Friday Afternoon Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Barrick Gold, Newmont, Salesforce and More

After what has been a whirlwind in equities this week, markets seem to be settling down to close out the week. China’s Evergrande originally spurred the movement, but as the week is coming to a close China is in the forefront again as it is coming down hard on cryptocurrencies. Essentially, China is barring domestic and international transactions via cryptocurrency in an effort to crack down on illegal transactions.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing some big analyst calls seen on Friday. We have included the latest analyst call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts. Note that analyst calls seen earlier in the day were on Centerpoint Energy, Cloudflare, Dynavax, Roku, Salesforce, Spotify and more.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD): KeyBanc Capital Markets started coverage with a Sector Weight rating. Shares were trading near $18 on Friday, and the consensus price target is $28.39.

Canadian National Railway Co. (NYSE: CNI): Evercore ISI lowered its In-Line rating to Outperform. Shares were last seen trading around $116. They have a consensus price target of $122.98.

Community Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: CYH): UBS started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $12.50 price target. The stock was trading at around $11 a share, and it has a consensus price target of $14.40.

Editas Medicine Inc. (NASDAQ: EDIT): Stifel started coverage with a Hold rating and a $65 price target. The shares have a 52-week range of $27.01 to $99.95, while the consensus price target is $53.92.

Intellia Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: NTLA): Stifel started it with a Buy rating and a $173 price target. The consensus price target is $176.00, and the share price is near $151.

Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM): KeyBanc Capital Markets initiated coverage with a Sector Weight rating. Shares were last seen trading near $54 apiece. The consensus price target is $73.69.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM): BMO Capital Markets has an Outperform rating and raised its target price from $310 to $335. Barclays has set a $330 price target. Shares were trading around $283, and the analysts’ consensus target is $302.11.

Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS): UBS started coverage with a Sell rating and a $136 price target. The consensus price target is $169.40, and the share price is roughly $145.

The six S&P 500 stocks that pay the highest dividends, four of which are in the red-hot energy sector, all look like great total return ideas for income-oriented investors looking for some upside appreciation as well.

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