Stocks were positive on the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ on Wednesday morning with all indexes still very close to all-time highs. With a new regime set to lead and make changes many investors and traders alike are trying to figure out how to position their portfolios for 2025. 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 Wednesday, November 20, 2024.
AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) was raised to Buy from Hold but its price target was cut to $230 from $240 (versus $194.89 prior close) at Jefferies.
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ: APP) was started with a Overweight rating and was assigned a $400 price target at Piper Sandler. AppLovin closed up over 7% at $321.19 ahead of the call, with this stock now up 700% YTD.
AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS
Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at BNP Paribas.
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE: BE) was cut to Hold from Buy at HSBC in a valuation downgrade.
CAVA Group, Inc. (NYSE: CAVA) was initiated at Market Perform with $145 target (versus $141.25 close) at Bernstein.
Chewy, Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) was raised to Buy from Underperform and its price objective was raised to $40 from $24 in a double-notch upgrade at BofA Securities. Chewy closed up 3.4% at $32.94 on Tuesday and was indicated up 4% at $34.25 on Wednesday
CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, noting that its guidance cuts from weak quarterly results have put the stock on a rocky road in 2024.
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB) was maintained at Buy and its price target was raised to $100 from $98 (versus $70.91 prior close) at Rosenblatt. Dolby Labs was trading up 11% at $79.00 in early trading on Wednesday on a positive earnings reaction.
Energizer Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ENR) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and its price target was raised to $39 from $32 at JPMorgan. Energizer closed up 9.1% at $37.25 on Tuesday on a strong earnings reaction.
Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BNP Paribas.
Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was lifted up to $100 from $90 (versus $90.79 close) at Rosenblatt.
GlobalFoundries Inc. (NASDAQ: GFS) was started with a Neutral rating at UBS.
Haleon plc (NYSE: HLN) was reiterated as Buy with a $11.50 price target at Argus, with the independent research firm calling recent weakness a buying opportunity.
HP Inc. (NYSE: HP) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was actually trimmed down to $41 from $42 at JPMorgan.
Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was reiterated as Buy but its price target was raised to $1,100 from $925 at Pivotal Research. Netflix shares closed up 2.87% at $871.32 on Tuesday and shares were indicated up almost 1% at $879.12 on Wednesday.
ALSO READ: ARE TOO MANY TARGET HIKES HAPPENING ON NVIDIA?
Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. (NYSE: NOG) was cut to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Oaktree Specialty Lending Corporation (NASDAQ: OCSL) was cut to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was trimmed down to $15 from $17 (versus $15.61 prior close) at JPMorgan.
Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was reiterated at Equal-Weight with $204 target at Morgan Stanley. Qualcomm closed at $164.71 on Tuesday ahead of its presentation.
Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK) was reiterated at Overweight with $335 target (versus $278.14 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.
Salesforce, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $340 from $310 (versus $323.43 prior close) at JPMorgan.
Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, noting that shares have been red-hot in 2024 with strong quarterly results growing nearly 36%.
Toast, Inc. (NYSE: TOST) was cut to Neutral from Outperform at BNP Paribas.
U.S. Gold Corp. (NASDAQ: USAU) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $13 from $11 (versus $8.25 prior close) at HC Wainwright.
ALSO READ: 5 BIG BANK STOCKS STILL UNDER BOOK VALUE (FOR NOW)
United Rentals, Inc. (NYSE: URI) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $880 (versus $821.16 close) at Argus.
Walmart, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) closed up 3% at $86.60 on Tuesday after its strong earnings report. Walmart was maintained at Outperform with price target raised to $100 from $92 at Telsey Advisory Group. It was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $100 from $90 at Baird.
XPeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV) was maintained as Market Perform but its price target raised to $14 from $9 (versus $12.52 close) at Bernstein on its ADSs, with note that full-year profitability by 2026 not likely.
If you missed Tuesday’s top analyst calls they were in shares of Apollo, Six Flags, iHeart, MicroStrategy, Moderna, NVIDIA, Netflix, Salesforce and many more stocks.
