Markets dropped off to start out the week, despite a positive start to the day. The Nasdaq was leading the charge lower with a loss of roughly 1%. This comes as West Texas Intermediate crude was seeing a gain of more than 4%. As everyone eyes the Russia-Ukraine conflict and uses oil as a barometer, there are still many unanswered questions as to what comes next.
Crude oil jumped in the session to roughly $109 a barrel. While this is off a fair amount from highs earlier this month, it is still a marked increase from any time in recent history. Unfortunately, consumers, whether European or American, are paying the price for this either for basic energy needs or at the gas pump. Geopolitics ultimately are the force behind this increase, but as alliances are shifting and Russian gasoline is still looking for a home, a resolution in Ukraine appears to be the ultimate hope for the average consumer.
Apart from commodities, equities markets rallied last week. The S&P 500 notched one of its strongest weeks in recent memory, with over a 6% gain for those five trading days. The question remains whether the bottom is in and if markets are finding a new direction. Analysts still seem to think it is a stock pickers’ market.
24/7 Wall St. is reviewing more big analyst calls seen on Monday. 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 American Express, BlackBerry, FedEx, Nike and many more.
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Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD | APD Price Prediction): J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral and has a $275 price target. The 52-week trading range is $216.24 to $316.39, and shares were trading near $236 on Monday.
Blend Labs Inc. (NYSE: BLND): Truist downgraded the shares from Buy to Hold with a $7.50 price target. The stock traded near $6 on Monday. The 52-week range is $5.81 to $21.04.
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP): Piper Sandler lowered its Neutral rating to Underweight with a $130 price target. The 52-week trading range is $107.85 to $149.62, and shares were trading near $135 apiece on Monday.
Deutsche Bank A.G. (NYSE: DB): The BofA Securities upgrade was to Neutral from Underperform. The 52-week trading range is $9.46 to $16.70, and shares were trading near $12 on Monday.
Dingdong Ltd. (NYSE: DDL): Morgan Stanley’s downgrade to Underweight from Overweight included a price target cut from $10 to $4.20. The stock was trading near $3.50 on Monday, and the 52-week range is $2.51 to $46.00.
eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH): Citigroup downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and cut the $37 price target to $15. Shares were trading near $12 on Monday. The 52-week range is $9.59 to $78.00.
Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN): KeyBanc Capital Markets cut its Overweight rating to Sector Weight. Shares were trading near $39 on Monday. The 52-week range is $24.10 to $41.65.
ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGN): As RBC Capital Markets downgraded the shares to Sector Perform from Outperform, it also cut the $9 price target to $6. Shares were trading near $4. The 52-week range is $3.83 to $8.81.
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Five top master limited partnerships provide exposure to the energy sector and some rich and reliable distributions. They may be solid total return ideas for investors looking to benefit from higher oil prices but acknowledging the massive run energy stocks have had over the past year.
Three top companies are expected to lift the dividends they pay to shareholders this week, making their stocks good total return candidates.
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