Wednesday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Masco, Micron, Plug Power, Smith & Wesson, Virgin Galactic and More

Investing

Published: June 30, 2021 9:20 am

Last Updated: June 30, 2021 9:33 am

Wednesday’s futures were somewhat muted, despite private payrolls rising in June. The ADP job report saw payrolls increasing by 692,000, notching a sixth consecutive monthly rise. The service sector saw the largest increase in jobs, with leisure and hospitality jobs leading the charge. This all seems to be a recurring theme for the reopening trade, but what investors are looking forward to is June’s unemployment report on Friday.

Wall Street is concerned about tapering of the quantitative easing program, but despite a clear building of inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained. That could be one reason for the continued moves higher in the equity markets, even after sell-offs. Another big plus is the continued massive inflows into money markets.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for an 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 coming 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 for Wednesday, June 30, 2021.

Allegro MicroSystems Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGM): William Blair initiated coverage with an Outperform rating. Shares last closed near $28, and the consensus price target is $35.43.

AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ: APP): Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to an Underweight rating from Overweight and cut the price target to $68. The stock closed near $83 per share. The 52-week trading range is $49.41 to $90.03.