Wednesday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Emerson Electric, JD.com, Krispy Kreme, Lucid, Regions Financial, Shopify, Snowflake, 3M, Wendy's and More

Investing

Published: January 12, 2022 8:57 am

Last Updated: September 12, 2023 11:53 am

The futures were slightly higher as the consumer price index numbers came in pretty much as expected. Inflation is still at the highest level in 40 years and consumers are being hit on everything from groceries to gasoline. Investors witnessed a wild roller-coaster Tuesday that featured some big back and forth moves on the major indexes, but all finally closed higher, with the Nasdaq leading the way with a 1.4% gain. Clearly, some of the strength we have seen in the Nasdaq this week appears to be hedge fund short covering.

All eyes Tuesday were focused on Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell’s testimony during his confirmation hearing. While noting in prepared remarks that the Fed will use all available tools, the bullish outlook for investors after the years of manufactured liquidity could be in jeopardy. Many Wall Street professionals also will be looking for Friday’s retail sales report. In addition, fourth-quarter earnings kick off this week as some of the big banks will be out with what are expected to be strong results on Friday.

Many on Wall Street are continuing to focus on the big increases in energy and food costs and other spiraling inflation issues. While some strategists and economists are divided on when the current inflation surge will ease, the ongoing supply chain concerns and stagflation worries remain front and center and will until the price increases start to decline.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding fresh 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 Wednesday, January 12, 2022.

Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA): Wells Fargo upgraded the shares to Overweight from Equal Weight and set the price target at $205. The consensus target is up at $221.44, and the final trade on Tuesday came in at $157.05.

Bill.com Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BILL): Goldman Sachs started coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a $296 price target. That compares with a $341.50 consensus target and Tuesday’s closing print of $212.32, which was up almost 6% for the day.

Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR): Bernstein started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $365 price target. The consensus target is $351.42. The stock closed trading on Tuesday at $305.33.