Investing

As Markets Bet on a Hawkish Fed, Analysts Upgrade or Downgrade Kosmos Energy, Lennar, Snowflake and More

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Markets bounced back on Thursday after a recent rough patch. The Nasdaq was leading the charge with a gain of roughly 1%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones were up 0.7% and 0.3%, respectively.

Central bank officials are now meeting up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the Federal Reserve’s annual economic symposium. The most highly anticipated event comes Friday morning, when Fed Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak on where the Fed’s monetary policy will go from here. The next announcement comes in late September, when many are anticipating a rate hike of 75 basis points.

Friday morning, Powell is expected will continue with the theme of fighting inflation. Many are expecting a hawkish statement because anything less would undermine the Fed’s recent narrative. Again, the buildup to record levels of inflation was allowed by a dovish Fed, which at the time only regarded inflation as “transitory.”

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing additional analyst calls seen on Thursday. 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 Carvana, Dick’s Sporting Goods, O’Reilly Automotive, SolarEdge Technologies and more.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A): Credit Suisse started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $165 price target. The 52-week trading range is $112.52 to $179.57, and shares were trading near $135 on Thursday.

KB Home (NYSE: KBH): BofA Securities downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and has a $34 price target. Shares traded near $30 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $24.78 to $50.20.

Kosmos Energy Ltd. (NYSE: KOS): Berenberg raised its Hold rating to Buy with an $8.50 price target. The shares traded near $7 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $2.16 to $8.49.

Krystal Biotech Inc. (NASDAQ: KRYS): Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares to Neutral from Buy and has a $74 price target. The 52-week trading range is $38.86 to $102.99, and the share price was near $75 on Thursday.

La-Z-Boy Inc. (NYSE: LZB): Raymond James cut its Outperform rating to Market Perform. Shares have traded as high as $39.99 in the past year but were near $29 on Thursday, which is down 20% year to date.

Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN): The BofA Securities downgrade was from Neutral to Underperform with an $82 price target. Shares traded near $85 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $62.54 to $117.54.

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW): Raymond James reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the $184 price target to $197. The stock traded near $188 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $110.26 to $405.00.

Stride Inc. (NYSE: LRN): Morgan Stanley’s upgrade was from Equal Weight to Overweight with a $45 price target. The 52-week trading range is $25.65 to $44.93. Shares changed hands near $37 apiece on Thursday.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO): BofA Securities started coverage with a Neutral rating, and its $675 price target is above the 52-week trading range of $497.83 to $672.34. The stock was last seen trading near $575.


Six Jefferies stock picks are business development stocks with outsized dividends and growth potential, so their total return potential looks to be very solid. All six companies have posted strong quarterly results as well.

See why Cowen likes Snowflake and three other tech stocks now.

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