Analyst Downgrades: eBay Inc, QUALCOMM, Inc., and ServiceNow Inc

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings and price targets on eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), and ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW)

Karee Venema

Jan 28, 2016 at 10:15 AM

Analysts are weighing in on e-commerce concern eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), tech firm QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM), and cloud issue ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on EBAY, QCOM, and NOW.

Unlike its spinoff Paypal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL), EBAY is tumbling in the wake of its quarterly earnings report and lackluster forecast. Specifically, the stock is down 11.7% at $23.33 -- and could be at risk of closing south of its 80-week moving average for the first time since last January. Adding to the downbeat day is no fewer than 18 price-target cuts, including one from Wedbush to $24 from $27. Today's post-earnings plunge meets the expectations of options traders, who were loading up on long puts in recent weeks. In fact, eBay Inc's 10-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.93 ranks higher than 80% of all comparable readings taken in the past year.

Analysts were quick to chime in on QCOM, after the company offered up a dreary current-quarter outlook. William Blair, for instance, downgraded the stock to "market perform," while Topeka Capital and Bernstein each lowered their respective price targets to $50. Against this backdrop, shares of QUALCOMM, Inc. are down 6.6% at $44.40 -- and earlier hit a five-year low of $44.36 -- widening their year-to-date deficit to 11.2%. Despite these technical struggles, optimism is high toward QCOM. Among covering analysts, 15 maintain a "buy" or better rating, versus 11 "holds" or worse. Additionally, the average 12-month price target of $60.13 stands at a 35.4% premium to current trading levels.

NOW is getting walloped today -- down 21.7% at $59, and fresh off a new annual low of $57.67 -- after the company gave uninspiring full-year guidance. What's more, Mizuho reduced its rating on the stock to "neutral" from "buy," and joined no fewer than 11 other brokerage firms in lowering its price target. This is just more of the same for a stock that's off more than 35% from its early December all-time high of $91.28. Meanwhile, in the options pits, short-term speculators are more put-skewed now than they've been at any other point over the last year, per ServiceNow Inc's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 3.97 -- an annual high.

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