The futures were lower Friday, as we look to close out one of the wildest trading weeks of 2021 where another strong risk-off rally pushed all of the indexes up big on Thursday. The dip-buying crowd made their presence felt again Thursday following Wednesday’s kick-the-can down the road Federal Open Market Committee policy guidance, which kept the quantitative easing tapering guidance and size pretty much as expected.

Wall Street traders and investors also responded reasonably well to negative-sounding news out of China, where officials were asking local governments to prepare for troubled real estate giant Evergrande’s possible downfall. In addition, the softer-than-expected flash September Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index numbers out of the eurozone was another negative that was basically ignored.

While the recent consumer price index and retail sales data has tempered some of the inflation and growth worries, mounting stagflation concerns continued to pick up amid the ongoing supply chain and input pressures, and recovery headwinds from the spread of the Delta variant. Federal Reserve assurances that rates will remain accommodative continue to provide a tailwind for equities.

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, September 24, 2021.

Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHC): UBS started coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and an $81 price target. The Wall Street consensus price objective is $73.62. The last trade for Friday hit the tape at $65.15 per share.

Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAM): Stifel resumed coverage on the red-hot biotech with a Buy rating while raising the price target on the shares to $120 from $85. The consensus target is $128.57. The final trade on Thursday was reported at $98.13 a share.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNP): Piper Sandler raised its Neutral rating to Overweight and also boosted the price target from $28 all the way to $38. The consensus target is $27.75. The stock closed on Thursday at $24.80 a share.

Chuy’s Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CHUY): Jefferies upgraded the popular Mexican food restaurant chain to Buy from Hold and lifted the price target to $41 from $36. The consensus target is $37.83 and Thursday’s closing print was $31.34.

Cloudflare Inc. (NYSE: NET): Oppenheimer downgraded the cybersecurity stock to Perform from Outperform. The stock has a wide 52-week trading range of $38.26 to $137.07. The consensus price target is $125.13, and Thursday’s last trade was reported at $136.67. As it is trading just below the 52-week high, this looks like a valuation call.

Dynavax Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: DVAX): Goldman Sachs raised the target price on the Buy-rated shares to $22 from $18. The consensus target is $21.75. The last trade for Thursday was reported at $19.60, which was up over 4% for the day.

Frontier Communications Parent Inc. (NASDAQ: FYBR): Raymond James started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $34 price target. The consensus target is higher at $43.50. The final trade for Thursday was reported at $29.74.

HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA): UBS started coverage on the shares with a Buy rating and a $312 price target. That compares with a lower consensus target of $267.82 and Thursday’s last trade at $255.53 per share.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: KLIC): Needham reiterated its Buy rating on the stock and pushed the price target to $78 from $72. The $81.80 consensus target is higher, and Thursday’s closing print was $66.94 per share.

Opendoor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN): Citigroup resumed coverage with a Buy rating and also lifted the target price for the shares to $40 from $34. The consensus target is $31.20. The stock rose close to 3% on Thursday to close at $19.99.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (NASDAQ: RRGB): Jefferies raised the popular restaurant chain to Buy from Hold and also lifted the target price to $31 from $28. The consensus target is $29.83. The final share price for Thursday was $23.83, after almost an 8% gain for the day. The stock tacked on an additional 3% gain in Friday’s premarket.
Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU): Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and slashed the price target to $350 from $488. The consensus target is much higher at $467.64. The stock was last seen Thursday at $334.52, up 3% on the day. Shares backed up in premarket action, down over 2%.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $360 from $350. The consensus target is down at $302.11. Thursday’s closing price of $277.86 came after a more than 7% pop for the day. Shares were up slightly in the premarket.

Sema4 Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SMFR): Jefferies started coverage with a Buy rating and a $13 price target. No consensus target was available as the company had a recent initial public offering. Since then, the stock has traded between $7.66 and $27.18. The shares closed Thursday at $8.06.

Spotify Technology S.A. (NASDAQ: SPOT): DZ Bank started coverage of the popular music service with a Sell rating and a $200 price target. The consensus price objective is much higher at $305.74. The final trade for Thursday came in at $234.86 a share.

Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE: TPX): This was named as the Bull of the Day stock at Zacks, which said that the mattress maker’s sales surged before the current housing boom, and sleep is never going out of style. Shares most recently closed at $49.51 and have a consensus price target of $53.33.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC): UBS began coverage with a Neutral rating and an $83 price target. The consensus target is $84.53. The shares closed at $72.67 on Thursday.

Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO): The BofA Securities upgrade was to Neutral from Underperform. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $29.79 and $50.91, and it has a consensus price objective of $45.50. The shares closed on Thursday at $43.30.

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE: WPM): KeyBanc Capital Markets started coverage of the gold and silver royalty company with an Overweight rating and a $47 price target. That compares with a higher consensus target of $60.45 and Thursday’s closing share price of $39.47.

The six stocks that pay the highest dividends in the S&P 500, four of which are in the red-hot energy sector, all look like great total return ideas for income-oriented investors looking for some upside appreciation as well.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Amgen, Biogen, Commscope, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, ONEOK, Plug Power and Roku.

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