Thursday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Allstate, EOG Resources, Occidental Petroleum, Sunrun, Take-Two, Tilray and More

Investing

Published: June 3, 2021 8:46 am

Last Updated: October 4, 2021 1:45 pm

The futures traded lower across the board Thursday, as all the major indexes scored some small gains on Wednesday. The so-called meme stocks were the story of the day, returning to the spotlight with AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC) exploding 95% higher and once again leading the speculative short-covering group higher. All eyes are focused Thursday on the ADP employment report, and then the big story for the week will be Friday’s nonfarm payrolls, which many across Wall Street are expecting to come in below forecasts.

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 Thursday, June 3, 2021.

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL): Citigroup downgraded the insurance giant to Neutral from Buy but raised the price target to $142. The consensus target is in line at $142.83. The last trade for Wednesday hit the tape at $138.14. This could be a valuation call.

Andersons Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDE): Zacks named this food distribution company as its Bull of the Day stock. The analyst suggested that agriculture is in the early innings of its next cycle. The stock most recently closed at $31.83 but so far has a consensus price target of just $29.67.