Monday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Akamai, ContextLogic, DuPont, First Solar, Southwest Air, 3M, Union Pacific and More

Investing

Published: October 4, 2021 9:13 am

Last Updated: October 5, 2021 7:35 am

The futures were down on Monday, after the fourth quarter started off on the right foot with a big risk-on rally, helped along in part by the reopening trade stocks. Technology and health care soared as drugmaker Merck said Friday that its experimental pill for people sick with COVID-19 reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half. In Washington last week, House Speaker Pelosi was forced to scrap a planned Thursday vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package due to lack of support from progressives. Conservatives meanwhile are pushing back hard on the massive reconciliation spending bill.

Though the recent consumer price index and retail sales data has tempered some of the inflation and growth worries, mounting stagflation concerns continued to pick up, amid the ongoing supply chain and input pressures and recovery headwinds from the spread of the Delta variant. Federal Reserve assurances that rates will remain accommodative continue to provide a tailwind for equities though.

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 Monday, October 4, 2021.

Akamai Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM): KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded the shares to Equal Weight from Overweight. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $92.64 to $124.91 and has a $132.31 consensus price objective. The shares closed Friday at $105.48.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY): UBS upgraded it to Buy from Neutral and boosted the price target to $215 from $141. The consensus target is $184.16. Friday’s closing share price was $192.68.