Investing

Tuesday's Dead Cat Bounce: Analysts Upgrade or Downgrade Affirm, Palantir, UpStart and More

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Markets bounced back on Tuesday after a sharp sell-off to start out the week. Broad markets hit their lowest levels for the year on Monday, and this bounce begs the question of whether they headed lower, considering major headwinds.

After notching five consecutive weeks of losses, it is fairly obvious what direction the S&P 500 is headed. For a turnaround in the index, there would need to be some major catalyst, or at least the economics need to improve. This does not happen overnight. The first steps toward a turnaround could be declining inflation in the upcoming consumer price index report on Wednesday, but this is yet to be seen.

Another factor hampering the progress of the broad markets is rising interest rates, which are a direct response to inflation. To curb inflation, the Federal Reserve is incentivizing taking money out of the economy by raising rates. Note that this also makes lending more expensive for the lendee, meaning companies (primarily in tech) that are pre-revenue or even operating at a loss will be facing much harder times.

The questions going forward are how many more times the Fed will hike rates this year and how much of this have markets already priced in. Odds are that more rate hikes are on the way. Unfortunately, that implies the S&P 500, and the other major indexes, will continue their trajectory lower, at least for the near term. We already may be in a recession as well, but it will take a few more months to know for sure.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing additional analyst calls seen on Tuesday. We have included the latest call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts. Note that analyst calls seen earlier in the day were on Altria, DraftKings, Marriott, Realty Income, Roblox, Under Armour and more.

Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM): Stephens downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight and slashed the $51 price target to $17. The 52-week trading range is $18.81 to $176.65, and shares traded near $20 apiece on Tuesday.

DBV Technologies S.A. (NASDAQ: DBVT): Goldman Sachs lowered its Buy rating to Neutral and cut the $6 price target to $1.50. The 52-week trading range is $1.20 to $6.58, and shares were trading near $1.25 on Tuesday.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX): Mizuho’s downgrade to Neutral from Buy included a price target cut to $72 from $82. The 52-week trading range is $54.14 to $73.32, and shares traded near $69 apiece on Tuesday.

GoodRx Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX): SVB Leerink downgraded it to a Market Perform rating from Outperform and cut the price target to $10 from $33. The Raymond James downgrade was to Market Perform from Outperform as well. RBC Capital Markets cut its Outperform rating to Sector Perform and cut the $35 price target to $8. The stock traded near $7 on Tuesday. The 52-week trading range is $7.33 to $48.05.

LivePerson Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN): Roth Capital upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy with a $25 price target. The 52-week trading range is $16.00 to $68.82, and shares were trading near $17 on Tuesday.

O’Reilly Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: ORLY): The BofA Securities upgrade was from Neutral to Buy with a $730 price target. The stock traded near $623 on Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $519.32 to $748.68.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR): RBC Capital Markets lowered its Sector Perform rating to Underperform and cut the $12 price target to $6. Shares were trading near $7. The 52-week range is $7.23 to $29.29.

Progressive Corp. (NYSE: PGR): Jefferies upgraded it to Hold from Underperform and raised the price target to $106 from $99. The stock traded near $110 on Tuesday. The 52-week trading range is $89.35 to $120.17.

Upstart Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: UPST): Citigroup downgraded it to Neutral from Buy and cut the $180 price target to $50. Stephens lowered its Equal Weight rating Underweight and slashed the $124 price target to $28. Piper Sandler’s downgrade to Neutral from Overweight included a price target cut to $44 from $230. The 52-week trading range is $33.33 to $401.49, and shares traded near $36 apiece on Tuesday.


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