Analyst Upgrades: Pfizer Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)

Josh Selway

Nov 29, 2016 at 10:02 AM

Analysts are weighing in on Dow stocks Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM), and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on PFE, JPM, and GS.

PFE is up 0.5% this morning at $31.71, following news the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for priority review the Biologics License Application for Avelumab by EMD Serono Inc., with whom Pfizer has partnered. Barclays is also boosting the stock with an upgrade to "overweight" and a price-target increase to $38 from $37. Pfizer Inc. has cooled on the charts in recent weeks -- which isn't entirely surprising -- and now sits just below its year-to-date breakeven level. Looking to the options arena, call buying has had an edge on an absolute basis, but puts have been more popular than normal relative to what's normally seen. For instance, PFE's 10-day put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 0.81 ranks above four-fifths of all comparable readings from the past year.
JPM saw its price target raised to $88 from $77 at KBW, representing all-time-high territory, and now the stock is 0.6% higher at $78.77. The shares have been consolidating atop the $78 level in recent weeks, as they look to add to their nearly 20% year-to-date advance. An extended round of bullish attention could help them do just that. Specifically, the majority of brokerage firms covering JPMorgan Chase & Co. still rate it a "hold" or "strong sell," despite its strong showing on the charts this year.
KBW also weighed in bullishly on GS, raising its outlook to "outperform," and upping its price target to $240 from $185. Like its banking peer JPM, Goldman Sachs Group Inc has been fantastic on the charts this year, outperforming the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by 28 percentage points during the past two months alone, and was last seen trading up 0.6% at $210.87 -- just shy of last week's annual high of $213.41. Regardless, short-term options traders are more put-skewed than normal, according to GS' Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 1.25, which sits only 7 percentage points from an annual high.

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