The futures were lower across the board on Tuesday, after the week started with only the Dow Jones industrials posting a gain. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were weak, and with the quarter ending on Thursday, you can bet that portfolio managers for hedge funds, exchange-traded funds and mutual funds are squaring up their books to show solid third-quarter results.

The big news out of Washington, D.C., remains the debt limit ceiling and the House vote on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. With the Thursday expiration of the government’s spending authority, the Democrats are looking to craft a short-term spending deal that could get bipartisan support in order to keep the government open.

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 Tuesday, September 28, 2021.

Academy Sports & Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ: ASO): Goldman Sachs raised its price target on the popular retailer to $47 from $40 but maintained a Neutral rating. The consensus target price is up at $54. The stock closed Monday at $42.76 per share.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT): New Street downgraded the semiconductor capital equipment leader to Neutral from Buy and has a $140 price target. That compares with the higher $162.38 consensus target and Mondays’ closing print of $142.74. The shares were down almost 4% in Tuesday’s premarket.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB): MKM Partners raised the marijuana company to Neutral from Sell. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $3.71 and $18.98, and it has a $7.94 consensus target price. The shares closed Monday at $6.39, which was up over 7% for the day.

Cameco Corp. (NYSE: CCJ): The TD Securities upgrade was to Buy from Hold. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $9.01 to $26.57 and have a $24.72 consensus target price. The last trade for Monday was reported at $20.95, a gain of over 4% for the day.

Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY): Wolfe Research raised its Peer Perform rating on the popular online pet food and accessories company to Outperform with a $90 price target. The consensus target is $93.20. The stock ended trading on Monday at $70.50.

Coinbase Global Inc. (NASDAQ: COIN): JMP Securities started coverage on the cryptocurrency brokerage with a Market Outperform rating and a $300 price target. The consensus target is up at $381.42. The stock closed trading on Monday at $232.24.

Enterprise Products Partners L.P. (NYSE: EPD): BofA Securities resumed coverage of the MLP giant with a Buy rating and $32 price target. The consensus target is $28.17. The stock closed Monday at $21.82.

Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: HARP): Citigroup raised its Neutral rating to Buy and has a $16 price target. The consensus target is much higher at $28.10. The stock was last seen on Monday at $8.01, but shares were up 8% in the premarket.

Kinder Morgan Inc. (NYSE: KMI): BofA Securities resumed coverage with a Neutral rating and an $18 price target. The consensus target for the energy giant is $18.48. The shares rose almost 3% on Monday to close at $16.98.

LiveVox Holding Inc. (NASDAQ: LVOX): BofA Securities started coverage with a Neutral rating and an $8 price target. The consensus target is much higher at $13. The shares closed trading on Monday at $6.73.

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M): Gordon Haskett upgraded the venerable retailer to Buy from Hold and also boosted the price target to $33 from $24. That compares with the $22.77 consensus target and Monday’s closing share price of $24.32.

Microchip Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MCHP): Wells Fargo lowered the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and has a $165 price target. The consensus target is up at $181.22. The stock ended Monday’s trading session at $166.08.

MPLX L.P. (NYSE: MPLX): BofA Securities resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $36 price target. The consensus target for the high-yielding energy MLP is $32.88. The last trade for Monday was reported at $29.14 a share.
Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA): Morgan Stanley’s upgrade to Overweight from Equal Weight included a target price hike to $315 from $275. The consensus target is $294.81. The stock closed on Monday at $241.46, which was down almost 5% on the day.

Poshmark Inc. (NASDAQ: POSH): Berenberg started coverage with a Buy rating and a $42 price target. The higher consensus target is $45.88, and Monday’s close was at $24.01 a share. The stock was up almost 4% in premarket trading.

Puma Biotechnology Inc. (NASDAQ: PBYI): Citigroup upgraded the shares from Neutral to Buy with an $11 price target. The consensus target is $8.63. The stock closed Monday at $7.12, which was up almost 5% for the day, and the shares added an additional 7% in premarket action.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM): This 5G leader has strong growth ahead, despite missing the mark in an ADAS bidding war, says Zacks, which selected it as the Bull of the Day stock. Shares last closed at $133.48 and have a consensus price target of $183.16, which would be a multiyear high.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI): Barclays raised the satellite radio giant to Equal Weight from Underweight and has a $6 price target. The consensus target is $7.59. The final trade for Monday was reported at $6.11 a share.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC); Morgan Stanley downgraded the money center giant to Equal Weight from Overweight and lowered the price target to $46 from $49. The consensus price target is $50.31. The shares were last seen on Monday trading at $47.56.

While the quantitative easing soon will begin to dwindle, it is highly unlikely the Federal Reserve actually will raise interest rates until 2023, so buying blue-chip stocks with solid total return potential remains a prudent investment choice for the rest of 2021 and beyond.

Five top stocks could be clobbered by a failure to raise U.S. debt limit. Camber Energy and Canoo were among Monday’s meme stock movers. Also, check out the bullish and bearish cases for Airbnb.

Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Airbnb, Alcoa, Chewy, ConocoPhillips, Fortinet, Peloton Interactive, Salesforce.com and ServiceNow. More analyst calls were seen later in the day, including on Amazon.com, Best Buy, Comcast, Lordstown Motors and Nike.

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