Wednesday Afternoon's Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: American Express, Clorox, Chipotle, Meta, Microsoft, Verizon and More

Investing

Published: January 26, 2022 1:54 pm

Markets bounced back on Wednesday after a fairly choppy trading week thus far. While the major averages are near correction territory, any bounce at this point is welcome to investors. All this comes in anticipation of the Fed’s upcoming decision on monetary policy.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing some big analyst calls seen on Wednesday. We have included the latest call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts. Note that analyst calls seen earlier in the day were on DraftKings, Fastly, Halliburton, Moderna, Netflix, Splunk and more.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP): BofA Securities upgraded to a Buy rating from Neutral with a $204 price target. Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and cut the price target to $200 from $206. Barclays reiterated an Equal Weight rating and raised the price target to $190 from $182. Shares were trading around $176 on Wednesday, and the 52-week range is $112.10 to $189.03.

Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR): JPMorgan upgraded to a Neutral rating from Underweight with a $205 price target. Shares were trading at around $181 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $40.20 to $545.11.

The Clorox Co. (NYSE: CLX): Credit Suisse downgraded to an Underperform rating from Neutral with a $160 price target. Shares were trading around $167 on Wednesday, and the consensus target price is $168.97.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG): Gordon Haskett upgraded to a Buy rating from Hold and cut the price target to $1,750 from $1,800. Shares were trading around $1,399 on Wednesday, and the consensus target price is $2,003.82.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB): RBC Capital Markets reiterated an Outperform rating and cut the price target to $400 from $415. The 52-week trading range is $253.50 to $384.33, and shares traded near $401.59 apiece.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $340 from $330. Morgan Stanley reiterated an Overweight rating and raised the price target to $372 from $364. Citigroup reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $386 from $376. Shares were trading around $302 on Wednesday, and the 52-week range is $224.26 to $349.67.

Penn National Gaming, Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN): Macquarie upgraded to an Outperform rating from Neutral and cut the price target to $71 from $80. The 52-week trading range is $37.76 to $142.00, and shares were last seen trading near $45.

Red Rocks Resorts, Inc. (NASAQ: RRR): Macquarie downgraded to a Neutral rating from Outperform and cut the price target to $55 from $60. Shares were trading around $47 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $23.04 to $58.74.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ): JPMorgan downgraded to a Neutral rating from Overweight and cut the price target to $56 from $62. Shares were trading around $51 on Wednesday, and the 52-week range is $49.69 to $59.85.

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