The futures traded higher on Tuesday to start a holiday-shortened trading week. Last week ended with the S&P 500 printing a new all-time high and the other indexes very close to records. Investors are continuing to cheer the possibility of a big stimulus package becoming a reality, and fourth-quarter earnings have continued to come in very strong. Top analysts on Wall Street are pointing to “bubble” metrics, like the massive retail stock and option trading, huge hedge fund leverage and IPOs that don’t make money as examples, and many are urging caution.
Even with fourth-quarter earnings results slowing, most across Wall Street still are not only be examining the results, but also looking to see what guidance for the balance of the first quarter and the rest of 2021 looks like. With stocks very overbought and major Wall Street firms warning of an impending 5% to 10% correction, it makes sense for investors to start building some cash reserves while repositioning portfolios for the rest of 2021.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with the 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 16, 2021.
Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) was raised at Deutsche Bank from Hold to Buy with a $150 price target. The consensus target is $133.38. The last trade on Friday came in at $164.64, up 3% on the day, and the shares were up an additional 4% in Tuesday’s premarket.
Anaplan Inc. (NYSE: PLAN) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley, which has set a $100 price target. The lower consensus target is $79.94, and Friday’s close was at $82.26. The shares were up almost 4% in the premarket.
American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was downgraded from Outperform to Neutral with a $126 price target at Baird. The consensus target is higher at $130.32, and Friday’s final share price was $129.62.
Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAM) was started at Wells Fargo with an Overweight rating and a $145 price target. The consensus target is down at $76. The last trade for Friday came in at $105 a share.
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