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Thursday Afternoon's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Hormel Foods, KB Home, McDonald's, NetApp, Toll Brothers and More

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Markets pulled back on Thursday after talks between Russia and Ukraine fell through. However, this was not the only contributing factor. Inflation reared its head as well, with the consumer price index hitting a fresh 7.9% high for the month of February. Oil prices fed into inflation for the previous month, despite falling to around $112 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate crude.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing some big analyst calls seen on Thursday. 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 Cisco, ConocoPhillips, CrowdStrike, Eli Lilly, Halliburton and many more.

Hormel Foods Corp. (NYSE: HRL): Argus upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold and has a $57 price target. The 52-week trading range is $40.48 to $53.19, and shares were trading near $50 Thursday.

KB Home (NYSE: KBH): J.P. Morgan’s upgrade to Overweight from Neutral included a price target cut to $51 from $64. The 52-week trading range is $33.94 to $52.48, and shares were trading near $38 apiece on Thursday.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD): Northcoast lowered its Buy rating to Neutral. Shares were trading near $219 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $211.42 to $271.15.

Newmark Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRK): Wolfe Research downgraded it to Peer Perform from Outperform and cut the $22 price target to $17. Shares were trading near $16 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $9.88 to $19.10.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP): Barclays raised its Equal Weight rating to Overweight rating and hiked the $85 price target to $102. Shares were trading near $82 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $66.93 to $96.82.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (NASDAQ: PPC): BMO Capital Markets upgraded the shares to Outperform from Market Perform and raised the price target by two dollars to $30. The stock was trading near $23 on Thursday, and the 52-week range is $20.23 to $29.70.

Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL): J.P. Morgan upgraded it to Neutral from Underweight but cut the price target to $58 from $71. Shares were trading near $51. The 52-week range is $47.17 to $75.61.


Five stocks in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio have been beaten down since the beginning of the year but look poised to do very well this year and beyond. Some of these Warren Buffett stock picks may surprise investors, but they offer outstanding entry points for investors with a long-term outlook.

Credit Suisse is upbeat on seven semiconductor equipment and chip stocks. Plus, five alternative energy stocks have made big gains since the Russian invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago. Do they have more room to run?

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