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Wednesday Afternoon Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AutoZone, BHP, Magnite and More

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After a rough start to the week, markets appear to have righted themselves in the wake of the  Evergrande mess. Each of the major U.S. indexes posted a gain of at least 1% Wednesday, with at least half of the trading day over. Looking ahead, investors are anticipating that the Federal Reserve’s policy, which will be announced Wednesday afternoon, will be reflective of this week’s events.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing some big analyst calls seen on Wednesday. We have included the latest analyst 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 Accenture, FedEx, PubMatic, Trade Desk and more.

AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO): BofA Securities reiterated an Underperform rating but raised the price target to $1,490 from $1,390. Shares were last seen trading around $1,687. They have a consensus price target of $1,672.50.

Axcella Health Inc. (NASDAQ: AXLA): Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to a Neutral rating from Buy and cut the price target to $5 from $9. The stock was last seen at around $3 a share, and it has a consensus price target of $15.13.

BHP Group Ltd. (NYSE: BHP): BofA Securities downgraded it to Neutral from Buy and cut the price target to $39 from $59. The shares have a 52-week range of $46.90 to $82.07, while the consensus price target is $82.05.

Cidara Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CDTX): WBB Securities upgraded it to Strong Buy from Buy and has a $6.25 price target. Shares were trading near $2, and the consensus price target is $6.17.

Magnite Inc. (NASDAQ: MGNI): Berenberg started coverage with a Buy rating and a $37 price target. Shares were last seen trading near $30 apiece. The consensus price target is $48.44.

OraSure Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OSUR): The Raymond James downgrade was to Market Perform from Outperform. The consensus price target is $13.25, and the current share price is roughly $12.

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. (NYSE: ZIM): JPMorgan initiated coverage with an Underweight rating and a $46.02 price target. The $62.92 consensus target is well above the current share price near $54.


Hedge fund managers are getting more defensive, and it is probably time individual investors do as well. Five stocks come with reliable dividends, are not overextended and are rated Buy at major Wall Street firms. They look like great picks for the rest of 2021 and beyond.

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