Stocks were looking for direction ahead of Monday’s opening bell in what feels like a low-volatility summer Monday. Oggonomics is continually hunting for new ideas and research for both long-term investors and short-term traders. Wall Street’s daily flow of analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be a strong source for some of those new ideas.
Many analyst calls are “strategic bull” calls by their nature. Other analyst calls may seem more permanent as analysts can maintain the same rating for years in many cases. Many analysts feature stocks to buy daily but some calls also offer ideas for stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.
Investors should always keep in mind that no analyst call should act as the sole reason to buy or sell a stock. These daily analyst calls and the impact from the calls also help to enforce one of the Oggonomics mantras — the Efficient Market Hypothesis is not all that accurate in its assumptions.
Here are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Monday, June 17, 2024.
Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) was maintained as Neutral but its price target was slashed to $320 from $379 at Piper Sandler. Accenture closed up 1.5% at $286.71 on Friday and was indicated up 1.1% at $290.00 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Alkermes plc (NASDAQ: ALKS) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $34 target price at TD Cowen. Alkermes closed down 1.25% at $24.50 on Friday and the shares were indicated up 2% at $25.00 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARM) was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $180 from $150 at BofA Securities. Arm Holdings closed down 0.1% at $157.89 on Friday and was indicated up 2.5% at $161.89 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $106 from $85.00 at UBS. Best Buy closed down 0.6% at $87.21 on Friday and was indicated up over 3% at $90.25 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BOW) was started as Outperform with a $31 price target at JMP Securities and was started as Market Perform with a $30 price target at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Bowhead Specialty started as Equal Weight with a $26 price target at Morgan Stanley.
Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (NYSE: BHF) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform but its price target was trimmed to $47 from $48 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Brighthouse Financial closed at $41/01 ahead of the call.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was reiterated as Outperform and its target price was raised to $58 from $57 at Robert W. Baird. eBay closed down 2.9% at $52.13 on Friday but was indicated up about 0.3% at $52.29 on Monday after the call.
Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. (NYSE: KDP) was raised to Hold from Sell and the price target was raised to $34 from $27 (versus $34.04 prior close) at Truist Securities.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (NYSE: LPX) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and the price target was cut to $81 from $89 (versus $92.13 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $170 from $144 at BofA Securities. Cantor Fitzgerald also reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its price target to $180 from $150. Micron closed down 1.2% at $141.36 on Friday and its stock was indicated up 2.6% at $145.10 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $550 from $500 at Wedbush Securities. The call is one of the most aggressive price targets on Wall Street and was based on not pricing in the next wave of cloud growth and A.I. growth. Microsoft closed at $442.57 ahead of the call.
Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) was maintained with a Buy rating but its target price was lowered down to $57 from $63 at Stifel. Monster Beverage closed down 1.4% at $48.03 on Friday and its shares were indicated down about 0.1% ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Newmont Corporation (NYSE: NEM) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $50 from $40 at UBS. The analysts expects that Newmont will generate 2025 EBITDA about 30% above consensus based on higher gold prices. Newmont closed up 0.6% at $40.82 on Friday and was indicated up 0.3% at $40.95 on Monday morning.
NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was trimmed down to $114 from $116 at Morgan Stanley. NIKE closed down 0.8% at $93.39 on Friday and was indicated down about 0.1% on Monday after the call.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $170 from $160.00 at Mizuho. Oracle closed down 1.2% at $138.13 on Friday and its shares were indicated up 0.2% ahead of Monday’s opening bell. Oracle had closed at $123.88 ahead of last week’s earnings report that took shares up to $140 after the report.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (NYSE: TSM) was reiterated as Buy and its local exchange price target was raised (to NT$1,150 from NT$1,030 – versus NT$921.00 local price) at Citi. Susquehanna maintained its Positive rating and raised its ADS price target to $200 from $180 in a separate call. TSM ADSs were indicated up 3.5% at $178.49 ahead of Monday’s opening bell.
Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) was raised to Neutral from Sell and its target price was raised to $124 from $112 (versus $119.32 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSE American: UMAC) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $4.00 target price at ThinkEquity. Unusual Machines closed up 6% at $1.48 on Friday and its shares were indicated up over 8% at $1.61 ahead of Monday’s opening bell. Its 52-week range is $0.98 to $5.54 but this is a micro-cap stock that had only a $13.8 million market cap and its average daily trading volume is lower than this site usually uses for coverage.
Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: ZETA) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $20 from $18 (versus $16.04 prior close) at Needham & Co.
