The futures were mixed Wednesday, after yet another intraday record-breaking high for the S&P 500 as the Santa Claus rally (which is defined as the final five trading days of the year and the first two trading sessions of the new year) tried to gather steam again on Tuesday. However, sellers showed up in the afternoon, and both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 closed lower, with only the Dow Jones industrials posting a gain.

While the main topic of choice across the financial media world remains the Omicron variant, which has continued to haunt the airline stocks as thousands of flights have been canceled due to staffing issues that are being attributed to COVID-19, some medical experts feel that the explosion of cases should start to taper by the end of January.

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 fresh 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 Wednesday, December 29, 2021.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE): Zacks selected this as its Bear of the Day stock. The analyst noted that earnings are slowing down, which is forcing this stock to take a breather. The shares last closed at $569.36, but they have traded as high as $699.54 in the past year.

ADS-Tecc Energy PLC (NASDAQ: ADSE): D.A. Davidson started coverage with a Buy rating and a $17 price objective. The consensus target is $17.50. The shares closed trading on Tuesday at $9.72.

Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM): D.A. Davidson started coverage with a Buy rating and a $143 price target. The consensus target is $134.67. The stock closed at $118.45 on Tuesday.

Alarm.com Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ALRM): Roth Capital dropped its $120 price target on the shares to $105. The consensus target is up at $111.29. The final trade Tuesday was reported at $84.05.

APA Corp. (NASDAQ: APA): BofA Securities reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and has a $44 price target. The consensus target is $27.63, but the last trade for Tuesday came in at $27.93.

Better Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: BTTX): LifeScience Capital started coverage with an Outperform rating and a $15 price target. The consensus target is higher at $19. The final trade for Tuesday was reported at $5.21 a share.

BridgeBio Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: BBIO): BofA Securities slashed the $75 price target on the shares to $34 but kept a Buy rating. The consensus target is $81.20, but that will tumble soon, after the stock closed Monday down a stunning 70% when clinical trials for ATTR-CM failed to meet primary endpoints. The last trade for Tuesday was reported at $13.43, which up over 14% for the day.

Ciena Inc. (NYSE: CIEN): Needham boosted the price target on the stock to $88 from $80. That compares with the $79.60 consensus target and Tuesday’s closing print of $77.33.

Eqonex Ltd. (NASDAQ: EQOS): H.C. Wainwright lowered its Buy rating to Neutral. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $1.83 and $22.95, and it has a $14.14 consensus target. The closing share price on Tuesday was $2.08.

Extreme Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: EXTR): Needham lifted its $16 target price to $18.50. The consensus target is $15.50, but the last trade on Tuesday hit the tape at $16.02.

F5 Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV): Needham lifted its price target on the Buy-rated shares to $303 from $266 and called the stock the single best idea in networking for 2022. The consensus target is much lower at $244.27, and Tuesday’s closing share price was $246.71.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT): Argus raised the $162 price target on the hotel and lodging giant to $178. The posted consensus target is just $148.32. The shares closed higher than that on Tuesday at $155.02.

Innovid Corp. (NYSE: CTV): Needham started coverage with a Buy rating and a $10 price target. The shares have traded as high as $10.36 in the past year but were last seen on Tuesday at $7.09.
Lucira Health Inc. (NASDAQ: LHDX): BofA Securities reiterated an Underperform rating and has a $7 price target. The consensus is $7.75. The stock closed Tuesday trading at $8.05 a share.

Paysafe Ltd. (NYSE: PSFE): Westpark Capital maintained a Hold rating on the shares and has a $5 price target. The consensus target is higher at $6.44. The last trade Tuesday came in at $3.89.

Riot Blockchain Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT): Roth Capital lowered the price target on the bitcoin miner by $10 to $45. The consensus target is up at $53.63. The final Tuesday trade came in at $23.65, which was down over 9% for the day.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP): Roth Capital slashed the $1,800 target price on the stock to $1,650. That is less than the $2,102.95 consensus figure. Tuesday’s closing print was $1,375.62.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA): Wedbush raised its price target on the electric vehicle heavyweight to $1,400 from $1,100. The consensus target is just $849.92. The shares were last seen on Tuesday at $1088.47.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM): This stock was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which suggested that strong retail growth and a big pullback from all-time highs should put this decor leader on investors’ radar. Shares most recently closed at $167.66 and have a consensus price target of $211.00.

Five Dividend Aristocrats are in sectors that have underperformed in 2021 or are solid plays as investors continue to deal with both rising inflation and the potential for rising interest rates in 2022. They could be exceptional stocks to own if the going gets rough next year.

Meet the preliminary Dogs of the Dow for 2022. Also, have a look at where meme stocks BlackBerry and Palantir have been and where they could be headed.

Tuesday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Bilibili, Carvana, Crocs, GameStop, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Sarepta Therapeutics, Vir Biotechnology and Weber. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on EVgo, Luminar Technologies, Tencent Music Entertainment, Tesla and more.

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