Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amgen, CarMax, GE, Home Depot, Marathon Digital, MetLife, Palantir, Realty Income, WeWork and More

Investing

Published: June 24, 2022 8:48 am

Last Updated: June 24, 2022 11:31 am

The futures traded higher as we wrap up the holiday-shortened trading week. All the major indexes were able to post and hold their gains Thursday, as interest rates continued to move lower. While on the surface that sounds good, and it is, what it may mean is that large institutional accounts have been big Treasury note and bond buyers this week. That may portend end-of-quarter rebalancing, as yields had moved to highs not seen since 2018. It also could be a safe-haven move, as portfolio managers are anticipating that we already could be in a recession.

Crude oil traded lower Thursday, as both Brent and West Texas Intermediate retreated from highs not seen in well over a decade. The American Petroleum Institute reported this week the biggest crude inventory rise since February, so high prices are taking a toll on motorists. Natural gas closed down over 9%.

Treasury yields plummeted across the curve on the aforementioned buying spree, while gold closed slightly higher and Bitcoin traded up close to 3%, back over the $20,000 level.

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, June 24, 2022.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating on the venerable biotechnology stock and has a $290 target price. The consensus target is $250.03. The closing share price on Thursday was $243.09.

Athira Pharm Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHA): Stifel downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy and slashed the price target to $5 from $36. The consensus target is $20.75 for now. The stock closed on Thursday at $2.75.

Boise Cascade Co. (NYSE: BCC): BofA Securities downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral with a $71 target price. The consensus target is $85. The shares were hammered Thursday, closing down almost 11% at $55.74, on basically no news except the downgrade.