The futures were higher Monday, the start of the Thanksgiving-holiday-shortened trading week. The only stocks that caught a bid Friday were mostly on the Nasdaq, which hit a new all-time high, as many of the mega-cap technology giants also hit 52-week highs. Both the Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 closed lower.

The financial media talking heads cited the rise in COVID-19 cases in Europe (despite massive vaccination percentages in many countries), the unanswered question on who will lead the Federal Reserve, and the potential for an earlier increase in interest rates due to the spiraling inflation, as issues pressuring the overall market now. Once again, Treasury buyers were out in full force, as yields dropped across the curve once again.

Top strategists across Wall Street remain focused on the potential for rising interest rates, the quantitative easing tapering, big increases in energy costs and the ongoing supply chain issues and stagflation worries. Toss in the debt ceiling issue and the ongoing China concerns, and there is still plenty of potential for volatility.

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, November 22, 2021.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE): Atlantic Equities upgraded shares of the tech giant to Overweight from Neutral and raised the target price to $820 from $600. The analysts’ consensus target is $706.14. The stock closed trading on Friday at $688.37 a share.

Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A./N.V. (NYSE: BUD): Redburn raised the “King of Beers” to Buy from Neutral. Over the past 52 weeks, the shares have traded between $54.08 and $79.67, and they have a $73.50 consensus price target. The final trade on Friday was reported at $58.54.

Baker Hughes Co. (NYSE: BKR): Benchmark initiated coverage on the oilfield services leader with a Hold rating. The shares have traded between $18.33 and $27.66 over the past 52 weeks, and they have a $29.50 consensus price objective. The stock was last seen on Friday at $22.55, after retreating almost 6% for the day.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX): Zacks selected this as its Bull of the Day. As oil prices are marginally reined on renewed COVID-19 lockdown fears, says the analyst, Chevron’s best-in-class operations position it to for a nice end of year trade going into what is expected to be a cold winter. Shares most recently closed at $111.91. The $128.15 consensus price target would be a new 52-week high.

Chubb Ltd. (NYSE: CB): Jefferies started coverage with a Buy rating and a $235 price objective. The consensus target is $212.88. The shares were last seen on Friday at $188.25.

Dingdong Ltd. (NYSE: DDL): JPMorgan started coverage with an Underweight rating and a $21 price target. The consensus target is $33.27, and the stock closed trading on Friday at $24.00.

Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY): BMO Capital Markets started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $311 price target. The consensus target is $273.24. The final trade for Friday was reported at $260.70.

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL): Benchmark started coverage of the oilfield services giant with a Buy rating and a $31 price target. The consensus target is $29.32. The last trade for Friday hit the tape at $22.04.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD): Credit Suisse resumed coverage of the do-it-yourself big-box retailer with an Outperform rating and lifted the $357 price target to $450. The consensus target is $401.72. The stock was last seen Friday at $408.69.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU): Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral, and the firm’s price target skyrocketed to $840 from $535. Barclays reiterated an Overweight rating and boosted its $710 target price to $802, while Stifel maintained a Buy rating and raised the target to $725 from $625. The much lower $628.46 consensus target is below Friday’s closing print of $692.34, which was up over 10% on the day after crushing earnings estimates.

Jazz Pharmaceutical PLC (NASDAQ: JAZZ): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $198 price target. The consensus target is $204.05, and the shares ended Friday at $128.37 apiece.

KKR Inc. (NYSE: KKR): Citigroup resumed coverage on the private equity and investment giant with a Buy rating and a $92 price target. The consensus target is $89.00, and Friday’s closing print was $78.31.

Lemonade Inc. (NYSE: LMND): Jefferies started coverage with an Underperform rating and a $49 price target. The consensus price objective is much higher at $66.75. The last trade on Friday was posted at $52.82, which was down almost 3% for the day.

Matador Resources Co. (NYSE: MTDR): Wells Fargo raised its Equal Weight rating to Overweight and lifted the price target to $68 from $58. The consensus target is $49.93. The stock pulled back almost 5% on Friday to close at $40.75.
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): Wells Fargo started coverage on the legacy technology leader with an Overweight rating and a $400 price target. The consensus target is just lower at $360.03. The shares were last seen on Friday at $343.11.

Missfresh Ltd. (NASDAQ: MF): JPMorgan started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $5.70 price target. The consensus target is up at $9.15. The shares closed at $4.54 on Friday.

Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD): Deutsche Bank reiterated a Hold rating on the popular retail broker-dealer and dropped its $40 target price to $32. The consensus target is $46.48. The shares closed Friday at $28.99, down over 5% for the day on the negative analyst commentary.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP): This e-commerce company has been a success story for the history books in the past few years, but it might be time to start pulling profits, says Zacks, which named it as the Bear of the Day. Shares last closed at $1,690.60 apiece, and the consensus price target is $2,094.95.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI): Barclays downgraded the stock from Equal Weight to Underweight with a $6 target price. The consensus target is $7.48. The closing share price on Friday was $6.19.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV): Wolfe Research raised shares of the popular low-cost carrier to Buy from Neutral. Over the past year, the shares have traded between $43.72 and $64.75. They have a $63.09 consensus price target. The closing share price was $46.83 on Friday.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT): Credit Suisse resumed coverage on the retail colossus with an Outperform rating and a $166 price target. The consensus target is $169.55. The final trade for Friday was reported at $142.39.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM): Wedbush reiterated an Outperform rating and lifted the price objective to $250 from $220. JPMorgan checked in with an Underweight rating and cut its price target on the upscale retailer from $200 to $191. The consensus target is $194.79. The stock closed Friday at $215.65.

24/7 Wall St. screened the Jefferies Franchise Picks, looking for the companies that pay solid dividends and also are strong plays in a very inflationary world. These stocks make good sense for growth stock investors looking to add a dividend kicker to increase total return potential.

Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Arista Networks, DataDog, FedEx, Fiserv, Gilead Sciences, Global Payments, Nvidia, Oatly, Pfizer, Target, TJX Companies and Victoria’s Secret. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Alibaba, Amgen, Delta Air, Walmart and more.

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