Investing

Elon Musk’s 4D Chess Move; Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades on Royalty Pharma, Twitter, UPS and More

Bet_Noire / iStock via Getty Images

Markets were somewhat mixed on Thursday ahead of the holiday weekend. The Nasdaq was tanking, down over 1% while the Dow was pushing a solid gain of just less than half a percent. While markets are still trying to make up their minds as earnings season is underway, at least one big player is making a definitive more. Everyone’s favorite billionaire and now activist investor is back at it again.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is making headlines again with a now hostile takeover attempt of Twitter. Musk previously bought roughly a 9% stake in Twitter and was even offered a board seat. However, this board seat came with the stipulation that he could never own more than 15% of the company. Musk firmly rejected the offer feeding concerns for some that a hostile takeover might be in the works.

As it stands now, Musk owns a 9.2% stake in Twitter and he is offering to buy the entire platform for a price of 54.20 per share, which is an 18% premium from the most recent closing price of $45.85. According to Musk, this deal really offers over a 50% premium to investors from the day before he started investing and a 38% premium from the day his investment was made public. With even Elon making moves, it definitely looks like a stock-picker’s market.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing additional 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 Amazon, Chipotle, Etsy, Meta, Salesforce and many more.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY): Tesley Advisory Group downgraded to a Market Perform rating from Outperform and cut the price target to $15 from $18. The 52-week trading range is $12.39 to $44.51, and shares were trading near $17 apiece on Thursday.

CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW): Stifel upgraded to a buy rating from Hold and raised the price target to $210 from $200. The stock traded near $174 on Thursday. The 52-week trading range is $162.47 to $208.71.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM): Morgan Stanley upgraded to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight and raised the price target to $150 from $147. Shares were trading near $127 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $114.56 to $146.12.

Royalty Pharma PLC (NASDAQ: RPRX): JPMorgan upgraded to an Overweight rating from Neutral with a $50 price target. The stock traded near $44 on Thursday. The 52-week trading range is $34.86 to $47.10.

Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. (NYSE: RS): Exane BNP Paribas upgraded to an Outperform rating from Neutral. The stock traded near $194 on Thursday. The 52-week trading range is $135.46 to $198.44.

SeaGate Technology Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: STX): Susquehanna downgraded to a Negative rating from Neutral and cut the price target to $65 from $93. Shares were trading near $81. The 52-week range is $78.20 to $117.67.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR): KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded to a Sector Weight rating from Overweight. Stifel downgraded to a Sell rating from Hold. The stock traded near $45 on Thursday. The 52-week trading range is $31.30 to $73.34.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS): Loop Capital upgraded to a Buy rating from Hold and cut the price target to $189 from $232. The 52-week trading range is $174.70 to $233.72, and shares were trading near $189 apiece on Thursday.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC): Susquehanna downgraded to a Neutral rating from Positive and cut the price target to $50 from $80. Shares were trading near $47 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $43.85 to $78.19.

W.W. Grainger, Inc. (NYSE: GWW): Morgan Stanley downgraded to an Underweight rating from Equal Weight and cut the price target to $480 from $562. The 52-week trading range is $391.16 to $529.91, and shares were trading near $498 apiece on Thursday.

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)

Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.

Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.

Click here now to get started.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.