Lululemon stock slashed: The week's 5 biggest analyst calls

Lululemon's downgrade hit the wires last week, and as did a fresh buy call for Norfolk Southern. Here are all of this past week's most significant analyst rating changes, covered first on InvestingPro. Sign up for comprehensive, rapid-fire coverage of market-moving analyst moves.

Lululemon cut to Underperform

Respected research firm Bernstein downgraded a popular traded name, Lululemon (NASDAQ:LULU), to Underperform and added a $290 PT to the equity.

The firm sees expectations for LULU from investors being reset commenting, "expectations vs. reality gap has been our biggest concern this past year. Now, with no more pent-up demand, a more cautious consumer outlook, and negative margin mix shifts, earnings growth will decelerate materially and we expect the multiple to follow."

Shares of LULU slid 1.5% Tuesday on the downgrade and traded lower throughout the rest of week, closing the week off fractionally at $310.85.

Alaska Airlines holds firm against downgrade

As the market got hotter and hotter all week, Wolfe Research came out with a negative note Friday on Alaska Airlines (NYSE:ALK), downgrading the stock to Peer Perform and cutting the entire U.S. airline sector to Market Underweight.

Citing a key airline metric, total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM), the boutique research outlet commented, "... ALK is seeing the biggest deceleration in TRASM among the airlines in 1Q and thus is counting on the biggest re-acceleration in TRASM the rest of the year. ALK's competitive capacity trends are also accelerating in 1Q (on a y/y basis)."

The downgrade had minimal impact as the U.S. airlines were strong all week, and ALK was no exception: Friday saw only a marginal loss and shares finished the full week up 1.4%.

Norfolk Southern slips despite rating bump

Deutsche Bank on Thursday upgraded Norfolk Southern Corp (NYSE:NSC) to Buy with $266 price target due continuation of a prior thesis that was/is "intrigued with the company’s new operating plan, which combined with a clear sense of urgency from new CEO Alan Shaw had potential to show tangible improvement in the coming months."

The global investment bank noted average train speeds for NSC are up 16% and the railroad company is adding train and engine employees along with efforts to attract new operating talent.

Oddly enough, NSC tumbled on the upgrade amid the impending large-scale uncertainty stemming from the central banks as they decide on whether to keep the rate-hike velocity stable or ease off the pedal a bit. NSC shares, which had begun to fall Tuesday, took another sharp drop Thursday and ended the week at $238.81 - down 6.1% from Monday's open near $255.

Upgrades for Philip Morris and PTC

Bulge bracket bank Goldman Sachs came out last week in support of Philip Morris (NYSE:PM) with an upgrade to Buy and a $120 price target.

The bank is expecting the tobacco manufacturer to capture investors from three things: "(1) a broader & more aggressive global rollout of ILUMA; (2) an accelerated RRP innovation pipeline as PM combines technologies from its acquisitions of both Swedish Match and Fertin with its own R&D capabilities to create next generation reduced risk products that push PM into new markets, increase usage occasions and accelerate conversion from combustible cigs; and (3) further price segmentation of iQOS, which is key to penetrating lower-income markets globally and increasing new user acquisitions."

Shares of PM popped on the Wednesday upgrade, closing the session up 2.1% at 103.42 before ending the week at $103.76.

And Keybanc on Monday upgraded PTC (NASDAQ:PTC) to overweight with a $155, commenting, "...we are upgrading PTC to Overweight on our view that the Company could be one of the best FCF growth stories over the next three years."

The analyst sees PTC carrying a free cash flow valuation of 29x, compared to 32x for the group.

Shares rose strong in the session and finished the week up 1.8% from Monday's open.

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