Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Aurora Cannabis, Broadcom, Clorox, DocuSign, NXP Semiconductors and More

Investing

Published: September 3, 2021 9:06 am

Last Updated: September 3, 2021 10:24 am

Friday morning futures were mixed after the August employment report sharply missed estimates. While the futures were only tracking a littles ways in both directions, the difference may be more pronounced when the markets open. In terms of the report, nonfarm payrolls increased by 235,000, massively decelerating from last month’s number and the unemployment came in at 5.2%.

Analysts were targeting a “robust” 750,000 jobs coming back in August, according to Bloomberg. Note that this is still an impressive number by prepandemic standards, but it does demonstrate a deceleration from July’s report, which saw 943,000 jobs added. Also, analysts were expecting the unemployment rate to narrow to 5.2% in August from July’s reported 5.4%.

While many expected the report to be a fairly positive one, it still reflected the surge in coronavirus cases that we saw across the United States over the past month. It goes without saying that the Federal Reserve also will be monitoring these numbers, per its dual mandate, and the report could influence the Fed’s monetary policy to come later this year. For now, the labor market appears to be improving and the Fed policy is favorable.

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 any market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance 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, September 3, 2021.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NASDAQ: ACB): Jefferies upgraded the stock to a Hold rating from Underperform. The shares have a 52-week range of $3.71 to $18.98, and Thursday’s close was at $7.44.

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO): The Summit Insights downgrade was to Hold from Buy. Cowen reiterated its Market Perform rating and raised the price target to $500 from $478. That compares with a $530.62 consensus target and Thursday’s close at $491.90.