Stocks were indicated higher on Tuesday morning as the shortened trading week kicks off. Many investors are fine-tuning portfolios for trading and investing in 2025. This is where the daily flow of analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can come into play for new ideas.
Analyst reports can be a source of new ideas for short-term strategic traders with live price reactions on the spot for immediate and short-term views. And with the analysts offering a one-year outlook in general, the upgraded and downgrades can offer long-term perspectives for investors looking months or years into the future.
Oggonomics always reminds its readers that no single analyst report should ever be used as the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. After all, analysts can be wrong or the larger backdrop can change on a moments notice.
These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was reiterated as Buy but its price target was cut to $86 from $88 (versus $74.34 close) at UBS.
Cal-Maine Foods (NASDAQ: CALM) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, as the egg producer’s earnings are soaring. Its shares closed at $95.10 ahead of the call and was indicated down almost 2% at $93.35 after the call.
Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN) was reiterated at Market Perform with price target raised to $305 from $255 at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Coinbase closed down 8% at $274.31 ahead of the call.
Datadog, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research.
Dell Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was reiterated as Buy but its price target was cut to $150 from $155 at BofA Securities.
Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) was raised to Sector Outperform from Sector Perform with $208 target at Scotiabank.
DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) closed up 15% at $53.49 on Friday. DraftKings was reiterated at Overweight and its price target was raised to $60 from $50 at Barclays. Other key calls:
- reiterated as Buy with its price target raised to $65 from $60 at Needham;
- reiterated as Overweight with its target raised to $60 from $53 at Wells Fargo;
- reiterated at Buy with its price target raised to $60 from $50 at Truist Securities;
- reiterated at Buy with its price target raised to $57 from $48 at Stifel.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $120 from $80 (versus $104.08 close) at Deutsche Bank.
Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight but its price target was raised to $60 from $42 at Morgan Stanley.
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) was reiterated as Neutral but its price target was raised to $29 from $22 (versus $23.60 prior close) at Cantor Fitzgerald.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with price target cut to $105 from $128 at Deutsche Bank.
Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight and its price target was cut to $45 from $111 (versus $32.99 prior close) at Barclays.
Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW) was raised to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $235 price target (versus $187.60 prior close) at Wolfe Research.
Walmart, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $118 from $93 at Piper Sandler. Walmart closed at $104.04 ahead of this call.
