Monday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Airbnb, Alcoa, Chewy, ConocoPhillips, Fortinet, Peloton, Salesforce and More

Investing

Published: September 27, 2021 8:45 am

Last Updated: September 28, 2021 7:29 am

The futures were mixed Monday after last week’s topsy-turvy trading that saw massive selling give way to the two largest risk-off days for the market in six months on Wednesday and Thursday. In fact, after hitting the elusive 5% decline mark, between Monday’s intraday low and Thursday’s intraday high, the S&P 500 was up 3.7%. Investors and traders now seem certain that the Federal Reserve will start the tapering process on the massive quantitative easing program in November and Fed Chair Powell maintains that all the purchases will be concluded by this time next year.

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 though.

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 Monday, September 27, 2021.

Airbnb Inc. (NASDAQ: ABNB): JPMorgan started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $170 price target. The Wall Street consensus target is up at $175.30. The last trade on Friday came in at $175.88 a share.

Alcoa Corp. (NYSE: AA): Goldman Sachs raised its $51 price target on the aluminum giant to $63 while reiterating a Buy rating on the shares. The consensus target is $53.12. The stock closed on Friday at $48.49.

Altice USA Inc. (NASDAQ: ATUS): Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to Neutral from Outperform and slashed the target price to $24 from $46. The consensus target is $40.07. The stock closed Friday at $20.58, after falling almost 7% on the day after the CEO admitted that some broadband customers are heading for the exits.

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Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX): JMP Securities raised its Market Perform rating to Market Outperform with a $32 price target. The consensus target is $28. The stock ended trading on Friday at $25.24.

Camden Property Trust (NYSE: CPT): BofA Securities upgraded the real estate giant to Buy from Neutral and lifted the target price to $178 from $160. The consensus price objective is $158.70. The stock closed on Friday at $149.75.

Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY): Credit Suisse resumed coverage of the online pet food and accessories company with an Outperform rating and a $121 price objective. The consensus target is just $93.20. The stock retreated almost 5% on Friday to close at $69.83.

Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI): SVB Leerink started coverage of the health care giant with a Market Perform rating and a $220 price target. The consensus target is $263.32. The final trade for Friday was reported at $203.89.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP): Goldman Sachs lifted the price target on the Buy-rated integrated oil leader to $76 from $68. The posted consensus target is $75.68. The stock closed on Friday at $65.02.

DoubleDown Interactive Co. Ltd. (NYSE: DDI): B. Riley Securities began coverage with a Buy rating and a $30 price target. No consensus price objective was available. The shares closed at $17.53 on Friday.

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Fortinet Inc. (NASDAQ: FTNT): Goldman Sachs raised its target price on the cybersecurity stock to $335 from $300 while reiterating a Buy rating. The consensus target is $300.12. The final trade for Friday was reported at $311.90.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM): SVB Leerink initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $494 price target. The consensus target is $488.74, and Friday’s closing price was $398.91 per share.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H): BofA Securities downgraded the shares to Underperform from Neutral and have an $85 price target. The consensus target is $81.80. The stock closed on Friday at $79.76, which was up almost 4% for the day.

Icon PLC (NASDAQ: ICLR): JPMorgan upgraded it to Overweight from Neutral and also raised the target price to $320 from $230. The consensus target is just $255.23, and the shares ended last week at $283.04.
IronNet Inc. (NASDAQ: IRNT): Needham started coverage with a Buy rating and a $29 price target. No consensus target was available. The stock popped over 8% on Friday and closed at $25.76. Shares were down close to 2% in Monday’s premarket.

Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON): This is the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The analyst points out that it has lost 46% of its value in the past eight months and a half months. Shares closed most recently at $92.64 apiece and have a consensus price target of $129.67.

Qorvo Inc. (NASDAQ: QRVO): This chip powerhouse is striving to digitally connect the world, says Zacks, which selected it as the Bull of the Day stock. Shares last closed at $174.05 and have a consensus price target of $220.48, which would be an all-time high.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM): Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating on the software giant and raised the price target on the shares to $360 from $350. The consensus target is $302.11. The stock closed on Friday at $285.63.

ServiceNow Inc. (NYSE: NOW): Summit Insights resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $750 target price. This compares with the much lower $664.59 consensus target and Friday’s closing price of $666.31 a share.

Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU): Citigroup raised its Neutral rating to Buy with a $27 price target. The consensus target is $26.40. The stock was last seen trading at $20.23 a share.

Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX): UBS upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral and raised the price target to $111 from $77.50. The stock has traded between $55.62 and $82.62 in the past year and closed Friday at $80.20. The shares were up over 2% in the premarket.

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24/7 Wall St. screened the top European Dividend Aristocrats looking for the most liquid and well-known names for investors seeking income and a degree of diversification away from the American indexes. Five stocks trade on American exchanges and pay very dependable dividends.

Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included CenterPoint Energy, Cloudflare, Dynavax Technologies, HCA Healthcare, Opendoor Technologies, Roku, Salesforce.com, Spotify Technology and Wheaton Precious Metals. More analyst calls were seen later in the day, including on Barrick Gold, Canadian National Railway, Editas Medicine, Newmont and Salesforce.com.

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