in 2015, with the shares up 14.6% from their Jan. 6 three-year low of $41.25 to close Tuesday at $47.26. Despite this positive price action, puts have grown increasingly popular in the options pits. Specifically, over the past 10 days at the ISE/CBOE/PHLX, 0.43 GSK puts have been bought to open for every call, which is a higher ratio than 72% of all similar readings from the past year. Mirroring this indicator is the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.05, which stands in the 94th percentile of its annual range. Simply stated, near-term speculators have rarely been this put-heavy over the past year.

Citigroup weighed in on XRX, upgrading its rating to "buy" from "neutral" and lifting its price target to $15 from $12.50. Looking back, Xerox Corp has been a technical outperformer, with the shares advancing roughly 12.8% year-over-year to finish yesterday's session at $12.96. What's more, the shares are 2.6% higher in pre-market trading today. Although XRX's technical performance over the past year has been impressive, options traders have stayed skeptical of the security. Drilling down, XRX's 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio of 0.47 stands in the 82nd percentile of all similar annual readings, and an unwinding of this pessimism could provide tailwinds for the shares.

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