Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche upgraded Consolidated Communications to Outperform from Market Perform following the stock's 34% move lower, stating that many of the headwinds she had been worried about are now behind the company. Though "optically a dividend cut is not ideal," the move was not made out of necessity but opportunistically, allowing the company to focus on deleveraging and moving forward with its fiber push, contends Fritzsche. She sees material upside from current levels based on her sum-of-the-parts analysis, though she cut her price target on the stock to $8 from $11.25.