The futures bounced back and traded higher on Monday after what truly was a “Black Friday” for investors. After the biggest one-day drop for stocks since June of 2020, all the major indexes ended well over 2% lower. The main cause for the selling, on what is typically a very low-volume shortened trading day, was yet another new COVID-19 variant, called Omicron, which was discovered in South Africa. Despite the limited number of cases, and the fact that both Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are already testing their vaccine against the new variant, the new discovery was all the risk-off crew needed to hit the sell button.

Bloomberg noted last week that there has been a fair amount of chatter on the release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which many across Wall Street feel is unlikely to have much impact on energy prices. With oil closing down a massive 13% on Friday it’s a good bet that more releases any time soon are unlikely, especially after it was reported that some of the oil was going to India and China.

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 29, 2021.

Affirm Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM): Piper Sandler started coverage on the buy-now-pay-later company with a Neutral rating and a $127 price target. The consensus target is $164.46. The shares closed Friday at $136.98.

Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP): Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating on the stock and lifted the $340 target price to $350. The consensus target is $337.11. The final trade on Friday came in at $291.74, which was down almost 4% on the day.

Beacon Roofing Supply Inc. (NASDAQ: BECN): Raymond James reiterated a Market Perform rating on the shares but, surprisingly, the firm’s target price was not available. The posted consensus target is $65.73. The final trade for Friday was at $53.77 a share.

BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating on the financial giant and raised the price target to $1,025 from $975. The lower $989.33 consensus target is still well above Friday’s closing print of $901.64.

Boot Barn Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BOOT): This company is a superstar retailer, says Zacks, which selected it as the Bull of the Day stock. Shares last closed at $122.90 and have a consensus price target of $126.20.

Bumble Inc. (NASDAQ: BMBL): Raymond James raised its Neutral rating to Outperform with a $48 price objective. The consensus target is up at $58.64. The stock closed Friday’s trading session at $33.83.

Carlyle Group L.P. (NYSE: CG): Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating on the stock and lifting the target price to $66 from $64. The consensus target for the private equity behemoth is $67.58. The stock closed trading on Friday at $54.75, after retreating almost 5% on the day.

Centogene N.V. (NASDAQ: CNTG): Baird maintained an Outperform rating but trimmed the $15 price target to $14. The consensus target is $15.66. The shares closed on Friday at $6.91, which was down 4% for the day.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE): Baird kept an Outperform rating on the industrial and farm equipment giant and has a $425 price target. The consensus target is $402.77. The shares closed at $359.30 on Friday.

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS): Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating on the popular sporting goods retailer and nudged up the target price to $180 from $179. The consensus target is just $155.67. Friday’s final trade was for $128.50 a share.

Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR): Morgan Stanley raised the price target on the shares to $150 and kept an Equal Weight rating. The consensus price target is right in line at $150.18. The stock closed trading on Friday at $141.11, down close to 4%.

Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (NYSE: ICE): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and nudged the $156 target price to $157. The consensus target is $154.68. The closing share price on Friday was $129.68.

Lear Corp. (NYSE: LEA): Zacks named this automotive technology company as its Bear of the Day, pointing out that the semiconductor shortage is hitting the auto parts industry. Shares last closed at $171.24, and the consensus price target is $193.25.
Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA): Baird has an Outperform rating on the credit card and payments leader. Its $494 price target is well above the $432.05 consensus target. The analysts are bullish on the company after an agreement to acquire Arcus FI, a company that provides bill pay solutions and real-time payments across Latin America. They think this acquisition could add up to $12 million to annual revenue, but would likely be immaterial to earnings. The stock closed on Friday at $324.17, which was down almost 5% on the day.

Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK): Citigroup downgraded the pharmaceutical giant to Neutral from Buy and cut the target price to $85 from $105. The posted consensus target is $96.17. The shares pulled back almost 4% Friday to close at $79.16.

Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN): Morgan Stanley cut the $27 price target on the high-end retailer to $22. The consensus target is $26.82. The stock closed at $22.41 on Friday.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR): BofA Securities reiterated a Buy rating on Petrobras shares, and its $15 price target compares with the $13.31 consensus target. The stock was last seen on Friday at $10.47.

Pinduoduo Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD): Citigroup downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and slashed the target price to $80 from $140. The consensus target is $139.49. The stock closed Friday at $68.46, down a whopping 16% after sales missed estimates badly.

Pure Storage Inc. (NASDAQ: PSTG): Evercore ISI removed the shares from its tactical Outperform List but kept an Outperform rating. Its $35 price target is in line with the consensus target of $35.28. The shares were last seen on Friday at $29.87, down close to 4% on the day.

Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG): The Barclays downgrade was from Overweight to Equal Weight with a $21 price target. The consensus target is $20.40. It was announced last week that European telecom giant Ericsson would buy the company for $21 a share. Friday’s last Vonage trade was reported at $20.69.

Five stay-at-home and pharmaceutical stocks perhaps make sense for investors now, given concerns over the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The stocks are Buy rated and come with solid dividends, and they may be solid ideas as the sellers toss momentum shares overboard.

Five top companies expected to raise dividends this week have Buy-rated stocks.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Alibaba, ChargePoint, Dollar Tree, Gap, Genius Sports, Jack in the Box, Nordstrom and Pure Storage.

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