Analyst Update: Cara, F5 Networks, Freeport-McMoRan

Analysts are weighing in today on biotech Cara Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:CARA), tech firm F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV), and mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc (NYSE:FCX). Here's a quick roundup of today's brokerage notes on CARA, FFIV, and FCX.

• Shares of CARA are blowing up, after the company released encouraging results from a Phase 2 trial of its uremic pruritus treatment. Stoking the bullish flames is a pair of price-target hikes to $27 at Needham and Janney. At last check, Cara Therapeutics Inc was up 35.7% at $21.50 -- just off an earlier annual high of $21.66. This price action stands in stark contrast to what's being witnessed on the charts of this sector peer, which is fresh off an annual low. Longer term, CARA has more than doubled in value in 2015. One group that's not being caught off-guard by the upward gap is the brokerage bunch, as 100% of analysts have doled out "strong buy" recommendations on the stock.


• FFIV has soared 9.3% to trade at $129.50, resting just below its year-to-date breakeven mark. The positive price action is the result of an earnings beat and subsequent round of price-target hikes -- with no fewer than a dozen brokerages boosting their targets. In options land, bettors are tilted in a decisively skeptical direction. Over the last two weeks, more than three F5 Networks, Inc. puts have been bought to open for each call across the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). The resultant put/call volume ratio of 3.41 sits just 9 percentage points from an annual bearish extreme.


• FCX is continuing its collapse at midday, down 8.2% at $13.82, and fresh off a six-year low of $13.30. Sparking today's sell-off is a quarterly net loss of more than $1.8 billion, due to sinking commodity prices -- though the firm's adjusted per-share profit of 14 cents topped estimates. But that's not all -- Jefferies also hit Freeport-McMoRan Inc with a $9 price-target cut to $19. Additional bearish notes could be forthcoming, as well. After all, two-thirds of analysts currently rate FCX a "buy" or better, and its consensus 12-month price target of $24.81 stands at a nearly 80% premium to current trading levels.

For other stocks in analysts' crosshairs, read Analyst Upgrades: SanDisk Corporation, Cirrus Logic, Inc., and Fortinet Inc and Analyst Downgrades: Qualcomm, Texas Instruments Incorporated, and Keryx Biopharmaceuticals.