Stocks were trying to stage a recovery on Tuesday after Monday’s deep sell-off from the DeepSeek AI wrecking ball against U.S. AI and technology stocks. There is also the start of the two-day January Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting with no rate cut expected this week. Investors are still adjusting used to the Trump administration’s slew of new policies. Many investors and traders are still trying to decide how they want their assets positioned for 2025 and beyond. This is where the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can come into play.
Oggonomics searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street to look for new ideas in Wall Street research reports that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed. 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.
These are some of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) faced a record-breaking loss for market cap in a single day (over $500 billion or so) but many analysts have defended the stock. NVIDIA’s 17% drop to $118.42 on Monday was last seen trading up almost 3% at $121.75 ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell.
AbbVie (NYSE: ABV) was reiterated at Buy but its price target was cut to $205 from $215 at Citigroup.
Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) was initiated as Hold with a $96 price target at Truist Securities.
American Tower Corporation (NYSE: AMT) was reiterated at Overweight but its price target was cut to $214 from $215 at Barclays.
Arcturus Therapeutics Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ARCT) was started as Buy with a $41 price target (versus $16.49 close) at BTIG.
Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALAB) fell 28% to $83.16 on Monday’s AI crush, but shares were indicated up 6% at $88.75 on Tuesday. Astera Labs was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $120 price target at Northland Capital Markets.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $29 from $28 at Bernstein.
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its price target was raised to $400 from $280 (versus $299.07 close) at Mizuho.
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, noting that it faces significant challenges from macro pressures in China to increasing competition in key markets. After a 2.4% gain to $88.51 on Monday its stock was indicated up 2% at $90.25 on Tuesday.
Bill Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: BILL) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, noting that Bill’s software is a rare bright spot in an otherwise weak tech sector.
ALSO READ: BAD NEWS FOR HOUSING TO START 2025
The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) was started as Buy with a $27 target price (versus $19.10 close) at Truist Securities.
Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and saw its price target raised to $88 from $84 (versus $76.29 close) at JPMorgan.
Ecolab Inc. (NYSE: ECL) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $280 from $263 (versus $246.20 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) was reiterated as Overweight but its price target was cut to $970 from $1,000 at Wells Fargo; Eli Lilly was also maintained as Buy with price target cut to $1,190 from $1,250 at Citigroup.
Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE: WTRG) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $41 price target (versus $35.43 close) at Jefferies.
Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $495 from $440 (versus $402.90 close) at Evercore ISI.
McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $336 from $334 (versus $293.09 close) at Citigroup.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) was reiterated as Buy but its price target was cut down to $125 from $130 (versus $97.94 close) at Citigroup.
SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI) was reiterated at Buy and its price target was raised to $20 from $13 at Needham. SoFi closed down 10.2% at $16.08 on Monday and was indicated up about 0.3% at $16.13 on Tuesday.
Tronox Holdings plc (NYSE: TROX) was initiated with a Buy rating and with $17 price target (versus $10.13 close) at Truist Securities.
ALSO READ: CAN TRUMP’S TOP 20 STOCKS OF 2017 REPEAT IN 2025?
Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO) managed to close up 2% at $138.99 on Monday after a huge gain last week, and shares were indicated up 1% at $140.40 on Tuesday. Twilio was reiterated at Buy and its price target was raised to $165 from $91 at Needham.
Uber Technologies, inc. (NYSEL UBER) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was cut down to $82 from $98 (versus $68.77 close) at Piper Sandler.
UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was cut to $660 from $694 at Wells Fargo. UnitedHealth closed up 2% at $543.52 on Monday and it was indicated at $541.50 on Tuesday.
Victoria’s Secret & Co. (NYSE: VSCO) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $53 from $51 (versus $37.34 close) at Barclays.
If you missed out on Monday’s top analyst calls, they were in shares of AES, Alphabet, Apple, AmEx, Capri, Fannie Mae, Meta, Plug Power, Twilio, Uber and many more stocks.
