Analyst Upgrades: Apple Inc., Chesapeake Energy Corporation, and Ocular Therapeutix Inc

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on tech giant Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), natural gas company Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), and biotech stock Ocular Therapeutix Inc (NASDAQ:OCUL)

Josh Selway

Aug 11, 2016 at 10:18 AM

Analysts are weighing in on tech stock Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), oil-and-gas company Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), and biotech Ocular Therapeutix Inc (NASDAQ:OCUL). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on AAPL, CHK, and OCUL.

AAPL is up 0.4% at $108.45, following a price-target increase to $117 from $115 at RBC. The brokerage firm said it was raising its iPhone units outlook for the company's fiscal first quarter, explaining the extra week could boost sales an additional 5-6 million units. On the charts, Apple Inc. has been making progress in recent weeks, but still has its downtrending 320-day moving average sitting right overhead. What's more, AAPL's 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) has struck 70, meaning it's technically been overbought, and could be due for a breather.

CHK has picked up 2% at $4.89, after the company announced it would be selling its Barnett Shale assets to private firm Saddle Barnett Resources. What's more, Chesapeake Energy Corporation said it has renegotiated its pipeline agreement with Williams Partners LP (NYSE:WPZ). Together, the two moves could save the company roughly $1.9 billion. This has grabbed the attention of analysts, with Goldman Sachs, UBS, and KLR all raising their price targets, with the latter setting its mark at $9 -- territory not explored since last October. Meanwhile, short-term options traders might be cheering, too, since CHK's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.81 is just 1 percentage point from a 12-month low -- signaling a very unusual call-skew.

OCUL is rallying this morning, after JMP Securities initiated coverage with a "market outperform" rating and a bold $21 price target. Not only is this more than triple the stock's current perch at $6.44, but it reflects major confidence in a stock that's down 64% year-over-year. Today, the shares are up 10%, and short sellers are certainly on notice as a result. Specifically, 12.9% of Ocular Therapeutix Inc's float is sold short, which equals a week's worth of buying power, going by average daily volumes.

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