Stocks were looking for direction to close out the week, with the Dow up 0.1% and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ both down 0.1% to 0.2%. The markets are trying to plan for a new regime coming with many changes expected. Now is the time that investors and traders alike need to figure out how to position their portfolios for 2025 and beyond. This is where Wall Street research can come into play with Wall Street’s top market pundits having some insights to share.
Oggonomics searches the daily flow of analyst research reports covering the upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street looking for new ideas. These analyst reports generally try to look out a year out into the future and often have new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed.
Some analyst calls are just reactionary to earnings and other news, but some analyst calls are preemptive 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.
Oggonomics always reminds investors and its readers 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.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Friday, November 22, 2024.
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $206 price target $versus $171.73 close) at Leerink Partners.
Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM) was reiterated at Buy with price target raised to $74 from $50 (versus $65.74 close) at BofA Securities
BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BJ) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $110 from $105 at Jefferies. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal Weight rating but raised its target to $98 from $90. BJ’s closed up 8.2% at $92.79 on Thursday after earnings and was indicated up 1% at $93.75 on Friday morning.
Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BFAM) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its $140 price target (versus $111.05 close) was maintained at Baird.
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Carpenter Technology Corporation (NYSE: CRS) was initiated at Overweight with a $220 target (versus $180.71 close) at JPMorgan.
Crocs Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) was initiated as Buy with a $116 price target (versus $101.81 close) at Needham.
Deckers Outdoor Corporation (NYSE: DECK) was initiated as Buy with a $218 target (versus $181.91 close) at Needham.
DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was reiterated at Market Outperform and its price target was raised to $108 from $84 (versus $80.15 close) at JMP Securities.
Elastic N.V. (NYSE: ESTC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its price target was raised to $135 from $95 at Baird. Elastic closed up over 6% at $94.13 on Thursday and was trading up 24% at $117.00 early Friday in the post-earnings reaction.
Endava plc (NYSE: DAVA) was initiated as Neutral with a $29 price objective at BofA Securities.
Flowserve Corporation (NYSE: FLS) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $69 price target at RBC Capital Markets.
Flutter Entertainment plc (NYSE: FLUT) was reiterated as Buy with a $320 (versus $266.72 close) at Goldman Sachs, with the firm noting that the parent of FanDuel can triple its profits over the next three-year period.
Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) was initiated with a Buy rating and was assigned a $27 price target (versus $22.45 close) at Needham.
The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GAP) was reiterated at Neutral but its price objective was raised to $28 from $25 at BofA Securities. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $30 from $29. Gap closed up over 6% at $22.04 ahead of earnings and was trading up 17% at $25.90 on Friday morning’s post-earnings reaction.
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Grab Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: GRAB) was downgraded to Underperform from Buy at BofA Securities.
The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, with safe haven value stocks out of favor and with rising cocoa prices, shrinking margins and a new leader at Health & Human Services coming
Hippo Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HIPO) was reiterated as Market Outperform and its price target was raised to $35 from $25 (versus $32.06 close) at JMP Securities.
Innovid Corp. (NYSE: CTV) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was maintained at Overweight and its price target was cut to $765 from $768 at Piper Sandler. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal-Weight rating but raised its target to $730 from $685. Intuit closed up 4.3% at $678.70 ahead of earnings but the post-earnings reaction showed shares down 2.45 at $662.35 in Friday’s early trading indications.
KinderCare Learning Companies, Inc. (NYSE: KLC) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $30 price target at Baird.
Kyndryl Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: KD) was initiated with a Buy rating and was assigned a $40 price objective at BofA Securities.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was initiated with a Hold rating at Needham.
Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MPWR) was maintained at Buy but its price target was slashed to $600 from $950 (versus $572.47 close) at Needham.
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was initiated with a Buy rating and with a $84 price target (versus $75.10 close) at Needham.
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On Holding AG (NYSE: ON) was initiated as Buy with a $64 price target (versus $56.19 prior close) at Needham.
PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started as Neutral with a $88 target price at Piper Sandler.
PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD) was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $160 from $183 at HSBC. PDD was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $171 from $181 at Jefferies. PDD closed down 10.6% at $104.09 on Thursday and was indicated down another 1.3% at $102.75 on Friday.
Skechers U.S.A., Inc. (NYSE: SKX) was started as Hold at Needham.
Steven Madden, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO) was started as Hold at Needham.
Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, as the firm noted EV king Tesla has returned to glory and that Trump’s election victory is likely to inject even more life into the stock while other EV plays are not positioned as well. Tesla closed down 0.7% on Thursday at $339.64 but its stock was up 0.4% at $341.00 in early trading indications on Friday.
TransMedics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMDX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
If you missed Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of GE Vernova, MicroStrategy, Netflix, NVIDIA, Palo Alto, Snowflake, Target and many more stocks.
