The futures were mixed on Friday, as we get set to wrap up another wild week where very positive earnings drove some big gains, and both the Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 printed intraday all-time highs. New claims for unemployment dropped again to a pandemic low, as many companies are avoiding layoffs amid the biggest labor shortage in decades. The sellers were out in the Treasury markets, as yields rose across the curve, with the 10-year bond blowing through some recent highs.

Top strategists across Wall Street remain focused on continued rising interest rates, the quantitative easing tapering due to begin soon, big increases in energy costs, ongoing supply chain issues and stagflation worries. Toss in the debt ceiling issue, which has not gone away, and the ongoing China worries keep the cauldron continuing to simmer.

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, October 22, 2021.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY): Piper Sandler downgraded the bank’s stock to Neutral from Overweight and cut the price target to $59 from $68. The posted consensus target is $67.42. The final trade on Thursday was reported at $52.97, which was down over 5% despite earnings beating analysts’ estimates.

BankUnited Inc. (NYSE: BKU): Piper Sandler lowered its Overweight rating to Neutral with a $45 price target. The consensus target is $47.36. The shares closed on Thursday at $42.40, after retreating close to 3% on the day.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA): RBC Capital Markets started coverage on the aerospace and defense leader with an Outperform rating and a $275 price target. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $141.58 to $278.57, and the closing price on Thursday was $214.34 per share.

Cinemark Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CNK): Wells Fargo started coverage on the movie theatre giant’s shares with an Equal Weight rating and a $22 price target. The consensus target is $23.46. The stock ended Thursday’s trading at $19.79.

Coterra Energy Inc. (NYSE: CTRA): The Goldman Sachs upgrade was from Hold to Buy with a $25 price target. The consensus target is just higher at $25.90. The stock pulled back almost 3% on Thursday to close at $20.78 a share.

Fastly Inc. (NYSE: FSLY): This cloud company was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks. The analyst says that all eyes will be on the November 3 report as the growth hiccup appears over and big customers have stayed on board. Shares most recently closed at $49.58, though the consensus price target was last seen down at $37.43.

Fluor Corp. (NYSE: FLR): BofA Securities resumed coverage with an Underperform rating and a $17 price target. The consensus target is up at $20.57. The stock closed at $18.37 per share on Thursday.

Freeport McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX): Deutsche Bank’s downgrade of the mining giant to Hold from Buy included a target price trim to $43 from $46. The consensus target is $42.52. The stock was last seen on Thursday trading at $38.42 a share.

GasLog Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: GLOP): Jefferies upgraded the shares to Buy from Hold and lifted the $5 target price to $6.50. The consensus target is $4.50, and shares closed on Thursday at $4.54.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC): UBS downgraded the legacy chip giant to Neutral from Buy and cut the price target to $58 from $73. Morgan Stanley also lowered its Overweight rating to Neutral and slashed the price objective from $67 to $55. The consensus target is $61.87. The stock closed on Thursday at $56, but the shares were rocked in the premarket, down over 10%, after posting very disappointing third-quarter results.

Invesco Ltd. (NYSE: IVZ): Evercore ISI upgraded the shares of the money management giant to In Line from Underperform, and the firm has a $28 price target. The consensus target is $30. The stock closed at $25.00 on Thursday.

Marsh & McLennon Companies Inc. (NYSE: MMC): Raymond James upgraded it to Outperform from Underperform and has a $185 price target. The consensus target is $167.75, which is below Thursday’s close at $168.43.
Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA): Deutsche Bank started coverage on the COVID-19 vaccine maker with a Sell rating and a $250 price target. The much higher consensus is $340.17, and Thursday’s final trade was reported at $339.57 per share.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA): Summit Insight’s upgrade was to Buy from Sell. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $115.67 to $230.43, and it has a consensus price target of $230.45.

PagerDuty Inc. (NYSE: PD): Zacks selected this as its Bull of the Day stock. The analyst says that profits may have to wait while this first-responder for enterprise DevOps still grows sales. Shares last closed at $42.65 and have a consensus price target of $57.33.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV): Evercore ISI downgraded the popular low-cost carrier to In Line from Outperform, and it dropped the $55 price target to $48. The much higher consensus target is $64.87. The last trade for Thursday was reported at $48.66 a share.

Southwestern Energy Co. (NYSE: SWN): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Neutral rating and a $5.25 price target. The consensus target is $7.13. The stock was closed on Thursday at $4.94.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN): Though Citigroup upgraded the popular clothing chain to Buy from Neutral, it also trimmed the target price to $40 from $44. The $43.07 consensus target is well above Thursday’s closing print of $30.38.

Valens Semiconductor Ltd. (NYSE: VLN): Citigroup started coverage with a Buy rating and a $13 price target. The consensus target is up at $16.50. The stock closed on Thursday at $7.67.

Zoom Video Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: ZM): JPMorgan raised the shares to Overweight from Neutral and have a $385 price target. The consensus target is $369.43. The stock closed trading at $274.78 on Thursday.

While five analyst favorite stock picks may not be making any parabolic moves higher soon, they are safer ideas for nervous growth and income investors looking to reset portfolios for the rest of the year.

Thursday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Activision Blizzard, Biogen, Carnival, Krispy Kreme, Lam Research, Las Vegas Sands, Tesla and Zoom Video. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Krispy Kreme, Live Nation, Twilio and more.

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