Analysts at Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Unilever (NYSE: UN) from Hold to Sell in a research note to investors today. For comparison, a number of other analysts have commented on the company recently, and the company currently has a consensus one-year price target of $48.00, higher than the opening price of $46.33, a difference of 1.67 percent.
Share prices sometimes get a bounce to the upside when analysts reiterate coverage.
Downgrades occur when analysts feel that the future prospects for the security have weakened from the original recommendation, usually due to a material and fundamental change in the company’s operations, future outlook or industry.
Meanwhile, all three major indices posted gains on Monday, shaking off ambiguous statements made by Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Friday concerning monetary policy, namely, interest rate hikes for the remainder of 2016.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.58% gained 107.59 points, or 0.6%, to close at 18,502.99.
The S&P 500 index SPX, +0.52% rose 11.34 points, or 0.5%, to settle at 2,180.38.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.26% added 13.41 points, or 0.3%, to close at 5,232.33.
However not all traders are at peace with Yellen’s comments.
U.S. stocks have looked for direction thus far today, with investors playing a waiting game in the run-up to the key jobs report later this week, as they weigh the prospects for an interest rate rise.
Shares of Unilever (NYSE: UN) opened at $46.33 and traded in a range between, $46.12 and $46.41 yesterday, and last traded at $46.15, which represents a change of $ -0.16 over the previous closing price.
Unilever (NYSE: UN) currently has a market cap of 131.01B
By tracking the activity of these professional investors—and the moving averages they affect—it allows for traders to make more effective decisions on trades.
With that in mind Unilever (NYSE: UN) now has a 50-day MA is $46.09 and 200-day MA is $44.95, and it has traded in a 52-week range between $37.92 – 47.30 and yesterday’s last price was -2.43 percent off the 52 week high of $47.30.
The stocks average daily volume is 2,051,320 shares out of a total float 2,837,125,000 of and some 369,854 shares traded hands yesterday, 116 percent lower than normal. Look for trading volume to pick up in the coming days as swing traders often use swings in trading volume to identify heavy volume accumulation or distribution by institutional investors.
However, a single day of heavy buy side trading is not enough to assert a trend. As such, market traders will continue to watch for institutional sponsorship as a signal that financial institutions are moving forward.
Institutional sponsorship simply refers to ownership of a stock by mutual funds, banks, pension funds and other large institutions.
Professional investors such as these retain substantial teams of analysts that research thousands of stocks. Thus, watching their interests is a good way to ensure you are buying the right stocks.
Indeed, earnings growth is among the most important things to look in regards to stock investing and, accordingly, investors seek companies who have been successful at growing their earnings by at least 25 percent over a 3 year period.
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