Analyst Update: Newmont Mining Corp, The Kroger Co, and T2 Biosystems Inc

Analysts are weighing in on gold stock Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM), grocery chain The Kroger Co (NYSE:KR), and diagnostics specialist T2 Biosystems Inc (NASDAQ:TTOO). Here's a quick roundup of today's brokerage notes on NEM, KR, and TTOO. 

• NEM is 3.4% higher at $45.65, and fresh off a new three-year high of $45.71, after Citigroup initiated coverage on the stock with a bullish "buy" rating and a $51 price target. (By contrast, Barclays assumed coverage with a tepid "equal weight" opinion.) This could be the start of some long overdue love from the analyst crowd, as two-thirds of the brokerage firms following Newmont Mining Corp rate it just a "hold." Options traders have taken a downbeat approach, as well. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), the equity's 50-day put/call volume ratio of 1.65 sits 3 percentage points from an annual high. This widespread lack of optimism is rather surprising, considering NEM has been on a steady uptrend since January, adding 154% so far in 2016.

• KR received a downgrade to "market perform" at BMO, which also lowered its price target on the stock to $35 from $45. This is a change of pace for The Kroger Co, which sports 11 "buy" or better ratings, versus just five "hold" or worse assessments. But the shares have shed 21% so far this year after hitting an all-time high at the end of December, and are off 3.3% this afternoon at $32.88. In fact, the stock has given back nearly 10% in the past week alone, losing a longer-term foothold at the $36 level. Meanwhile, near-term options traders have been unusually call-skewed toward KR, per its Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.39 -- lower than 92% of all readings taken in the past year.

• TTOO reported a wider-than-predicted second-quarter loss last night, earning the stock price-target cuts at Goldman Sachs and Canaccord Genuity, to $6 and $9, respectively. The shares have plummeted 14.4% to $6.03, bringing their year-over-year losses to a painful 58%. Today's sharp slide has T2 Biosystems Inc seated on the short-sale restricted list, but short interest on the stock was already sitting at record-high levels, with roughly 1.5 million shares sold short, or 6% of TTOO's total float. These bearish bets have been on the rise, too, climbing by 37% during the last two reporting periods. At the stock's typical daily pace of trading, it would take six sessions to cover all of its shorted shares.