Stocks were indicated open up yet again on Thursday with the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all showing green. With a new regime set to make changes in the coming years 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 Thursday, November 21, 2024.
4D Molecular Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FDMT) was initiated with an Underweight rating and assigned a $8 price target (versus $8.41 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) was initiated with a Neutral rating at UBS.
DT Midstream, Inc. (NYSE: DTM) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target raised to $115 from $90 (versus $102.73 prior close) at Citigroup.
The Ensign Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENSG) was started as Buy with a $175 price target (versus $144.66 prior close) at UBS.
EVERTEC, Inc. (NYSE: EVTC) was raised to Equal-Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE: GEV) was initiated with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $385 price target (versus $342.77 prior close) at Wells Fargo.
HOOKIPA Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOK) was maintained at Market Outperform but its price target was slashed down to $7 from $24 (versus $2.72 prior close) at JMP Securities.
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Merus N.V. (NASDAQ: MRUS) was initiated as Buy with a $73 price target (versus $45.88 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) closed up 10% at $473.83 on Wednesday and was indicated up another 12% in early trading on Thursday as Bitcoin was challenging $97,500. MicroStrategy was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $570 from $290 at BTIG.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $1,000 from $800 (versus $883.85 prior close) at BofA Securities.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) had already seen an endless line of analyst price target hikes in the days ahead of earnings. It closed down 0.76% at $145.89 ahead of earnings and Thursday’s drop was less than the after-hours indications with a 0.7% drop to $144.85 in early trading. NVIDIA was maintained as Buy and its price target was raised to $190 from $170 at Benchmark. Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $165 from $150, and Wells Fargo reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $185 from $165. NVIDIA was maintained as Buy with price target hike to $160 from $145 at Needham. Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $190 from $189. Rosenblatt was the original street-high target with the first $200 price target, and now it has reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target even higher to $220 after earnings.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) closed up 1.2% at $392.89 ahead of earnings and its shares were indicated down 2.75% at $383.30 in early Thursday indications after the report. Susquehanna reiterated its Positive rating and raised its target to $435 from $420, and Wells Fargo reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $450 from $415. Palo Alto Networks was maintained as Market Outperform and its price target was raised to $415 from $380 at JMP Securities. It was also maintained as Buy and its price target was raised to $450 from $385 at Needham, while Northland Capital Markets raised its price target to $370 from $350.
Piedmont Lithium Inc. (NASDAQ: PLL) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Macquarie. Its shares closed down 14.5% at $10.47 on Wednesday and Thursday’s indication was up almost 3% at $10.77.
Pyxis Oncology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYXS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair. After closing down 8% at $3.82 on Wednesday it was down a sharp 36% at $2.43 on Thursday after releasing Phase I drug study data.
Sage Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAGE) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform at RBC Capital Markets.
Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW) was last seen trading up 235 at $159,00 after a “beat and raise” quarter. Wells Fargo maintained its Equal-Weight rating but raised its price target to $150 from $125. Snowflake was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $200 from $160 at Needham; and it was maintained with price target raised to $185 from $165 at Piper Sandler. Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $190 from $170.
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Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) closed don 21% at $121.72 after earnings disappointed everyone. Target was maintained was Outperform but its price target was cut to $150 from $195 at Telsey Advisory Group. Wells Fargo maintained its Overweight rating but still cut its price target to $150 from $180. Citigroup downgraded Target to Neutral from Buy and slashed its target down to $130 from $188, and Deutsche Bank downgraded Target to Hold from Buy and slashed its price target down to $108 from $184.
Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (NYSE: WSM) was up 27.5% at $175.04 after its earnings reaction on Wednesday and was indicated to open flat on Thursday. It was reiterated with an Outperform rating and its price target was raised to $190 from $165 at Telsey Advisory Group. Williams-Sonoma was maintained at Hold and its price target was raised to $180 from $145 at Loop Capital.
Wix.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: WIX) closed up 14.3% at $210.27 on Wednesday after earnings and was indicated to open flat on Thursday. Wix.com was reiterated at Buy and its price target was raised to $235 from $200 at Needham. Piper Sandler reiterated its Overweight rating and its price target was raised to $249 from $200 in its call.
Dropbox, Inc. (NASDAQ: DBX) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, pointing out increased profitability, strong cash flow, and innovation into artificial intelligence are making the stock look attractive. Dropbox closed at $26.89 ahead of the call.
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CDW Corporation (NASDAQ: CDW) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks. The independent research firm attributed CDW’s struggles to economic uncertainty and growing complexity pointing to lower earnings expectations. CDW closed at $175.99 ahead of the call.
In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AppLovin, Bloom, CAVA, HP, Qualcomm, Rockwell, Salesforce, Walmart, Xpeng and many more stocks.
