Something interesting happened after Moody’s decided that the United States should lose its ‘AAA’ rating. Stocks managed to continue their rally after opening lower. After a tariff and trade-war induced bear market was on the table in early April, the easing of tensions resulted in more than a 20% rally in the S&P 500 and now stocks are actually positive year to date. So, what are long-term and short-term investors supposed to do with their capital now?
Oggonomics reviews the daily flow of Wall Street research each morning looking for overlooked items and hidden gems. The idea is to find new ideas for short-term traders and long-term investors alike. And many of these analyst calls are targeted directly at strategic investors who rotate their assets more than the index buy-and-hold forever investors.
From this March all the way into May the one research trend that was seen was “downgrade lite” ideas, where analysts maintain their formal ratings and slash their price targets to reflect lower share prices and a slower economy. Now we are starting to see more formal analyst upgrades and much higher price targets again. Still, the bias is still more price targets cuts. That makes the strong upgrades look that much more interesting for strategic investors.
Investors should never forget that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. Analysts can get their thesis wrong just like the rest of us. And sometimes the market or a company’s fundamentals can change in the blink of an eye.
Tuesday, May 20, 2025 showed seven key Buy and Outperform ratings with stronger upside projections than the typical 8% to 10% projections.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) may not seem like a huge boost, but its 4% dividend yield matters for long-term total return investors. Bernstein reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $30 from $29. The attraction is premium postpaid plans versus peers while also growing its subscriber base. That fiber bundle was tied to postpaid phone net additions in the last quarter and now AT&T is shown to have the lowest churn rate of peers. AT&T was last seen at $27.88, up 22% YTD.
The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) has seen yet another target hike after Bernstein reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $249 from $218. With recent new plane orders from the Middle East and what appears to be a restart of deliveries to China, its business tied to defense spending should put the path to growth and even more upside potential. Boeing was last seen at $206 for a 17% YTD gain.
The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) appears to have its turnaround from last year in full swing. TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $113 from $95 in its cal. Cowen sees Schwab entering the next phase of its own evolution, driving a higher multiple that investors will pay. Schwab is also now considered to be TD Cowen’s top broker-dealer pick in their coverage. At $89.00 today, Schwab’s stock is now up 20% YTD.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is already the top bank as far market cap and for its fortress balance sheet. Now it has concluded its investor day and multiple analyst reports have been seen. BofA Securities reiterated its Buy rating and lifted its price objective to $300 from $281 despite so many cautious comments from Chairman/CEO Jamie Dimon. Other firms with Buy/Outperform ratings chimed in with price target hikes as well:
- Piper Sandler (Overweight) target to $295 from $260
- RBC Capital Markets (Outperform) target to $285 from $255
- TD Cowen (Buy) target to $315 from $305
SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) is often overlooked by U.S. technology investors, but Wells Fargo started new coverage with an Overweight rating. Its target in euros implies that shares could rise 30% if the firm’s thesis pans out. SAP was listed as a defensive horizontal stock that should see continued growth reacceleration. Wells Fargo also sees SAP margins improving against its competitors despite some continued uncertainty in the software space. With its ADSs up 21% YTD, its current $298 share price is against a 52-week range of $179.43 to $303.39.
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) may be 25% YTD, but what’s even more impressive is the 50% gain seen since the panic selling in April. Citigroup reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $125 from $105 (versus $107 currently). This call is ahead of Seagate’s May 22 Analyst Day presentation, and Citi expects robust demand growth and high visibility to be forecast through at least the end of 2025 and into early 2026 in its guidance. Citi also raised earnings expectations for 2026 and 2027 to reflect these expectations.
Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) is the top gainer of these analyst calls with a 54% gain YTD with its stock at $93. It is also at an all-time high. JPMorgan has maintained an Overweight in the stock for a while and now it has raised Uber’s price target up to $105 from $92. The firm said its meetings with management were upbeat and indicating that Uber was ahead of its multi-year growth targets. It still sees growth in bookings, stronger earnings/EBITDA, strong cash flows, and profitable growth all allowing Uber to keep investing in its own long-term growth initiatives. JPMorgan also expects the that the autonomous vehicle story will continue to improve. JPMorgan’s target hike is not the highest on Wall Street but it is definitely above other targets that were recently raised to under $100 in May.
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Please note that all analyst ratings and their price targets mentioned in this summary were issued by each firm by name. Their ratings and targets may differ greatly from firm to firm on Wall Street. Oggonomics does not issue any formal ratings and does not maintain any price targets of its own on these stocks. No analyst report, even those with very strong conviction, ever comes with any guarantees of profits and they never contain money-back guarantees in case you lose money.
