Notable Upgrades: Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE), McDonald’s Corp. (MCD), Best Buy (BBY), Novartis (NVS), Radian Group (RDN)

Analysts at TD Securities are out with a report this morning upgrading shares of Cenovus Energy Inc. (CVE) with a ‘Buy‘ from ‘Hold‘ rating.

Cenovus Energy Inc. shares are currently priced at 22.67x this year’s forecasted earnings, which makes them rather expensive compared to the industry’s 12.65x earnings multiple. Ticker has a forward P/E of 148.00 and t-12 price-to-sales ratio of 0.84. EPS for the same period is $0.78.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of Calgary, Canada-based oil company have traded between a low of $16.11 and a high of $32.64 and are now at $17.77. Shares are down 32.38% year-over-year and 15.23% year-to-date.

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets upgraded their rating on the shares of McDonald’s Corp. (MCD). In a research note published on Wednesday, the firm lifted the name with an ‘Outperform‘ from ‘Sector Perform‘ rating and set a 12-month base case estimate of $115 from $93 per share.

On valuation measures, McDonald’s Corp. shares are currently priced at 20.74x this year’s forecasted earnings compared to the industry’s 15.10x earnings multiple. Ticker has a PEG and forward P/E ratio of 3.12 and 18.47, respectively. Price/Sales for the same period is 3.49 while EPS is 4.82. Currently there are 6 analysts that rate MCD a ‘Buy’, 20 rate it a ‘Hold’. No analyst rates it a ‘Sell’. MCD has a median Wall Street price target of $96.00 with a high target of $115.00.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) was raised to ‘Neutral‘ from ‘Underperform‘ and it was given a $37 from $24 price target at Wedbush on Wednesday.

The name is currently up $0.55 at $39.73 on strong volume. Midway through trading Wednesday, 4 million shares of Best Buy Co. Inc. have exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 6.12 million shares. The stock has been ranging intraday between $39.06-$39.79 after having opened the day at $39.50 as compared to the previous trading day’s close of $39.18.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of Richfield, Minnesota-based multi-channel retailer have traded between a low of $23.87 and a high of $40.03. Shares are up 53.41% year-over-year and 0.51% year-to-date.

Novartis AG (NVS) was upgraded to ‘Buy‘ from ‘Neutral‘ by Natixis Bleichroeder analysts on Wednesday.

The stock began trading this morning at $98.39 to currently trade 0.09% higher from the prior days close of $99.06. On an intraday basis it has gotten as low as $97.68 and as high as $99.18.

On valuation measures, Novartis AG shares are priced at 23.99x this year’s forecasted earnings, compared to the industry’s 4.71x earnings multiple. The company’s current year and next year EPS growth estimates stand at (0.40%) and 6.50% compared to the industry growth rates of 27.10% and 27.50%, respectively. NVS has a t-12 price/sales ratio of 4.43. EPS for the same period registers at $4.13.

NVS shares have advanced 4.58% in the last 4 weeks and 5.39% in the past three months. Over the past 5 trading sessions the stock has lost 0.77%.

The Basel, Switzerland-based company, which is currently valued at $237.62 billion, has a median Wall Street price target of $102.73 with a high target of $119.20. Novartis is up 25.31% year-over-year, compared with an 12.49% gain in the S&P 500.

MKM Partners initiated coverage on Radian Group Inc. (RDN) with a ‘Buy’ rating and $22 price target. The firm believes the private mortgage insurer is an attractive stock for someone looking to gain exposure to a financial firm with improving return potential.

Radian Group Inc., currently valued at $3.12 billion, has a median Wall Street price target of $19.00 with a high target of $24.00. Approximately 1.90 million shares have already changed hands, compared to the stock’s average daily volume of 2.79 million.

In the past 52 weeks, shares of the the mortgage insurer have traded between a low of $12.18 and a high of $17.50 with the 50-day MA and 200-day MA located at $16.18 and $15.77 levels, respectively. Additionally, shares of RDN trade at a P/E ratio of 0.74 and have a Relative Strength Index (RSI) and MACD indicator of 50.95 and +0.19, respectively.

RDN currently prints a one year return of about 5.32% and a year-to-date loss of around 3%.

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