The futures were up huge on Tuesday after Russia indicated it has pulled some troops back from the Ukrainian border and they are headed back to their base. This is after reports surfaced Monday that CBS National Security Reporter Mary Walsh released a tweet saying that a U.S. official said that satellite imaging showed Russian leaving assembly points to attack positions. Later more media reports came out stating that the President of Ukraine had been informed that the attack was scheduled for Wednesday. All this comes on the heels of the Russian Foreign Minister noting that there may be a way forward with talks between the two countries.
The major indexes closed mixed Monday, with the Dow Jones industrials and the S&P 500 losing ground, while the Nasdaq closed flat. The troubling news from Eastern Europe also surprisingly sent sellers into the Treasury complex, as all the maturities yields closed higher. Oil also rocked higher, with both Brent and West Texas Intermediate closing at or above the $95 a barrel level.
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 Tuesday, February 15, 2022.
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Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK | ALK Price Prediction): Wolfe Research resumed coverage with an Outperform rating and a $67 price target. The consensus target is $72.85. The stock closed Monday at $57.01.
Allstate Corp. (NYSE: ALL): UBS upgraded the insurance heavyweight to Buy from Neutral and boosted the $126 price target to $149. That compares with the consensus target of $130.46 and Monday’s closing print of $124.80.
Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY): BofA Securities downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and lowered the price target to $7.25 from $8.75. The consensus target is $8.38. The shares closed Monday at $7.19.
Ascendis Pharmaceutical A/S (NASDAQ: ASND): Oppenheimer raised its Perform rating to Outperform with a $170 price target. The consensus price objective is up at $192.89. The stock closed on Monday at $121.74.
Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG): This food company expects strong momentum to continue in 2022, says Zacks, which selected it as the Bull of the Day stock. Shares most recently closed at $100.83 and have a consensus price target of $115.20, which would be a 52-week high.
Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ: CIEN): Loop Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and an $87 target price. The consensus target is $80.52. The final trade for Monday was reported at $63.82.
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Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO): Loop Capital started coverage on the legacy technology heavyweight with a Buy rating and a $71 price objective. The lower consensus target is $63.18, and Monday’s closing share price was $53.18.
DigitalBridge Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DBRG): JPMorgan started coverage with an Underweight rating and a $7 price target. The consensus target is $10.11. The stock closed on Monday at $6.95, which was down almost 8% for the day.
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS): Deutsche Bank’s upgrade to Buy from Hold included a target price hike to $145 from $140. The consensus target is $144.12. The last trade on Monday was for $124.16 a share.
DTE Energy Co. (NYSE: DTE): BofA Securities upgraded shares of the Michigan-based utility from Underperform to Buy with a $127 target price. The consensus target is $130.19. The last trade on Monday was at $116.05 a share.
F5 Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV): Loop Capital began coverage with a Buy rating and a $273 price target. That compares with a consensus target of $243.87 and Monday’s closing print of $193.80.
Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS): BofA Securities downgraded the popular retailer to Underperform from Neutral and dropped the price target to $14 from $26. The consensus target is $21.84. The stock closed Monday at $15.37, down almost 4% on the day.
Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG): Zacks named this as its Bear of the Day, citing an expected decline in earnings in 2022 due to COVID-19 resurgences. The stock has traded as high as $369.69 a share in the past year but last closed at $281.14, down about 22% year to date.
Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRX): Canaccord Genuity started coverage with a Buy rating and a $13 target price. The consensus price objective is $12.69. The stock closed trading at $6.65 on Monday.
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Lending Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE): Keefe Bruyette started coverage of the mortgage lending giant with a Neutral rating and a $139 price target. The consensus is up at $213.57. The shares ended Monday’s session at $113.43.
Opendoor Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPEN): Keefe Bruyette started coverage with a Market Perform rating and a $13 price target. The consensus target is higher at $21.29. The shares were last seen Monday trading at $10.14.
PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP): DZ Bank downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy and has a $180 price target. The consensus target for the soft drink giant is $179.45. The shares were last seen Monday trading at $166.70.
SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR): UBS raised its Sell rating to Neutral and bumped up the target price to $17 from $14. The consensus target is higher at $21.41. The final trade on Monday was reported at $15.83. Shares were trading almost 5% higher in the premarket.
Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN): Raymond James cut the legacy tech giant to Market Perform from Outperform. Over the past year, the shares have traded between $161.04 and $202.26, and they have a $200.03 consensus price objective. Monday’s last trade was at $162.47 a share.
Trex Co. Inc. (NYSE: TREX): Benchmark upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold and has a $108 price target. The consensus target is higher at $126.50. The closing share price on Monday was $87.14.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB): Jefferies downgraded the shares to Hold from Buy and sliced the $66 price target to $64. The consensus target is $65.52. The stock was last seen on Monday at $57.87.
VTEX (NYSE: VTEX): Credit Suisse started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $10 target price. The consensus target is $15.29. The stock closed trading on Monday almost 8% higher to $8.18.
Watsco Inc. (NYSE: WSO): KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded the shares from Sector Weight to Overweight with a $320 price target. The consensus target is just $303.50. The final trade on Monday was reported at $261.08.
Zendesk Inc. (NYSE: ZEN): Wolfe Research cut the stock to Peer Perform from Outperform. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $87.90 to $159.80. The consensus target is $132.31. The last trade on Monday was at $116.39 per share.
Zions Bancorp. (NASDAQ: ZION): Jefferies raised its Hold rating to Buy and lifted the $70 target price to $87. The consensus target for the bank is $73. The stock closed at $72.86 on Monday.
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Nobody wants the dogs of war to return again, but all the recent saber-rattling could benefit some of the biggest aerospace and defense companies. Four of them pay solid and dependable dividends and have Buy-rated shares with very reasonable entry points.
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Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Chewy, Cloudflare, Coca-Cola, Doximity, Ideanomics, GlaxoSmithKline, Micron Technology, SoFi Technologies, Teladoc Health, Twitter and Walmart. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Duke Energy, Goodyear, JPMorgan, Juniper Networks, Tyson Foods and more.
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