Stocks were indicated higher on Thursday’s day-two reaction to the election, but nowhere near the same magnitude of gains that some sectors saw on Wednesday. With a new regime coming many investors and traders alike are now looking for how to be positioned for 2025 when stocks are already at all-time highs. This is where Wall Street research can come into play.
Oggonomics searches the daily flow of analyst research reports covering the upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street looking for new ideas. These analyst calls tend to look 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 Thursday, November 7, 2024.
AppLovin Corporation (NASDAQ: APP) was already performing very well (perhaps even too well?) ahead of earnings but the stock was indicated up another 33% at $224.00 at all-time highs on Thursday’s post-earnings reaction. Morgan Stanley maintained its Equal Weight rating but raised its target to $200 from $110. Wedbush Securities reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $270 from $170 in the call.
Array Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY) was down almost 22% at $5.94 on Wednesday. Array was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim.
Bloom Energy Corporation (NYSE: BE) was reiterated as Underperform and its price objective was cut to $7 from $8 at BofA Securities.
Boston Properties, or now BXP Inc. (NYSE: BXP), was downgraded to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform at Scotiabank.
Crocs, Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) closed down over 2% at $102.74 on Wednesday. Loop Capital downgraded Crocs to Hold from Buy and slashed its price target to $110 from $150 after the recent weakness.
Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE: DVN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $43 from $49 (versus $40.02 prior close) at Truist Securities.
Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Dutch Bros Inc. (NYSE: BROS) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $55 from $45 at Wedbush Securities. TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating and lifted its target to $53 from $47. After closing up 3.9% at $34.94 ahead of earnings, Dutch Bros was indicated up 19% at $41.50 on Thursday’s post-earnings reaction.
Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was started with a Buy rating and a $93 price target (versus $81.17 prior close) at Jefferies.
Enphase Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH) closed down almost 17% at $74.81 on Wednesday. Enphase was downgraded to Underperform from Hold and its price target was cut to $61 from $93 at Jefferies. BofA Securities reiterated its Underperform rating and cut its price objective to $62 from $72.
Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $41 from $44 (versus $40.35 prior close) at Jefferies.
Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $11 price target (versus $11.19 prior close) at Bernstein.
KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) rose over 15% to $19.97 on Wednesday and the stock was down less than 1% on Thursday. Citi downgraded KeyCorp to Neutral from Buy with a $19 price target as the stock achieved its valuation target.
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE: MLM) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $730 price target (versus $617.31 prior close) at UBS.
Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) closed up 8.6% at $55.53 on Wednesday after Tuesday’s post-earnings surge. Jefferies maintained its $28 price target but cut its rating down to Underperform from Hold as the valuations are harder to justify. Wall Street has a valuation dilemma in general here.
Sinclair, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight and its price target was raised to $19 from $13 at Wells Fargo. Sinclair closed up 4% at $17.41 and was indicated up over 3% at $17.95 on Thursday’s post-earnings reaction.
SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral and its price target was slashed down to $9 from $17 at Piper Jaffray. SolarEdge Technologies stock closed down 22.2% at $14.68 on Wednesday and was down another 15% at $12.40 on Thursday’s post-earnings reaction.
Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE: NOVA) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim. Sunnova closed down 51.5% at $3.42 on Wednesday and was indicated up almost 3% at $3.52 on Thursday.
Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ: RUN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Guggenheim. Sunrun closed down over 29% at $11.90 on Wednesday and was indicated up 2.5% at $12.20 on Thursday morning.
Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $349 price target (versus $290.45 prior close) at UBS.
Here are 12 ETFs That Seriously Outperformed based on the election results. Strategic investors should keep these in their notes for sectors that are expected to do well under the regime change. Just do not forget that big gains are often followed by profit-taking and there are no assurances that outsized gains will continue.
