Tuesday morning futures turned negative, but this shouldn’t stop markets from posting a solid month. August has been particularly good to the broad markets, as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are each eyeing a gain of around 4% for the month. This also would mark the seventh straight month that the S&P 500 has closed higher. While the stock market is not necessarily a good indicator for the economy in general, many investors are looking to the August employment report for those numbers on Friday.

For the employment report, analysts are targeting a “robust” 750,000 jobs coming back in August, according to Bloomberg. Note that this is still an impressive number by prepandemic standards, but it does demonstrate a deceleration from July’s report, which saw an increase of 943,000 jobs. Also, analysts are expecting the unemployment rate to narrow to 5.2% in August from July’s reported 5.4%.

While many expect the report to be a fairly positive one, it will still reflect the surge in coronavirus cases that we saw across the United States over the past month. It goes without saying that the Federal Reserve also will be monitoring these numbers, per its dual mandate, and the report could influence the Fed’s monetary policy to come later this year. For now, the labor market appears to be improving and the Fed policy is favorable.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, which may have seen beginning last week, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into any market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance 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 Tuesday, August 31, 2021.

AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ: APP): Macquarie initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $90 price target. That compares with a $76.57 consensus target and Monday’s close at $73.30.

Cadence Bancorp. (NYSE: CADE): Raymond James upgraded the stock to a Strong Buy rating from Outperform and has a $26 price target. That compares with a $22.50 consensus target and Monday’s close at $21.02.

Digital Turbine Inc. (NASDAQ: APPS): Canaccord Genuity upgraded it to Buy from Hold and raised the price target to $95 from $80. Macquarie started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $60 price target. The $106.40 consensus target is well above Monday’s close at $51.24.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D): Morgan Stanley resumed coverage with an Equal Weight rating and an $82 price target. Shares last closed at $78.30, and the consensus price target is $84.39.

FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE): BMO Capital Markets reiterated a Market Perform rating but cut the price target to $20 from $25. The shares last closed at $18.66, and the consensus price target is $21.41.

First Financial Bankshares Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIN): Janney initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $50 price target. Shares most recently closed at $47.53 and have a consensus price target of $44.40.

Funko Inc. (NASDAQ: FNKO): The Jefferies upgrade to Buy from Hold included a price target hike to $25 from $21. Shares last closed at $18.65, but they have traded as high as $19.23 in the past year.

GoodRx Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX): Barclays upgraded it to Overweight from Equal Weight and has a $45 price target. The shares most recently closed at $36.78 and have a consensus price target of $41.71.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU): Beating the numbers and seeing some estimates move higher was not enough to keep this stock from being selected as the Zacks Bear of the Day. Shares last closed at $565.57 and have a consensus price target of $596.52.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY): Citigroup started coverage with a Buy rating and a $35 price target. The shares most recently closed at $25.25 and have a consensus price target of $33.83.

PubMatic Inc. (NASDAQ: PUBM): Macquarie initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $37 price target. Shares most recently closed at $27.47, and the consensus price target is $46.75.
RedHill Biopharma Ltd. (NASDAQ: RDHL): Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $22 price target. The last trade for Monday hit the tape at $8.59. Analysts have a consensus price target of $19.64.

Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT): Cowen upgraded it to Outperform from Market Perform and raised the price target to $95 from $75. The closing share price on Monday was $71.94. The 52-week trading range is $31.82 to $74.80.

Unity Software Inc. (NYSE: U): Macquarie started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $152 price target. Shares last closed at $126.34, and the consensus price target is just $130.23.

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SPCE): Jefferies initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $33 price target. The stock was last seen on Monday trading at $24.88, in a 52-week range of $14.27 to $62.80.

Zymergen Inc. (NASDAQ: ZY): UBS downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and cut the price target to $13 from $56. The shares most recently closed at $13.00 and have a consensus price target of $26.20.

Five red-hot tech stocks are among the top new additions for high-turnover hedge funds, meaning that the portfolio managers see upside from levels printed recently. These stocks have Buy ratings at top Wall Street firms and look like outstanding ideas for aggressive growth investors.

Alibaba and Robinhood were among the meme stocks on the move early Tuesday.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included American Express, Capital One, Levi Strauss, Pinterest, Peloton, Synchrony and T-Mobile. More analyst calls were seen later in the day, including on CrowdStrike, EQT and Magnolia Oil & Gas.

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