Stocks were looking for direction on Tuesday after the indexes were mixed on Monday. Investors may be at a crossroads as major U.S. equity indexes are basically all at all-time highs and it is time to reflect and plan for 2025. The election outcome is known and a new regime is coming. Tariffs and government spending cuts are being taken into consideration and Wall Street strategists have all just raised their S&P 500 targets for 2025.
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.
Some analyst calls are just reactionary to earnings and other news. Other 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 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.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
AGCO Corporation (NYSE: AGCO) was initiated as Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE: AU) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform with a $31 target price (versus $24.63 close) at RBC Capital Markets.
Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ: AXON) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $700 from $500 (versus $636.39 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was reiterated with an Outperform rating and its price target was raised to $57 from $50 (versus $47.04 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $96 from $87 (versus $81.11 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $37 from $31 (versus $31.99 close) at UBS.
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was lifted up to $82 from $70 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Citigroup closed up 0.7% at $71.39ahead of the call as KBW says the bank’s discount to book value is too low compared to rivals.
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Cousins Properties Inc. (NYSE: CUZ) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital.
Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRDO) was last seen trading up 33% at $63.90 after beating earnings and revenue expectations. Credo was reiterated as Overweight with price target raised to $80 from $32 at Barclays. Credo was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $70 from $43 at Needham; and it was raised to Buy from Underperform with a price target hike to $80 from $27 at BofA Securities.
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $66 price target (versus $59.08 close) at Deutsche Bank.
DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $95 from $80 at Jefferies.
DTE Energy Company (NYSE: DTE) was raised to Buy from Neutral with price target raised to $143 from $129 at UBS.
Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES) was initiated as Underperform with a $52 price target (versus $63.67 prior close) at Jefferies.
FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was maintained at Overweight with price target raised to $366 from $350 at JP Morgan; was cut to Market Perform from Outperform with price target cut to $316 from $337 at Bernstein.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) was reiterated as Outperform with a price target hike to $686 from $570 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was maintained at Market Perform but its price target was raised to $254 from $216 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $73 from $54 at Jefferies. Kroger was cut to Market Perform from Outperform with $60 target maintained at BMO Capital.
Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LW) was initiated with a Market Perform rating at Bernstein.
Maplebear Inc. (NASDAQ: CART) was initiated with a Hold rating at Deutsche Bank.
MoneyLion Inc. (NYSE: ML) was named as the Bear of the Day at Zacks. Its stock surged in November and is up 38% YTD, but Zacks is questioning whether it will land on its feet after such a strong surge.
Novocure Limited (NASDAQ: NVCR) closed up 48.9% at $29.85 on Monday after positive data on its pancreatic cancer treatment. NovoCure was maintained at Buy and its price target was raised to $38 from $30 at HC Wainwright.
PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: PTCT) was maintained as Outperform and its price target was raised to $70 from $52 at Baird; PTCT was also maintained at Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $56 from $45 at Barclays. PTC Therapeutics closed up 18.6% at $52.07 on Monday after inking a deal to develop a Huntington’s therapy with Novartis.
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Revolution Medicines, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVMD) was maintained at Overweight and its price target was raised to $71 from $63 at JP Morgan.
State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with price target raised to $120 from $105 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $85 from $60 at Wells Fargo.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $625 from $595 at Deutsche Bank.
Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) was maintained at Buy and its price target was cut to $85 from $87 at Citigroup.
Zoom Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) was named Bull of the Day at Zacks, noting that it’s ready to resume growth in 2025 after contracting more recently. Zoom closed at $83.11 and its stock is only up 15% YTD.
Zscaler, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZS) was maintained at Buy and its price target was raised to $225 from $200 at Deutsche Bank. Zscaler was maintained at Buy and its price target was raised to $230 from $220 at Canaccord Genuity, and it was started as Buy in assumed coverage with $240 target at Needham. Piper Jaffray reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $235 from $215. Zscaler was down over 6% at $195.50 on Tuesday’s post-earnings reaction as results were more or less in-line with expectations and on news its CFO was retiring.
In case you missed Monday’s top analyst calls, they were in shares of Autodesk, Block, Citigroup, Dell, Netflix, Salesforce, Tesla, Zebra and about twenty more stocks.
