Stocks were marginally lower in Friday’s early trading ahead of key jobs data and after the prior day off. Investors have been getting ready for 2025 but there are many different issues to consider. With a new regime coming in 10 days or so, tariffs, lower regulation, government spending cuts, tax changes and many more items have to be considered.
Oggonomics searches the daily flow of analyst research reports covering the upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street looking for new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed. These analyst reports generally try to look out a year out into the future with ratings and target prices. As this is the start of the year, analysts are rapidly updating their ratings, price targets and rolling their models to 2025/26 from 2024/25 projections.
Oggonomics always reminds its readers and investors that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy or sell, or hold or short sell, is up to each investor and the decision should be made with a financial advisor. And there are of course no assurances that any of the price predictions and the scenarios that back the calls up will actually come to fruition.
Some analyst calls are just reactionary to earnings and other news. Other analyst calls are preemptive ahead of key events and developments and can move stocks. Short-term traders get a glimpse of immediate price reactions to news and to the analyst calls. Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings with targets looking a year out.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street on Friday, January 10, 2024.
Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $220 from $173 at UBS.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its price target was slashed down to $129 from $175 (versus $121.84 prior close) at Goldman Sachs. AMD had fallen 4.3% on Wednesday on a double-downgrade.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, with the firm noting that investors should consider the Mag7 stock in January because Amazon looks dirt cheap and ready to take off.
Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy but the price target as raised to $9 from $6 (versus $10.48 prior close) at JPMorgan.
Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $292 from $255 (versus $244.49 prior close) at BMO Capital Markets.
BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) was started as Buy with a $172 price target (versus $122.15 prior close) at Truist Securities.
Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BOOT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $210 from $155 (versus $160.34 prior close) at UBS.
Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE: BURL) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $360 from $280 (versus $285.95) at UBS.
Capri Holdings Limited (NYSE: CPRI) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $29 from $21 (versus $21.51 prior close) at Citigroup. Wells Fargo also raised Capri to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised its target to $28 from $20 in the call. Wall Street seems to be warming up to a Capri recovery. It was indicated up about 7% at $23.00 in early Friday indications.
Everest Group, Ltd. (NYSE: EG) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised up to $453 from $372 (versus $368.43 prior close) at BMO Capital Markets.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $113 from $87 (versus $89.14 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.
Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral but its price target was raised up to $25 from $24 at Citigroup. Hims & Hers closed down 7% at $25.73 ahead of this call and it was indicated down almost 3% at $24.95 on Friday morning.
Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE: JOBY) was downgraded to Sell from Hold but the price target was raised to $6 from $5 at JPMorgan. Joby closed down 7.6% at $9.49 ahead of this call and was indicated down almost another 6% at $8.95 on Friday morning.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $475 price target (versus $392.92 prior close) at Needham.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $334 from $311 (versus $286.90 prior close) at Citigroup.
Monopar Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: MNPR) was initiated as Overweight with a $72 price target (versus $24.46 prior close) at Piper Sandler.
News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) was started as Buy with a $36 price target at Citigroup.
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $90 from $72 at Piper Sandler. Nike closed down 1.1% at $71.29 ahead of the call and was indicated up 1.7% at $71.20 on Friday morning.
NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NASDAQ: NXPI) was raised to Buy from Neutral but its price target was trimmed down to $257 from $260 (versus $209.72 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
ON Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: ON) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $60 from $85 (versus $58.31 prior close) at Truist Securities. It had fallen 7% on Wednesday and was indicated down another 2.4% at $56.95 ahead of Friday’s opening bell.
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE: PR) was started with an Overweight rating and was given a $19 price target (versus $14.99 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.
Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Wells Fargo.
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ: RUN) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $17 from $14 at UBS. with the report calling it a clear market leader in its solar space. Sunrun closed down 5.4% at $10.75 ahead of the call but was indicated up almost 2% at $10.95 ahead of Friday’s opening bell.
Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE: TSN) was started as Neutral at UBS.
Yum Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.
