Stocks were mixed on Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 indicated marginally higher and the tech-heavy NASDAQ indicated marginally lower as valuations on key tech stocks have been garnering more negative press. Oggonomics is always on the hunt for new ideas and research for long-term investors and short-term traders alike. 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 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 that the so-called Efficient Market Hypothesis is not all that efficient in its assumptions.
Here are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Monday, June 24, 2024.
Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $80 target price (versus $62.97 prior close) at Goldman Sachs. Block, the parent of the Square card-reader, has 52-week range of $38.85 to $87.52 and a $90.24 consensus analyst target price.
CarMax, Inc. (NYSE: KMX) was maintained as Buy but its price target was trimmed down to $87 from $91 at Needham & Co.
Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CELH) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $87 price target (versus $62.48 prior close) at Exane BNP Paribas. Celsius has a 52-week range f $45.03 to $99.62.
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $26 from $19 (versus $19.48 prior close) at Roth MKM. Cinemark was indicated up 3.6% at $20.20 on Monday and its 52-week range is $13.19 to $20.40.
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The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $72 price target at Exane BNP Paribas. Coca-Cola previously closed at $62.77 and its 52-week high is $64.36.
Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $109 target price at Exane BNP Paribas. Colgate-Palmolive closed at $97.27 and its 52-week high is $97.67.
Digimarc Corporation (NASDAQ: DMRC) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $40 price target (versus $26.24 prior close) at Needham & Co. Digimarc has a 52-week range of $21.00 to $43.43.
Elevance Health, Inc. (NYSE: ELV) was started with an Overweight rating with a $643 target price (versus $534.42 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.
Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $172 from $150 at Robert W. Baird. Micron closed down 3.2% at $139.54 on Friday and its shares were indicated up 2.2% at $142.70 on Monday.
Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ: MNST) was started as Underperform and was assigned a $48 price target (versus $49.09 prior close) at Exane BNP Paribas. Monster Beverage has a 52-week range of $47.13 to $61.23.
Planet Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: PLNT) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target price was raised to $92 from $66 at TD Cowen. Planet Fitness closed at $72.73 on Friday with a 52-week range of $44.13 to $75.86.
The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $187 price target at Exane BNP Paribas. P&G shares previously closed at $168.26 and its 52-week high is $168.97.
Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) saw its shares surge last week from under $125 to as high as $173.25 on a positive muscular dystrophy approval before closing at $160.72 on Friday. Sarepta was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $230 from $165 at Leerink Partners. BMO Capital Markets also reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $200 from $170.
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Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was raised to In-Line from Underperform at Evercore ISI, but the firm did trim the price target down to $3.25 from $4.25 in the call. Sirius XM shares closed at $2.93 on Friday with a 52-week range of $2.45 to $7.95. This was a mixed call ahead of the reorg and re-mergers of Sirius and Liberty Media entities.
Werner Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: WERN) was downgraded to Negative from Neutral and its price target was lowered down to $27 from $32.00 (versus $35.77 prior close) at Susquehanna.
Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ZETA) was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $20 from $18 at BofA Securities. Zeta closed at $15.62 on Friday with a 52-week range of $7.24 to $18.58.
These were also a bunch of the other Neutral rated and similar analyst calls seen on Monday:
- Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) was started with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs.
- Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD) was started with a Neutral rating at Exane BNP Paribas.
- Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH) was started with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs.
- EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) was started with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs.
- Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was started with an Equal-Weight rating at Morgan Stanley.
- Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. (NYSE: KDP) was started as Neutral with a $36 target (versus $34.38 prior close) at Exane BNP Paribas.
- Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) was started with a Neutral rating at Exane BNP Paribas.
- PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was started with a Neutral rating at Exane BNP Paribas.
