Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AMD, Apple, Best Buy, Costco, Intel, KCS, Nikola, Plug Power, Salesforce and More

Investing

Published: May 28, 2021 9:01 am

Last Updated: May 28, 2021 9:08 am

The futures were all higher on Friday as trading wraps up for May and investors eye the long, three-day holiday weekend. Thursday was another wacky trading day across Wall Street, with the Dow Jones industrials, S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 all posted gains while the Nasdaq closed with a small loss. Once again the so-called meme stocks were in focus, especially AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC), which was up a stunning 44% on a massive volume spike of 637 million shares. Electric vehicles and many of the recently dormant SPAC stocks took off as well.

Despite the concerns across Wall Street about tapering of the quantitative easing program and the clear building inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained, which could one reason for the continued moves higher in the equity markets, even after sell-offs. Also note that money markets continue to see massive inflows, which is another big plus.

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 balance 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 Friday, May 28, 2021.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD): Benchmark resumed coverage of the chip leader with a Buy rating and a $100 price target. The consensus target is higher at $104.48. The stock was last seen trading on Thursday at $78.42 per share.

American Campus Communities Inc. (NYSE: ACC): Piper Sandler raised its Neutral rating to Overweight and also hiked the price target to $55. The posted consensus target is $49.50. The stock closed trading on Thursday at $46.26

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): New Street downgraded the Silicon Valley legacy leader to Sell with a $90 price target. The consensus target is much higher at $159.60. The stock closed Thursday at $125.28.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY): Telsey Advisory raised the price target on the electronics retailing giant to $140 from $130 and maintained an Outperform rating on the stock. The consensus price target is $120.94, and the shares were last seen Thursday at $118.14.