Analyst Downgrades: Twitter Inc, Verizon Communications Inc., and Apple Inc.

Analysts downwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Josh Selway

Apr 7, 2016 at 9:54 AM

Analysts are weighing in on social media stock Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), telecommunications firm Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), and iPhone creator Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on TWTR, VZ, and AAPL.

TWTR is trading higher this morning, even after a Pacific Crest analyst spoke unfavorably about the company's new partnership with the NFL. The firm said it's "very unlikely" the deal will be profitable, and was skeptical about the impact it would have on user growth. Twitter Inc was last seen up 0.9% at $17.42, but is down 67% from a year ago. Still, short-term speculators have taken a call-skewed approach, according to TWTR's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR). At 0.50, this ratio ranks lower than 94% of all readings in the past year.

After taking a 24.5% stake in AwesomenessTV on Wednesday, VZ has fallen 2.1% to trade at $52.40. Weighing on the shares are bearish notes from Bernstein and Jefferies, which both cut their outlooks to the equivalent of "hold." This comes despite the fact the stock has topped the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by over 10 percentage points in the past three months. While most analysts are still bullish on Verizon Communications Inc., though, near-term option traders are at a put-skewed extreme. The stock's SOIR of 1.71 is in the top percentile of its annual range.

AAPL just received its third price-target revision this week -- though this one was bearish. BTIG lowered its price target on the stock to $130 from $141, mentioning a shift away from iPhones that could weigh on Apple Inc.'s margins. The shares were down 1.2% at $109.63 at last check -- a change from the strong price action we've seen in recent weeks. Some traders would like to see AAPL extend today's decline, though -- short interest on the stock jumped by 11% in the latest two-week reporting period.

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