The futures traded higher across the board on Friday as investors reflected on a very volatile, rollercoaster week and the massive snapback rally in the markets Thursday wherein all the major indexes and the Transportation index closed higher. Still, the speculative electric vehicle group and other momentum issues were tagged hard and ended down. With most first-quarter earnings reports released, investors are starting to factor in rising prices amid a continued tailwind for the market from low, but slowly rising interest rates.

Despite the concerns across Wall Street for tapering of the quantitative easing program and clear building inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained, which could be one reason for the continued moves higher in the equity markets, even after sell-offs. Note that money markets continue to see massive inflows, which is another big plus.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into the market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance of the second quarter and the rest of 2021.

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, May 14, 2021.

Allogene Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALLO): B. Riley Securities started coverage with a Buy rating and a $52 price target. The consensus target is $49, and the shares closed Thursday at $26.94. The stock traded almost 8% higher in Friday’s premarket.

Altair Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: ALTR): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $68 price target. That compares with the higher consensus target of $70.60 and Thursday’s last trade of $63.48.

AMC Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: AMCX): Goldman Sachs raised the shares to Neutral from Sell and also raised the price target to $51. The Wall Street consensus target is set at $48.45. The stock closed trading on Thursday at $47.45 up almost 3%.

Anaplan Inc. (NYSE: PLAN): Goldman Sachs started coverage on the shares with a Buy rating and a $60 price target. The consensus target is much higher at $81.21, and the stock closed Thursday at $52.24.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB): BMO Capital Markets raised the shares to Perform from Underperform. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $3.71 to $19.68, and no consensus was available. The shares ended Thursday at $7.32, which was down almost 5% for the day.

Dropbox Inc. (NYSE: DBX): Goldman Sachs started coverage with a Sell rating and a $26 price target. The consensus price objective is $30.14, and the shares closed Thursday at $24.44.

Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR): BMO Capital Markets downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform and has a $160 price target. The lower consensus target is $149.08, and Thursday’s last trade was at $144.99.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE): Citigroup resumed coverage of the venerable industrial giant with a Buy rating and a $17 price target. The posted consensus target is $14.53. The last trade to hit the tape on Thursday came in at $12.97.

Granite Point Mortgage Trust Inc. (NASDAQ: GPMT): Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to Outperform from Neutral and raised the price target to $15. The consensus target is $13, and the last Thursday trade was reported at $12.78, which was up almost 4% on the day.

GrowGeneration Corp. (NASDAQ: GRWG): Roth Capital raised its Neutral rating to Buy and has a $55 price target. The consensus target is $57.29, and the shares closed at $35.53 on Thursday. The stock was up almost 7% in the premarket and posted solid results earlier in the week.

Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: HST): Evercore ISI upgraded it to Outperform from Inline and has a $20 price target. The consensus price objective is lower at $17.56, and Thursday’s last trade came in at $16.70 per share.

Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB): Wells Fargo upgraded the consumer staples giant to Equal Weight from Underweight. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $128.02 to $160.16 and has a $141.09 consensus price target. Thursday’s closing print was at $133.75.
Live Nation Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: LYV): Wolfe Research started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $97 price target. That compares with a consensus target of $86.70 and Thursday’s last trade of $81.23, which was up almost 5% for the day.

Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LITE): JPMorgan resumed coverage with a Neutral rating and an $80 price objective, The consensus target is up at $92.93, and the shares closed Thursday at $67.43 apiece.

Petrobras Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR): Itau BBA Securities raised its Market Perform rating to Outperform and has a $14 price target. The consensus target is $11.50, and the shares closed Thursday at $9.22. The stock was trading up over 5% in the premarket.

PubMatic Inc. (NASDAQ: PUBM): RBC Capital Market resumed coverage with an Outperform rating and a $43 price target. The consensus target for the digital media placement company is much higher at $60.33, and the stock closed on Thursday at $334.32, after pulling back almost 10% for the day. The shares roared back almost 13% in the premarket after the company posted outstanding earnings.

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW): Goldman Sachs upgraded it to Buy from Neutral and also raised the price target to $275. The consensus target is up at $298.50, and the last trade for Thursday came in at $188.24. The stock was trading almost 5% higher in the premarket.

Utz Brands Inc. (NYSE: UTZ): Stephens raised the shares to Overweight from Equal Weight. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $10.65 and $30.09 a share. The consensus price objective is $26.55, and the shares ended trading Thursday at $23.24, down over 8% on the day.

Four stocks frequently mentioned on Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum recently are rated Buy at BofA Securities. It may be smart for aggressive investors and traders to take a look and see if the data can help predict big upside moves as the analysts suggest.

One top analyst sees big upside in some aerospace and defense stocks. Has an upgrade helped put Array Technologies stock back on track? And check out what’s different about a new cannabis ETF.

Thursday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Array Technologies, Baker Hughes, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Coinbase, Deere, General Dynamics and Halliburton. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Nike, Raytheon Technologies and more.

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