These 5 Stocks Are Facing Trump’s Firing Line

This is not an easy week for the President. Trump has faced widespread backlash for his reluctance to condemn the rioting of alt-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend. As business leaders left Trump’s Manufacturing Council in protest, the President decided to end the council altogether. On August 16, he sent this tweet:

But Trump is unlikely to forget the business leaders that left the council before he shut it down. And stocks that face the wrath of Trump may see share prices crashing. On August 16, for example, Donald Trump briefly wiped around $5.7bn off the valuation of e-commerce giant Amazon. Shares in AMZN dropped 1.2% after Trump tweeted that Amazon is ‘doing great damage to tax-paying retailers.’

So which companies could be next? Here are some business leaders that are unlikely to be in Trump’s good books right now:

1. Merck (NYSE: MRK): Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma- one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world- was one of the first to leave the council on Monday. His resignation was met with this Tweet from the President:

TipRanks shows the stock has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating (4 buy, 3 hold and 1 sell rating). The average analyst price target of $68 comes in at 8% above the current share price.

2. Intel (NASDAQ: INTC): CEO Brian Krzanich was the third business leader to quit the council on August 14. He made this statement on his departure:

I am not a politician. I am an engineer who has spent most of his career working in factories that manufacture the world’s most advanced devices. Yet, it is clear even to me that nearly every issue is now politicized to the point where significant progress is impossible. Promoting American manufacturing should not be a political issue.

The stock has a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating based on 25 recent ratings. The $39 average analyst price target is a 9% upside from the current share price.

3. IBM (NYSE: IBM): According to CNBC, IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty condemned the “hate groups in Charlottesville” and said the policy forum “can no longer serve the purpose for which it was formed.” Crucially, however Rometty also said:

IBM will continue to work with all parts of the government for policies that support job growth, vocational education and global trade, as well as fair and informed policies on immigration and taxation.

IBM has a Hold analyst consensus rating with 6 buy, 9 hold and 4 sell recent ratings. The average analyst price target is a 14% upside from the current $142.5 share price.

4. Under Armor (NYSE: UA): Founder and CEO Kevin Plank tweeted “Under Armour engages in innovation and sport, not politics,” while Merck’s Frazier said he quit “as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”

Earlier this year Plank’s pro-Trump remarks led to anger from customers and sponsored athletes- and a downgrade from top Susquehanna analyst Sam Poser. Plank responded by taking a full-page newspaper ad to say that his words praising Trump “did not accurately reflect” his intent. He also stated that Under Armor opposed banning refugees from certain countries.

The sportswear maker has a Moderate Sell rating based on analyst ratings over the last three months. Meanwhile, the average analyst price target of $19 stands at a 14% upside from the current share price.

5. Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA): Elon Musk the well-known billionaire CEO behind controversial auto stock Tesla already quit the council back in June. He made his move following Trump’s decision to abandon the Paris Climate Change agreement. Musk had previously been vocal in his opposition to Trump’s ‘blanket entry ban.’

Tesla has a Hold analyst consensus rating and average analyst price target of $314. This is a -13% downside from the current share price.

Disclaimer: TipRanks is an independent cloud based service that measures and ranks digitally published financial advice. TipRanks' natural language processing (NLP) algorithms aggregate and ...

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