Analyst Update: Kinder Morgan, Lululemon, and SunPower

Analysts are weighing in today on oil-and-gas name Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI), yoga apparel designer Lululemon Athletica inc. (NASDAQ:LULU), and solar issue SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR). Here's a quick roundup of today's brokerage notes on KMI, LULU, and SPWR.

• Fueled by oil's rebound, KMI is shrugging off a fourth-quarter loss and a round of negative analyst attention en route to huge gains. Specifically, the stock was last seen 15.3% higher at $13.85, despite price-target cuts to $20 at both SunTrust Robinson and Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, Kinder Morgan Inc slashed its 2016 capital budget and quarterly dividend in a shift toward self-funding. Longer term, the shares have been routed, losing two-thirds of their value year-over-year, tracking crude's sustained downtrend. As such, short-term option traders have rarely been more focused on puts over calls. This, per KMI's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.89, which rests 2 percentage points from an annual high.

• LULU has surged 3% at $57.62, boosted by a $10 price-target hike to $69 at Susquehanna. However, the stock's upward progress has stalled near its 160-week moving average, which lies just overhead at $58.31. While this trendline was supportive for much of 2015, it could now be switching roles to act as resistance. Short sellers certainly hope this is the case. Nearly one-quarter of Lululemon Athletica inc.'s float is sold short, which would take over two weeks to cover, at the stock's typical trading levels.

• Janney upgraded its opinion on SPWR to "buy" from "neutral," writing in a note, "Our view is that oil prices will eventually have no influence on solar share prices, perhaps as the solar industry increases its total percentage of the global electric generation mix and becomes more 'mainstream' among utility investors." The bullish attention has lifted the shares 3.9% to $22.81 -- though they've still surrendered almost one-quarter of their value in 2016. SunPower Corporation's technical troubles haven't seemed to shake the confidence of analysts, Goldman Sachs excepted. Of the 13 brokerages tracking the stock, 10 have doled out a "buy" or better endorsement, versus three "holds" and not a single "sell."