Analyst Upgrades: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Amgen, Inc., and Microsoft Corporation

Analysts upwardly revised their ratings and price targets on auto stock Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCAU), biotech Amgen, Inc. (AMGN), and tech giant Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Jan 6, 2017 at 10:53 AM

Analysts are weighing in on auto stock Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (NYSE:FCAU), biotech Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), and tech giant Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Here's a quick roundup of today's bullish brokerage notes on FCAU, AMGN, and MSFT.

FCAU is up 7% at $10.50 -- a new annual high -- after a round of bullish analyst attention. Goldman Sachs added FCAU to its "Conviction Buy" list, and hiked its price target to $17.50 from $10.60, while Evercore ISI upgraded the shares to "buy" from "sell," and raised its price target to €10 from €6. FCAU shares are now up 71% since their October lows, with several minor pullback attempts contained by FCAU's 10- and 20-day moving averages. Near-term option players are decidedly call-skewed, with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.31 sitting just 4 percentage points from an annual low.
AMGN is up 3.2% at $157.82, after a U.S. judge issued a ruling banning sales of Praluent, a cholesterol drug sold by rivals Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN), citing patent infringement. Following the ruling, Baird raised its price target on AMGN to $165 from $157. Today's move puts AMGN shares back above their late October bear gap, as well as their 200-day moving average. Option bears may be kicking rocks today, with Amgen, Inc.'s put/call volume ratio at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) showing 1.43 puts bought to open for every call during the last two weeks, a reading that sits higher than 89% of all others from the past 12 months.
MSFT is trading 0.3% higher at $62.50, after Nissan announced it would integrate Microsoft Corporation's Cortana technology into some of its vehicles. In addition, Barclays issued a price-target hike to $70 from $65 for the stock. MSFT has tacked on more than 30% since late June, touching a record high of $64.10 in December. In MSFT's option pits, near-term players have been unusually put-skewed, with MSFT's SOIR of 1.11 sitting higher than 98% of all other readings from the past year. An unwinding of these positions could push MSFT even higher.

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