Stocks were surging higher on Wednesday based on strong earnings from Salesforce and others riding the AI-growth train. The top equity indexes are basically all at all-time highs and investors are planning for 2025 now that the election is over and policy changes are coming. Tariffs and government spending cuts are being taken into consideration into forecasts as well, 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 Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
ACM Research, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACMR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Needham.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated at Buy with a $250 target (versus $213.44 close) at Needham.
Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM) was maintained as Underweight but its price target was cut to $56 from $60 at Barclays.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $27 from $24 (versus $23.74 close) at Barclays.
Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $80 from $75 (versus $71.05 prior close) at Needham.
Core & Main, Inc. (NYSE: CNM) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $65 from $57 at Barclays. It was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $66 from $60 at Baird. Core & Main closed up 15.5% at $55.78 on Tuesday after earnings.
Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ: XRAY) was initiated with a Neutral rating at Mizuho.
Doximity, Inc. (NYSE: DOCS) was initiated at Neutral at Mizuho.
DTE Energy Company (NYSE: DTE) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) was initiated with a Neutral rating at UBS.
Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Envista Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: NVST) was initiated with an Underperform rating and a $20 target price (versus $22.00 close) at Mizuho.
FTAI Aviation Ltd. (NASDAQ: FTAI) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $180 from $135 (versus $161.22 close) at Barclays.
HealthEquity, Inc. (NASDAQ: HQY) was initiated as Outperform with a $126 target price (versus $101.39 close) at Mizuho.
Henry Schein, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSIC) was initiated as Neutral at Mizuho.
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) was assumed with an Overweight rating with a $20 price target (versus $17.63 close) at JPMorgan.
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LifeMD, Inc. (NASDAQ: LFMD) was started with a Neutral rating at Mizuho.
M&T Bank Corporation (NYSE: MTB) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.
Marvell Technology. Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL) closed at $95.91 but was trading up 12% at $107.50 after issuing strong guidance. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal-Weight rating and raised its price target to $102 from $82. Marvell was reiterated as Buy and its target was raised to $135 from $115 at Benchmark. Marvell was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $140 from $120 at Rosenblatt, and Needham reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $120 from $95. Barclays reiterated its Overweight rating and its price target was raised to $115 from $85.
Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) closed at $81.71 and it was last seen trading up over 13% at $92.75 after a strong earnings reaction. Okta was maintained at Buy and its price target was raised to $115 from $100 at Needham. Okta was maintained as Equal-Weight with a price target hike to $96 from $81 at Barclays, and Jefferies reiterated its Hold rating but raised its price target to $100 from $85. Baird reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $105 from $95.
Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: PNFP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform but its price target was raised to $135 from $115 (versus $124.22 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE: PNW) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with the same $101 price target (versus $91.28 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Pure Storage, Inc. (NYSE: PSTG) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $76 from $56 (versus $53.54 close) at Piper Sandler.
Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) closed at $331.43 and was indicated up 12.5% at $372.89 after earnings and guidance were strong with massive AI interest from customers. Salesforce was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $375 from $345 at Needham, and it was reiterated with an Overweight rating and price target hike to $425 from $415 at Barclays. Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its price target raised to $405 from $395. BofA reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price objective to $440 from $390.
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Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG) was reiterated as Neutral but its price target was raised to $182 from $158 (versus $180.63 close) at Mizuho.
Solventum Corporation (NYSE: SOLV) was initiated as Neutral at Mizuho.
Talkspace, Inc. (NASDAQ: TALK) was initiated as Outperform with a $5 price target (versus $3,48 close) at Mizuho.
Trimble Inc. (NASDAQ: TRMB) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $92 from $74 (versus $73.95 close) at JPMorgan.
Vale S.A. (NYSE: VALE) was maintained at Overweight but its price target was lowered to $15.25 from $16 (versus $9.68 close) at Barclays.
Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) was initiated as Outperform with a $275 price target (versus $226.46 close) at Mizuho.
YPF SA (NYSE: YPF) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy but its price target was raised to $38 from $30 (versus $40.15 close) at UBS.
If you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AGCO, BofA, Citi, DocuSign, FedEx, Kroger, Novocure, Western Digital, Zscaler and over 20 more stocks.
