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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Alcoa, Apple, Cloudflare, Continental Resources, Freeport-McMoRan, GameStop, Infosys, Zscaler and More
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The futures traded higher on Wednesday as investors saw some across the board selling Tuesday, with all the major indexes closing in the red. Testimony from Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was mostly in line with expectations, as they discussed infrastructure spending, inflation and raising taxes.
Top strategists on Wall Street continue pointing to “bubble” metrics, like the massive “meme” retail stock and option trading by the WallStreetBets crowd, huge hedge fund leverage and IPOs that don’t make money as examples. This could mean that the current volatility may be here for some time.
With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into the market strength, while repositioning portfolios for the start of the second quarter and the rest of 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 Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
Alcoa Corp. (NYSE: AA) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley, which has a $43 price target for the aluminum giant. The consensus target is $28.73. The stock closed Tuesday at $27.42 after falling almost 10% as China discussed selling state reserves to cool down prices. The shares rebounded over 4% in the premarket.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated at BofA Securities with a Neutral rating and a $155 price target. The consensus target for the technology behemoth is $152.06. The stock closed Tuesday at $122.54.
Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was raised to Buy from Underperform at BofA Securities. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $29.51 to $47.76 and have a $49.19 consensus target. The last trade for Tuesday came in at $44.37.
Bausch Health Inc. (NYSE: BHC) was downgraded at BofA Securities from Neutral to Underperform with a $27 price target. The consensus target is $35.44, and the closing price was $31.66 on Tuesday.
Calumet Specialty Products L.P. (NASDAQ: CLMT) was raised at Wells Fargo from Equal Weight to Overweight with an $8 price target. The consensus target is just $3.67, and the stock closed Tuesday at $5.28. Shares were up 6% in the premarket.
Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE: NET) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Truist Securities, which raise the price target to $110. The consensus target is $101 and Tuesday’s final print was $72.37.
Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) was raised from Neutral to Buy with a $34 price target at MKM Partners. The consensus target is $26.05. Tuesday’s last trade was reported at $24.98.
Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE: BAP) was downgraded from Sector Outperform to Sector Perform with a $150 price target at Scotiabank. The consensus target is up at $173.82. The stock closed on Tuesday at $140.75.
Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE: EL) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Wells Fargo, which also raised the price target on the venerable fragrance company to $340. The consensus target is $299.18, and shares were last seen on Tuesday at $281.28.
Everest Re Group Ltd. (NYSE: RE) was raised at Morgan Stanley from Equal Weight to Overweight with a $316 price target. The consensus target is $277.44, and Tuesday’s closing price was $241.36.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley. The copper mining giant’s shares have traded in a wide 52-week range of $5.99 to $39.10, and they have a $36.98 consensus target. The stock plunged almost 8% on Tuesday and closed at $32.20.
GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME) was downgraded from Neutral to Underperform with a $29 price target at Wedbush. Telsey Advisory lowered its price target to $30 from $33. The consensus target is $ 14.64. Shares have seen wild Reddit/WallStreetBets retail trading since February, when a short squeeze skyrocketed the stock.
Infosys Ltd. (NYSE: INFY) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Bernstein. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $7.46 to $19.37 and have a $20.56 consensus price objective. The stock closed Tuesday at $18.71.
Matador Resources Co. (NYSE: MTDR) was raised from Neutral to Buy with a $30 price target at MKM Partners. The consensus target is $23.86, and the stock ended Tuesday trading at $22.07.
NextDecade Corp. (NASDAQ: NEXT) was raised at Citigroup from Neutral to Outperform with a $3 price target. The consensus target is $3.10, and the stock closed Tuesday at $1.71. Shares were up over 4% in the premarket.
OceanFirst Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: OCFC) was started with a Buy rating and a $28 price target at Seaport Global Securities. The consensus target is $23.43. Tuesday’s last trade came in at $23.20.
Pacific Mercantile Bancorp (NASDAQ: PMBC) was raised from Market Perform to Outperform with a $12 price target at Keefe Bruyette. The consensus target is $7.25, and the stock was last seen at $8.90 on Tuesday.
Repay Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: RPAY) was started at Citigroup at Buy with a $29 price target. The consensus target is $29.50. The stock closed at $23.32 on Tuesday.
Zscaler Inc. (NYSE: ZS) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Truist Securities, which raised the price target to $225. The higher consensus target is $232.42, and Tuesday’s final trade was at $183.
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Tuesday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Beyond Meat, Dun & Bradstreet, Evoqua Water Technologies, Microchip Technology, Skyworks Solutions, SunPower and Texas Instruments. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on DraftKings, GlaxoSmithKline, Netflix, Snowflake, Southwest Airlines and more.
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