The Dow Jones Industrial Average is 214 points (1.30%) in green so far in today’s trading session, after losing 469.68 points on Tuesday. Given that the market seems to be set for a rebound, it might be worthwhile to take a look at the recent stock upgrades. In the following article, we will be discussing the analyst updates on the following three stocks: Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), General Mills Inc. (NYSE:GIS), and AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T).
There is a multitude of resources that can help you get up-to-date news that might impact companies whose shares you own. At the same time, analyst updates on these stocks might give you an idea of their financial health and we can assist you in becoming a more informed investor. At Insider Monkey, we also track hedge funds’ moves in order to identify actionable patterns and profit from them. Through our research, we discovered that a portfolio of the 15 most popular small-cap picks of hedge funds beat the S&P 500 Total Return Index by nearly a percentage point per month on average between 1999 and 2012. On the other hand the most popular large-cap picks of hedge funds underperformed the same index by seven basis points per month during the same period. This is likely a surprise to many investors, who think of small-caps as risky, unpredictable stocks and put more faith (and money) in large-cap companies. In forward tests since August 2012 these top small-cap stocks beat the market by an impressive 60 percentage points, returning over 118% (read more details here). Follow the smart money into only their best investment ideas all while avoiding their high fees.
Let’s start by taking a look at Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS), which saw its stock upgraded by Piper Jaffray, which kept its price target unchanged at $85 per share, but upgraded its rating to “Overweight” from “Neutral”, partly owning to the recent pullback and the potential benefits from the introduction of its new Star Wars-themed toys. Piper Jaffray also anticipates that the company’s earnings per share (EPS) will reach $0.20 for the full year. The stock of Hasbro gained 2.33% so far today and is up by 35% year-to-date. Additionally, there were 20 hedge funds within our database that owned stakes in Hasbro worth $228.68 million in aggregate at the end of the second quarter. David Harding’s Winton Capital Management holds 555,807 shares in Hasbro Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) as of the end of June.
Moving on General Mills Inc. (NYSE:GIS), which was upgraded by Morgan Stanley to “Equal weight” from “Underweight” with a target price of $56 (up from $53). The stock is currently trading slightly above the new target, after gaining 1.80% in today’s trading session. The investment bank reckons that the manufacturer of branded consumer foods will be able to deliver strong earnings per share during the 2016 fiscal year, thanks to company’s aggressive cost reduction efforts. Even more to that, General Mills has started the implementation of three restructuring programs, which are expected to generate $400 million in annual cost savings. The stock has been relatively stable throughout 2015, returning slightly over 5% year-to-date. Ultimately, 27 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had positions in General Mills at the end of the last quarter, while the value of these holdings added up to $404.77 million. Among them, Malcolm Fairbairn‘s Ascend Capital initiated a stake with 201,729 shares during the second quarter.
Last but not least, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) was upgraded by Citigroup to “Buy” from “Hold” and with a price target of $37 per share. The shares of AT&T have been affected by the recent correction and turmoil, which made the stock more attractive for investors. Citigroup believes that the company’s dividends are likely to benefit from its improving free cash flow and from potential merger-related synergies. AT&T recently combined with DirectTV, which created the largest pay-TV operator in the United States with approximately 28 million subscribers. Additionally, Citigroup claimed that the company’s earnings per share estimates are somewhat low and will be easily outperformed. The investment firm expects AT&T to deliver EPS of $2.88 in 2016, higher by 5% than the current consensus. In the meantime, the number of hedge funds within our database with long positions in AT&T increased to 49 from 43 during the second quarter, whereas the value of their holdings slumped to $1.60 billion from $1.88 billion. Phill Gross and Robert Atchinson’s Adage Capital Management is the largest shareholder of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) within our database, owning 7.44 million shares as of the end of June.
Disclosure: None
