These are not normal times when the Dow Jones industrial average closed under 20,000 for the first time since 2017 and was down over 300 points heading into the opening bell. It almost felt like a relief that it wasn’t worse. The past month has witnessed the raging bull market turned into hamburger meat, and the bear market is now roaring with drop of more than 30% in the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq.

24/7 Wall St. has been covering numerous analyst calls before and during the turmoil, and one of the latest trends has been waves of downgrades, but the more common theme is that analysts are just trying to adjust their target prices much lower due to the daily drops seen in the shares.

Right now, most analysts likely feel as though they have been hit by a train, just like most investors have been feeling. Anyhow, these are the top analyst calls seen on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

Aphria Inc. (NYSE: APHA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at BofA Securities. After closing down about 1% at $2.13 on Wednesday, it was up almost 3% at $2.17 early Thursday. That is down from a high of $10.17.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, but the target price was lowered to $300 from $345 in that call. Yesterday, the top bull Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities also maintained an Outperform rating but cut the target price to $345 from $400. As noted, that prior $331 target price is coming down, and it was already down to $322.17 on last look (with more room to come). Apple closed down 2.45% at $246.67, after hitting a low of $237.12 on Wednesday.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its target price was cut to $44 from $74 at B. Riley FBR.

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities. Shares closed down 10.4% at $54.02 on Wednesday and were down almost 5% more at $51.50 on Thursday.

Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform but the target price was raised to $172 from $169 (versus a $190.95 prior close) at Credit Suisse. This is one of the few stocks that has been rising, because of its cleaning products (they do kill everything) being used against the coronavirus in all settings.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was raised to Hold from Sell at Deutsche Bank.

Etsy Inc. (NASDAQ: ETSY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target was cut to $41 from $61 at Roth Capital.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this may be worth considering in the midst of this market chaos. Shares most recently closed at $47.61 and have a consensus price target of $64.42.

Itron Inc. (NASDAQ: ITRI) was downgraded to Hold from Buy Argus. It saw a 23.7% drop to $42.45 on Wednesday is down from a high of $88.32.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its target price was cut to $220 from $280 at B. Riley FBR.

Packaging Corp. of America (NYSE: PKG) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $118 target price (versus a $91.03 close) at Argus. It is down from a high of $114.78.

Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) was raised to Hold from Sell with a $68 target price (versus a $67.50 close) at Loop Capital.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that this stock has been hit hard by the coronavirus, with shares down 80% in a month. They last closed at $22.33, with a consensus price target of $99.46.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was raised to Neutral from Sell at BTIG, with this long-term bear (since late in 2017) changing tune now that shares have finally gone under the firm’s $37 fair value target.

3D Systems (NYSE: DDD) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and its target price was cut to $4 from $10 at B. Riley FBR.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was maintained as Neutral but its target price was slashed to $425 from $710 (versus a $361.22 close, after a 16% drop) at Wedbush. Morgan Stanley raised it to Equal Weight from Underweight but trimmed its target price to $460 from $480. The stock is down from a high of $968.99.

Uber Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UBER) was removed from the Best Ideas List at Wedbush due to price performance. Uber’s shares had fallen to $14.82 as of Wednesday, and that is down from a high of $47.08.

Canaccord Genuity is joining in on the recent wave of recession calls, in this case from analyzing the yield curve. The firm pointed out that the steepening Treasury yield curve is signaling imminent recession:

In just the past month, the US economy has gone from reaccelerating to a near shutdown that should kickstart a recession. The 2-/10-year US Treasury Yield Curve has steepened to a positive 64 basis points after inverting on August 26. Over the last seven cycles, recession has always followed an inversion of the curve, but the duration between inversion and recession has clearly been pulled forward by the Covid-19 social distancing mandates.

Some stocks continue to benefit from the coronavirus worries, and Stifel has five names it still sees favorably.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades and initiations included American Express, Boeing, Caterpillar, Lennar, Simon Property, Sirius XM, Six Flags, Tesla, Walmart, Zynga and many more.

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