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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Avaya, Dell, On Semi, Neurocrine Bio, Palo Alto, Ping, Poshmark, Switch and More

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The futures traded solidly higher again on Tuesday. Investors were treated to a massive Monday snapback rally after Friday’s big losses, which ended the worst trading week for all three indexes since October. It appears that the Reddit/WallStreetBets crowd has turned their attention to the silver markets as many of the top stocks and exchange-traded funds had big days. Top analysts on Wall Street are continuing to point to “bubble” metrics. The stunning gains and losses in the short interest plays are an example, and many are urging caution.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports are slowing, but more big tech is on tap for this week. Most across Wall Street will not only be examining the results, but looking to see what guidance for the first quarter and the rest of 2021 look like. With the major indexes and the Russell 2000 still very close to all-time highs, it makes sense for investors to start building some cash reserves while repositioning portfolios for 2021.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday, February 2, 2021.

Avaya Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AVYA) saw its target price raised to $26 from $23 at Goldman Sachs, which has a Buy rating on the stock. The consensus target is $23.20. The last trade for Monday came in at $22.89, up almost 3% on the day.

Clover Health Investments Corp. (NASDAQ: CLOV) was started at Citigroup with a Buy rating and a $19 target. A consensus price target has not been set yet. The stock closed Monday at $13.81. The shares traded up almost 4% in the premarket.

CoreSite Realty Corp. (NYSE: COR) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen, which also raised the price target to $152. The consensus target is $131.88. Monday’s last trade came in at $138.91, up almost 4% on the day.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs, which raised the price target to $96. The posted consensus target is $80.01. The shares were last seen Monday at $73.95.

Hilltop Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTH) was downgraded from Buy to Neutral with a $31 target at Compass Point. The consensus target is $32.40. The stock closed Monday at $30.85.

Limelight Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen, which lowered the price target to $4.75. The consensus target is higher at $6.69. The final trade on Monday came in at $4.68 a share.

Mimecast Ltd. (NASDAQ: MIME) was started with an Overweight rating and a $57 price objective at Stephens. The consensus estimate is $57.58. The last print for Monday came in at $44.45, up over 3% on the day.

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: NBIX) was started as Outperform with a $163 price target at Raymond James. That compares with a much lower consensus target of $125.10. The shares were last seen Monday at $106.02, down almost 4% on the day.

Nevro Corp. (NASDAQ: NVRO) was started at Piper Sandler with an Overweight rating and a $190 price target. The consensus target is $194.42. The shares closed Monday’s trading at $163.47.

On Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: ON) saw its target price raised to $43 from $38 at Goldman Sachs, which has a Buy rating on the stock. The consensus target is $38.24, and the shares closed on Monday at $36.71, after almost a 7% gain for the day.

Omnicell Inc. (NASDAQ: OMCL) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Sandler, which also raised the price target to $147. That compares with the $126.63 consensus target and Monday’s close price of $122.04.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. The price target on the cybersecurity software leader was raised to $425 as well. The consensus target is $371.12. The shares traded up 3% on Monday to close at $361.36. The stock was up another 3% in premarket action.

Ping Identity Holding Corp. (NYSE: PING) was started at Overweight with a $40 price target at Stephens. The consensus target for the cybersecurity newcomer is $34.53. The stock closed Monday at $30.83, up over 3% for the day, and shares were almost 2% higher in Tuesday’s premarket action.

Phantom Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: PHAT) was started with a Buy rating at Guggenheim, which has a $60 target price. The consensus target is just $51. The stock closed on Monday at $38.49. Shares traded almost 4% higher in Tuesday’s premarket.

Poshmark Inc. (NASDAQ: POSH) was started with a Buy rating and an $88 target at MKM Partners. A consensus target has not yet been posted. The last trade for Monday came in at $73, after rising almost 5% for the day.

Proofpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: PFPT) was started with an Overweight rating and a $165 target at Stephens. The consensus target is $143.74. The closing price on Monday was $130.62. Shares were almost 3% higher in the premarket.

Sage Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SAGE) was resumed in coverage at Raymond James with a Market Perform rating. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $25.01 to $98.39 and has a consensus price target of $99.20. Monday’s final trade was posted at $82.66.

Switch Inc. (NYSE: SWCH) was started with a Buy rating at Truist Securities, which has a $25 price target. The consensus target is $21.25. Monday’s close at $17.86 followed almost a 4% gain for the day. The shares were almost 6% in premarket trading.

TETRA Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TTI) was raised from Underperform to Outperform with a $3 target at Evercore ISI. A consensus target was not available. The shares ended trading on Monday at $1.48 and were up almost 15% in premarket trading.

Vipshop Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: VIPS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley, which raised the price target to $33. The consensus target is $27.48. The last trade for Monday hit the tape at $29.25, which was almost 7% higher for the day. The stock followed though in the premarket with an additional 4% rise.

Zix Corp. (NYSE: ZIX) was started with an Overweight rating and an $11 price target at Stephens. That matches the consensus target of $11. Monday’s closing price was $8.32 per share.

BofA Securities has made some big changes to its US 1 List of top stock recommendations. Three stocks would be great additions to long-term growth portfolios as they are in sectors poised to outperform this year.

Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included AMC Entertainment, Bed Bath & Beyond, Halliburton, Intuit, Moderna, Nikola, Phillips 66, Stitch Fix and Virgin Galactic. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on American Airlines, Intel, Lowe’s, Tesla and more.

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