Once again, Nike stock has received bearish attention from analysts
Analysts are weighing in on athletic apparel manufacturer Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE), steel stock Nucor Corporation (NYSE:NUE), and food ordering platform GrubHub Inc (NYSE:GRUB). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on shares of NKE, NUE, and GRUB.
Nike Stock Hit With Another Negative Analyst Note
The bad news keeps pouring in for Nike stock, with Susquehanna last night lowering its price target to $61 from $65. At the same time, this stands well above NKE's Friday close at $52.85. The shares have been hitting a series of lower highs in 2017, as the bearish analyst notes have been rolling in. Exactly half of the brokerage firms covering Nike have "strong buy" ratings on the stock, so there's potential for this downgrade cycle to continue -- especially with the firm on track to report earnings after Thursday's close.
Nucor Stock Tries to Brush Off Price-Target Cut
Nucor shares are up 1.7% in pre-market trading, despite a price-target cut to $66 from $72 at KeyBanc. The steel stock has been trending higher since bottoming near $54 on June 16, and at $57.50, is closing in on positive year-to-date territory. Data from the options arena suggests traders are betting aggressively on continued upside for NUE stock. For instance, Nucor has a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 4.32 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which is just 1 percentage point from a 52-week high. In other words, call buying has been abnormally popular compared to put buying.
GRUB Stock Looks to Hold Support After Downgrade
GrubHub stock is set to drop 3.8%, following a downgrade to "equal weight" from "overweight" at Morgan Stanley, which also lowered its price target to $43 from $47, citing increased competition from names like Amazon. However, shareholders will likely forgive this price action, given GRUB's strong showing in 2017. As of Friday's close of $47.70, the shares are up almost 27% year-to-date. Plus, even if these losses hold, GrubHub would still be above the $42 area, which has contained pullbacks since a late-April bull gap, and is also home to the rising 50-day moving average.