Benzinga's Top Initiations

Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage on Shire PLC (ADR) SHPG with a Buy rating. The target price for Shire is set to $230. Shire shares rose 0.70 percent to $193.12 in pre-market trading. Analysts at Bernstein assumed McDonald's Corporation MCD with a Market Perform rating. The target price for McDonald's is set to $129. McDonald's shares fell 0.56 percent to close at $123.26 on Wednesday. Maxim Group initiated coverage on Shopify Inc SHOP with a Hold rating. Shopify shares rose 4.21 percent to close at $28.20 on Wednesday. Topeka Capital initiated coverage on Actuant Corporation ATU with a Hold rating. Actuant shares rose 1.62 percent to close at $27.03 on Wednesday. Analysts at Evercore ISI Group initiated coverage on Alkermes Plc ALKS with a Buy rating. Alkermes shares gained 0.37 percent to close at $43.58 on Wednesday. Analysts at Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Atlassian Corporation PLC TEAM with a Outperform rating. The target price for Atlassian is set to $28. Atlassian shares closed at $23.02 on Wednesday. Analysts at Bernstein assumed Yum! Brands, Inc. YUM with a Outperform rating. Yum! Brands shares closed at $82.60 on Wednesday. Analysts at Macquarie initiated coverage on LendingClub Corp LC with a Neutral rating. LendingClub shares dropped 3.37 percent to $4.30 in pre-market trading. Imperial Capital initiated coverage of Laredo Petroleum Inc LPI with a In-line rating. The target price for Laredo Petroleum is set to $12.50. Laredo Petroleum shares declined 0.08 percent to close at $12.36 on Wednesday.