Masco upgraded to Outperform from In Line at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded Masco (MAS) to Outperform from In Line with an unchanged price target of $78. The market has already priced in much of the bad news for the builder stocks, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Evercore says the homebuilders “hit their historic buy signal last week” when the median small-cap builder traded below 0.80-times tangible book value. The group may lack a near-term catalyst, but downside from here “may be manageable,” the firm contends. It upgraded three names, saying they are “relatively more resilient than peers to the current industry challenges.”