The futures traded higher on Tuesday, after a dreadful risk-off opening to the holiday-shortened trading week. Many financial world pundits and talking heads cited the increase in Omicron cases, even though the symptoms are said to be much milder than the Delta variant. In addition, there was some handwringing over Senator Joe Manchin’s announcement that he will not support the Build Back Better social spending and climate program after so much stimulus and the planned infrastructure spending.

With much of the Federal Reserve’s forward-looking initiatives now baked in, Wall Street strategists are continuing to focus on big increases in energy and food costs and other spiraling inflation issues, as well as the ongoing supply chain concerns and stagflation worries.

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, December 21, 2021.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA): Atlantic Equities downgraded the Chinese technology colossus to Neutral from Overweight and cut the price target to $140 from $185. The consensus target is $210.88. The stock closed Monday at $115, which was down almost 6% for the day.

Argenx S.E. (NASDAQ: ARGX): Truist Securities raised its $350 price target $365 while reiterating a Buy rating on the shares. The consensus target is $360.12. The final trade on Monday was at $337.51, after an almost 9% pop on the day.

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML): Morgan Stanley started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $902 price target. The consensus target is just $863.63. The closing price on Monday was $752.88 a share.

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN): Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Underweight and boosted the price target to $85 from $77. The consensus target is $84. The company, which is being acquired by Oracle for $95 a share, had a closing share price of $90.49 on Monday.

Ciena Corp. (NYSE: CIEN): Jefferies raised its $85 price target to $88 as it reiterated a Buy rating. The consensus target is $79.40. The shares closed at $74.48 on Monday.

Coca-Cola FEMSA SAB de C.V. (NYSE: KOF): Citigroup raised its Neutral rating to Buy with a $60 price target. That compares with a $60.95 consensus target and Monday’s final print of $53.07. The stock was down over 6% in Tuesday’s premarket trading.

Dover Corp. (NYSE: DOV): Wells Fargo raised the stock to Equal Weight from Underweight and raised the price target to $184 from $165 The consensus target for the stock is posted at $186.92. The shares were last seen Monday at $168.44.

Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT): JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and also lifted the $135 target price to $142. The consensus target is $135.88. The stock closed on Monday at $127.62.

Genfit S.A. (NASDAQ: GNFT): H.C. Wainwright upgraded the shares to Buy from Neutral and has an $8 target price. The shares were last seen Monday at $5.65, which was up 11% for the day.

KLA Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC): Wells Fargo raised the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight and boosted the price target to $500 from $360. The consensus is much lower at $431.90. The shares were last seen at $385.50. The stock is up almost 5% in premarket action.

Limelight Networks Inc (NASDAQ: LLNW): Raymond James raised its Market Perform rating to Strong Buy with a $5 price target. The consensus target is just $3.86, and shares ended trading Monday at $3.63, after rising over 12% on the day.

LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC): Morgan Stanley initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $13 price target. The consensus target is higher at $15.73. The final trade on Monday was reported at $10.47.

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA): Wedbush reiterated its Buy rating on the credit card giant but lowered the price target on the stock to $380 from $400. The consensus price objective is $432.05. The last trade on Monday was reported at $337.02, which was down close to 4% for the day.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD): The Edwards Jones downgrade of the fast-food heavyweight was to Hold from Buy. Over the past year, the shares have traded between $202.73 and $266.89, and they have a $274.73 consensus price objective. Monday’s closing share price was $261.73.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU): The BofA Securities upgrade of the chipmaker to Buy from Neutral included a target price hike to $100 from $76. The consensus target is $101.28. The stock closed on Monday at $82.03. The shares were up over 8% in the premarket trading in the wake of stellar results.

Public Storage (NYSE: PSA): JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and lifted the target price to $385 from $359. The consensus target is $368.57. The shares closed on Monday at $365.97.

Qualtrics International Inc. (NASDAQ: XM): Truist Securities reiterated its Buy rating and has a $62 price target. The consensus target is just $54.27. The last trade on Monday was reported at $34.47, which was up close to 4% for the day.

RBC Bearings Inc. (NASDAQ: ROLL): Goldman Sachs started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $217 price target. The consensus target is up at $269.33. The last trade on Monday was at $193.71 a share.

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM): Morgan Stanley started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $50 price target. The consensus target is $55.88. The last trade to hit the tape Monday came in at $46.92.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V): Though Wedbush reiterated its Buy rating on the credit card heavyweight, it also lowered its $260 price target to $240. The consensus price objective is $275.05. The final trade on Monday was reported at $208.74, down close to 2% for the day.

Software stocks have been hammered, and four of them have fallen back enough to become quite attractive for growth stock investors with some risk tolerance. The industry is entering a seasonally strong time just as these top stocks offer very solid entry points.

See why some analysts are giving up on lithium stocks and which Buffett-backed Brazilian fintech has caught the eye of Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest. Plus, a look back at an astonishing year for IPOs and a peek at what’s to come.

Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Adobe, Arista Networks, AT&T, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Canopy Growth, Deere, Eli Lilly, Invesco, Medtronic, Mosaic, 3M, Roblox, Starbucks, Tesla, Tapestry and Williams Companies. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Activision Blizzard, Lucid, Nokia, Pfizer, SoFi Technologies, Sunrun and Welltower and more.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.