Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Allstate, Costco, EA, Etsy, Lyft, Plug Power, Qualcomm, Roku, Starbucks and More

Investing

Published: November 5, 2021 9:00 am

Last Updated: November 5, 2021 12:27 pm

The futures traded higher Friday, as investors cheered the nonfarm payroll numbers that finally met and exceeded Wall Street expectations. More all-time highs were posted Thursday on each of the big indexes, except the Dow Jones industrials. That combined with the very straightforward commentary from Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell this week, in which he reminded investors not to confuse the beginning of the tapering of quantitative easing bond purchases with any start to the hiking of the federal funds rate. Some say the first hike could come in the summer of next year, while others say 2023 is the most likely start date.

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, November 5, 2021.

Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL): Raymond James downgraded shares of the insurance giant to Outperform from Strong Buy and sliced the price objective to $140 from $150. The analysts’ consensus target is $146.08. The stock closed trading Thursday at $117.10, which was down over 7% for the day after mixed quarterly results were posted.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AMC): Wedbush downgraded the meme stock favorite to Underperform from Neutral and has a $7.50 price target. The consensus target is even lower at $5.44. The stock closed much higher on Thursday, at $40.05.

The Andersons Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDE): Stephens raised its Equal Weight rating to Overweight and boosted the price target to $48 from $36. The consensus target is $39. The stock closed on Thursday at $37.03, over 5% higher for the day after beating analysts’ third-quarter estimates.

Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP): SMBC Nikko started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $20 price target. The posted consensus target is $22.71. The final trade on Thursday came in at $18.26.