Analyst Upgrades: Apple Inc., Hologic, Inc., and Adobe Systems Incorporated

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX), and Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Josh Selway

Dec 11, 2015 at 9:09 AM

Analysts are weighing in on tech titan Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), medical technology firm Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX), and software giant Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on AAPL, HOLX, and ADBE.

AAPL is trading 0.9% lower in pre-market action, despite a fresh "outperform" rating at BMO. Most analysts are already bullish on the shares, which have added 5.2% in 2015 to trade at $116.17, finding a home atop their 50-day moving average. However, skepticism toward Apple Inc. has been building on another front. During the past reporting period, short interest surged by almost 53%.

HOLX has picked up 0.9% ahead of the open, ready to add to its 41.2% year-to-date lead, thanks to an upgrade to "buy" from "hold" at Stifel. This development should please option traders. Over the past 10 sessions at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), 6.32 Hologic, Inc. calls have been bought to open for every put. As of Thursday's close, HOLX was trading at $37.77.

ADBE blew past analysts' expectations in the earnings booth last night, thanks to an impressive increase in users for its cloud services. The stock has added almost 6% -- nearly the move option traders expected -- ahead of the open, and is set to hit an all-time high this morning. Outperformance is nothing new for Adobe Systems Incorporated. The shares touched a record peak of $92.88 earlier this week, and were last seen at $88.96 -- 17% higher in the past 12 months. Still, more gains could be forthcoming, should put players hit the exits following this strong quarterly showing. ADBE's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) stands at 1.27, which is only 5 percentage points from an annual high, indicating short-term speculators are much more put-skew than normal. Meanwhile, no fewer than 11 analysts upped their price targets on the stock, with RBC setting the highest bar, at $112.

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