Here’s What Analysts Had To Say About Sonic, Alphabet, Illumina, FireEye, and Shake Shack

The markets are quiet today as the Dow is up by just 23 points while both the NASDAQ and the S&P 500 are relatively flat. Among the stocks that are showing more volatility than the broader indexes are Sonic Corporation (NASDAQ:SONC), Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE), Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN), and Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK). Let’s find out what Wall Street analysts had to say about each equity and check how elite funds were positioned among them in the fourth quarter.

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Sonic Corporation (NASDAQ:SONC) is 2% in the red after Lynne Collier of Canaccord downgraded the equity to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’, citing challenging sector sales, more competition from convenience stores, and the potential for the consensus estimate to be too high. The analyst has a $24 price target, down from the previous $30. Of the 742 elite funds in our database, 19 were long Sonic Corporation (NASDAQ:SONC) at the end of December, down 3 funds from the previous quarter.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares are off slightly after Brian Wieser of Pivotal Research lowered his rating on the search giant to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’. The analyst also trimmed his price target to $950 from the previous $970, citing valuation reasons given the stock’s recent rally. In addition, the analyst notes that the sixth largest media network, Havas, pulled some spending from YouTube in the U.K. due to Google being unable to provide assurances that their videos would be classified quickly enough. The analyst fears more U.K. brands could share the same concerns. 126 top funds had a bullish position in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) at the end of December, down 8 funds from the previous quarter.

On the next page, we uncover what analysts had to say about FireEye Inc, Illumina Inc, and Shake Shack Inc.
FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) shares have popped 8% after Tal Liani of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch upgraded the equity to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ and set a $18 price target, up from the previous $13.5. Liani likes FireEye’s low valuation, its advanced technology, and its recent sales leadership changes. The analyst believes FireEye will grow meaningfully in the second half of this year. The number of elite funds with holdings in FireEye Inc (NASDAQ:FEYE) fell by 2 quarter-over-quarter to 27 at the end of December.

Leerink became the latest investment bank to give Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) the thumbs up, with analyst Puneet Souda upgrading the equity to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ and hiking his price target to $195 from $138. Souda is bullish on the name due to survey data that suggests that labs will upgraded NovaSeq earlier than expected. Shares of Illumina are up 2% so far. 27 top funds had a bullish position in Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) at the end of December, down one from the previous quarter.

Last but not least, Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK) is trending after Nick Setyan of Wedbush upgraded the burger maker to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Underperform’. The analyst also upped his price target to $33 from the previous $30, citing that much of the same-store-sales growth headwinds is priced in. 13 elite funds were long Shake Shack Inc (NYSE:SHAK) as of the most recent 13-F reporting period, up 2 funds from the previous quarter.

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