Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Chevron, Citigroup, Costco, Intel, Kinross Gold, Southwest Air, Take-Two Interactive, Teladoc, Vale, Workhorse and More

Investing

Published: March 4, 2022 8:53 am

Last Updated: March 4, 2022 9:12 am

The futures were down across the board, as we get set to finish one of the wildest trading weeks in recent memory. It was topped off by strong nonfarm payroll numbers for February, which came in way above the Wall Street estimates of 440,000. The markets were also buoyed initially Thursday by reports that cease fire talks were again being held, despite aggressive Russian bombing of and movement on the capital city of Kyiv.

But the situation has taken a worrisome turn for the worse after Russian forces captured Europe’s largest nuclear plant after a very dangerous attack. Congress is looking at some available options to cut off U.S. imports of Russian oil and gas, and reports suggested that sanctions on Russian oil are apparently still on the table as the administration looks at the global oil impact of the move.

All the major indexes were back in risk-off mode closing down, with the Nasdaq getting hit the hardest, down 1.56%. Oil prices finally backed up some after an incredible 20% or more move in a week, as clearly some profit-taking was the order of the day. The Treasury curve, which had seen three straight days of dramatic moves, once again saw safe-haven buying, but yields moved only modestly lower.

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 Friday, March 4, 2022.

Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT): Evercore ISI downgraded the stock to In Line from Outperform and dropped the $235 price target to $200. The consensus target is $236. The final trade on Thursday was posted at $162.26, which was down close to 4% for the day.

Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL): BMO Capital Markets upgraded the stock to Outperform from Market Perform and boosted the target price to $105 from $87. The consensus target is $102.88, and the final trade for Thursday was reported at $90.14.