The futures were trading lower as Wall Street returns from the long Presidents Day weekend. With Walmart’s earnings release last week pretty much wrapping up the fourth-quarter earnings season, all eyes have turned to March and the inevitable beginning to the Federal Reserve’s monumental task of trying to slow the worst inflation numbers in 40 years. While the concerns about a 50-basis-point increase to start the cycle, which has not happened since 2000, have diminished some, the reality is that there is a solid chance that a year from now, the 0.00% to 0.25% federal funds rate is sitting close to 2.5%. While the highest in years, historically that is still a very low level.

Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate remain at well over $90 a barrel, with Brent closing in on the $100 level. Many in the energy patch are thinking it is poised to go much higher if a conflict does indeed break out in Ukraine. Another bothersome metric is that the United States is poised to become a net importer of oil in 2022, something that seemed impossible just two short years ago. Treasury securities got a safe-haven bid last week, and it will be interesting to see if it remains in place this week.

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 22, 2022.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD): Bernstein raised the chip giant to Outperform from Market Perform and has a $150 price target. The consensus target is $153.59. The last trade Friday hit the tape at $113.83 a share.

Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX): UBS reiterated a Neutral rating and bumped its $88 target price to $91. Stifel stayed with a Buy rating and its share price rose to $91 from $90, while Wells Fargo maintained an Overweight rating and trimmed its target to $93 from $95. The consensus target is $97. The last trade for Friday was posted at $82.35.

Brady Corp. (NYSE: BRC): Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and lowered the price objective to $52 from $60. The consensus target is $64.50. The last trade on Friday was reported at $46.55, which was down for the day close to 5% despite posting solid results.

BrightSpire Capital Inc. (NASDAQ: BRSP): BofA Securities began coverage with a Neutral rating and a $9.50 target. The consensus target is $11.88. Friday’s closing share price was $8.99.

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM): Stifel started coverage of the Canadian banking giant with a Hold rating and a $172 target price. The consensus target is just $136.72, and the shares closed on Friday at $125.88.

Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX): JPMorgan upgraded the stock to Neutral from Underweight but slashed the price target to $68 from $80. The consensus target is $87.73. The stock finished last week at $65,72 up almost 7% just on Friday.

Constellation Energy Corp. (NYSE: CEG): UBS started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $50 target price. The consensus target is $58.22. The shares were last seen on Friday at $45.41.

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD): JMP Securities resumed coverage of the cybersecurity heavyweight with a Market Outperform rating, and it lowered the $310 target price to $285. The consensus target is $279.65. The stock closed on Friday at $164.93, down close to 3% for the day.

Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG): Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from Neutral to Buy with a $250 target price. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $69.73 to $199.68 and have a $213.15 consensus target. The stock closed Friday at $159.02, down over 4% on the day, but it was nearly 2% higher in the premarket.

Digital Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: DLR): Stifel kept a Buy rating and trimmed the target price to $170 from $195. Wells Fargo maintained an Overweight rating and dropped its target to $155 from $180, while Cowen reiterated a Market Perform rating and lowered the $162 target to $149. The consensus price objective is $171.10. Friday’s final trade was for $135.20 a share.

Fathom Digital Manufacturing Corp. (NASDAQ: FATH): Stifel started coverage with a Buy rating and an $11 target. The consensus price objective is $11.83. The shares closed on Friday at $9.34.

Heartland Express Inc. (NASDAQ: HTLD): JPMorgan cut the stock to Neutral from Overweight and trimmed the $18 price target to $16. The consensus target is $14.42, and the last trade on Friday was for $14.42 per share.

Hibbett Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB): Telsey Advisory reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares but slashed the $110 price target to $70. That compares with a $112.97 consensus and Friday’s closing print of $49.14, which was down close to 5% for the day.

Masimo Corp. (NASDAQ: MASI): Needham raised its Neutral rating to Buy with a $205 price target. The consensus target is much higher at $248.33. The closing share price on Friday was $154.34.
nLight Inc. (NASDAQ: LASR): Craig Hallum downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold with an $18 price objective. The consensus target, for the time being, is $40.50. The shares closed Friday at $15.31, down close to 20%, and shares continued to sell off in the after-market trading after the company posted very disappointing results.

Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE: NTR): Atlantic Equities upgraded the shares to Neutral from Underweight and boosted the target price to $79 from $68. The consensus target is $83.66. The stock closed last Friday at $75.78.

Oramed Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ORMP): Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $20 target price. The consensus target is up at $35. The final trade on Friday was reported at $10.56.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (NYSE: PPC): Stephens upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight and lifted the target price on the food producer to $35 from $30. The consensus target is $28.90. The shares closed Friday at $24.03, down almost 14% after the deal for the company to be bought by JBS fell through

Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (NASDAQ: SAND): RBC Capital Markets raised its Underperform rating to Sector Perform and bumped the $6.50 target price to $7. The consensus target is $9.68. The final trade on Friday was reported at $6.82.

SentinelOne Inc. (NYSE: S): D.A. Davidson started coverage with a Buy rating and a $57 target. The consensus price objective is $64.44. The last trade on Friday hit the tape at $38.99, which was down almost 6% on the day.

Zhihu Inc. (NYSE: ZH): Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and cut the target price to $5.40 from $12.80. The consensus target is $7.94. The stock closed Friday at $3.59, down over 12% for the day.

Five Goldman Sachs conviction-list stock picks are in areas that often perform well in an inflationary environment. They also have reliable dividends, offer attractive entry points and look like very solid ideas for investors now.

Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Altice USA, Applied Materials, Block, Coeur Mining, Consolidated Edison, Fastly, Shopify, SM Energy, Tata Motors and Wingstop. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Marathon Oil, Roku, Tencent Music and more.

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