Right now the market is driven by uncertainty. Tariffs into a trade war, political infighting, attacking the Fed, deficit spending and higher interest rates. It’s all in the daily news flow creating more uncertainty while the economy is already slowing down. It is rattling investors’ nerves. But… At the end of the day, investors and consumers alike are going to have to decide where they want to stash their savings and investable capital.
Oggonomics has tried to identify multiple aspects of the economy and certain companies within that scope that may easily survive and even thrive in an economy like this. There are of course no assurances that the stock market carnage is anywhere close to over. And there are of course no guarantees that any stock will rise — even when Wall Street is cheering them on!
One way of targeting current winners for the coming weeks and months is to look at the daily flow of Wall Street analyst reports. These calls are often identifying oversold stocks (and sectors) and trying to point out which companies will hold up better than others during extreme volatility and uncertainty.
To qualify in this list as of now, a company had to be upgraded, or its price target had to be raised rather than trimmed. The current flow of research calls is dominated with analyst calls maintaining their Buy and Outperform ratings and lowering their price targets to reflect the recent weakness and realistic upside expectations. And many other stocks are also facing formal analyst rating downgrades and facing price target cuts as well.
These are the analyst calls from Tuesday, April 22, 2025 where Wall Street believes may offer some form of a safe harbor when the economic seas are quite choppy.
BOFA SYAYS STORE YOUR MONEY HERE TOO
Public Storage (NYSE: PSA) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $368 from $349 at BofA Securities. The firm sees self-storage as a relatively safe space and noted that Public Storage has a strong and flexible balance sheet with the lowest financial leverage versus peers. It is expected that PSA would be on the top of defensive stocks if the economy slows or if capital markets tighten. After closing at $287.56, PSA shares were trading up 2% at $294.00.
SPORTS SHOULD STAY FINE
Genius Sports Limited (NYSE: GENI) was reiterated as Buy at BTIG and the firm raised its price target to $12 from $11 in the call. After closing at $9.87, the stock was indicated up over $10.00 on Tuesday. BTIG sees the cleanest setups within its business segments of its coverage with a fluid macro and risk backdrop, as well as seeing room for upside against its own estimates.
CANTOR FITZGERALD HIGH ON DRUGS
AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) was initiated with an Overweight rating and $210 price target at Cantor Fitzgerald. The analyst report sees AbbVie offering investors a compelling mix of growth and defense characteristics to protect and grow over time. Its sales profile is also considered as to be diverse with good visibility and with low clinical risk. There are also no immediate loss of exclusivity risks now with the Humira pain already behind the company. AbbVie shares closed at $170.16 and it was trading up 2% at $173.50.
Gilead Sciences, inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $125 from $100 as a new analyst stepped in at Cantor Fitzgerald. After the stock has re-rated higher over 2024 and with some clinical de-risking, the analyst sees upside for Gilead’s HIV franchise sales growth and margin expansion coming over the next five years. Gilead was recently at $105.
Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLY) was started as Overweight with a $975 price target at Cantor Fitzgerald. The recent positive drug study data (oral versus injections) and improved underlying GLP-1 commercial metrics that drove the shares higher point to more upside ahead. After being under$750 last week, the stock is now up at $820.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTX) was also assumed in new coverage as Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald, and the new analyst issued a $535 price target rather than the prior $480 price target. Vertex is expected to keep its dominant cystic fibrosis franchise leadership after finding another way to extend with Alyftrek. Multiple new or near-term launches could all turn into blockbuster drugs on their own. Vertex was last seen at $488.
SONOCO, WITH A TWIST
Sonoco Products Company (NYSE: SON) may be in the more cyclical Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging segments, but Jefferies has now initiated coverage with a Buy rating and $62 price target. hat is handily higher than the more recent $4.50 share price. According to the report, Sonoco is nearing the end of a major portfolio transformation that has been in the works for the last five years. That said, there is a caveat about this positive call. In a competing call, Raymond James maintained an Outperform rating but lowered its price target to $50 from $54 as a reflection of the current environment.
TWO ENERGY PICKS FROM UBS
Gulfport Energy Corporation (NYSE: GPOR) was started as Buy and assigned a $215 price target at UBS, up from $165.48 ahead of the call after a 10% underperformance against peers so far in 2025. The draw here is that Gulfport plans to return nearly all fiscal 2025 free cash flow to shareholders while ramping up its buybacks as increased liquids drilling will lift margins to boost its performance against peers.
Magnolia Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: MGY) was started as Buy with a $26 price target at UBS, with a prior $20.19 closing price looking to be a favorable entry point after losing about one-third of its value from the 52-week high. Magnolia’s strong capital returns and capital efficiency have a favorable outlook after looking at high production as well. Its superior balance sheet should also support capital returns to shareholders even with an expectation for lower oil prices.
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Oggonomics maintains no formal rating or price targets of its own on any of these stocks. Investors are always reminded never to use research reports as the sole basis to ever buy or sell a stock. Analysts can be wrong, and as we see routinely it seems — the fundamentals can change in the blink of an eye.
