Stocks were looking to bounce on Thursday morning after the Fed’s less than expected rate cut path for 2025 spooked the market with more than a 1,000 point drop in the Dow. You were warned here over the weekend ahead of time, and that scenario is now playing out. Investors need to be planning for 2025 with a new regime, new policies, tariffs and likely government spending cuts all in the mix. Wall Street strategists have also raised their S&P 500 targets for 2025 in the last three weeks.
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 ahead of key events and developments 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 initiations, upgrades and downgrades from brokerage firms and independent research firms on Thursday, December 19, 2024.
Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target was raised to $82 from $70 at Jefferies. Affirm closed down 10.6% at $63.34 on Wednesday’s market panic but the stock was indicated up 1.5% at $64.30 on Thursday morning.
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE: AI) was downgraded to Underweight from Sector Weight with a $29 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets, based on an unfavorable risk-reward profile after such strong gains in the last three months. C3.ai closed down 7.4% at $39.69 on Wednesday and was indicated down another 2.7% at $38.65 on Thursday.
Camping World Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CWH) was started with a Buy rating and given a $30 price objective (versus $21.00 close) at BofA Securities.
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) was maintained as Buy but the price objective was cut to $63 from $77 at BofA Securities. CVS closed up 2.8% at $45.28 ahead of the call even with the market tank, and shares were indicated up 0.5% at $45.50 on Thursday.
Fortinet, Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $115 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets, noting strong security trends for 2025 as a portion of IT budgets. Fortinet closed down 4.4% at $93.36 on Wednesday.
General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE: GD) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform and its price target was cut to $290 from $330 at RBC Capital Markets. GD closed down 1.1% at $262.27 on Wednesday and was indicated down another 1% at $259.50 on Thursday.
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE: HPE) was raised to Buy from Hold with the $27 price target remaining the same (versus $20.59 close) at Deutsche Bank.
HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HIVE) was started as Buy with a $7.50 price target at Roth MKM. HIVE closed down 11.5$ at $3.40 ahead of the call and it was indicated up almost 3% at $3.50 on Thursday.
Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLX) was maintained as Buy with a $90 target at Needham. Hologic closed down 1.1% at $71.47 ahead of the call.
Insperity, Inc. (NYSE: NSP) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, noting that its earnings estimates have dropped despite beating the number in each of the last four quarters. The shares are down over 30% YTD.
IonQ, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONQ) was started as Buy with a $59 price target at DA Davidson. IonQ was also named as The Bull of the Day at Zacks as the quantum computing stock is expected to see sales double in 2025. IonQ shares closed down over 14% at $37.50 on Wednesday after the quantum computing systems player hit a new high of $44.99 on the same day.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was downgraded to Neutral and its price objective was cut to $110 from $125 from Buy at BofA Securities. Bernstein maintained its Outperform rating but cut its target to $120 from $140. Baird reiterated its Outperform rating but trimmed its target to $130 from $150. Micron closed down 4.3% at $103.90 ahead of earnings but traded down over 13% to under $90 in the after-hours trading. Micron was indicated at $91.50 early on Thursday.
MSA Safety Inc. (NYSE: MSA) was started as Buy with a $195 price target at DA Davidson.
NICE Ltd. (NASDAQ: NICE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $115 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets, noting strong security trends for 2025 as a portion of IT budgets. Okta closed down 4.7% at $81.41 on Wednesday.
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RTX Corporation (NYSE: RTX) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its target was raised to $140 from $130 at RBC Capital Markets. RTX closed down 2.5% at $114.45 on Wednesday and was indicated up almost 1% on Thursday.
SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE: S) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $30 from $27 at Jefferies. SentinelOne closed down 7.8% at $22.05 on Wednesday’s sell-off but was indicated up over 3% at $22.75 on Thursday.
Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its $110 price target was maintained (versus $79.07 close) at Mizuho.
Tapestry, Inc. (NYSE: TPR) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target price was raised to $80 from $50 (versus $62.08 close) at Jefferies.
Viridian Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRDN) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Wells Fargo. Viridian closed down 9% at $18.93 on Wednesday.
Zoom Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $100 from $85 at Jefferies. Zoom closed down 3% at $82.05 on Wednesday and was indicated up 2% at $83.70 on Thursday.
Here are Wednesday’s top analyst calls for your review.
