The futures were lower Thursday, after a second straight day of gains across Wall Street for the major indexes. The Nasdaq led the way with a 1.6% gain on the day. Positives noted across Wall Street (and some were of the contrarian nature) included the horrible investor sentiment, which is at levels that are worse than during the 2007-2008 financial crisis period. Other top firms reported seeing a surge of investor capitulation over the past week or so. One of the biggest items appears to be the weakening of the U.S. dollar, which has surged against the euro, drawing the two currencies in parity for the first time in 20 years.

The Treasury market traded mostly flat Wednesday, with yields only slightly higher on the five-year and 10-year notes. The two-year and 10-year inversion remained in place, with the two-year note yielding 3.24% and the other at the 3.03% level. As a reminder, many in the bond arena view this inversion as a precursor to recession.

Both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude traded mostly lower, while natural gas was up close to 2%, closing above the $7.40 mark. Gold ended the session down, and Bitcoin finished the day up another 3%, climbing above the $24,000 mark.

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 Thursday, July 21, 2022.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A): UBS initiated coverage on the shares with a Buy rating and a $139 target price. The 52-week high is $179.57, but Wednesday’s last trade came in at $119.86.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY): Evercore ISI downgraded the shares from Outperform to In Line with a $36 target. The consensus target is higher at $48.15. The shares closed on Wednesday at $33.88.

APA Corp. (NASDAQ: APA): MKM Partners resumed coverage of the energy giant with a Buy rating and a $45 target. The consensus target is higher at $53.96. Wednesday’s close was at $35.00.

Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE: ANET): The BofA Securities downgrade to Underperform from Buy included a price target cut to $105 from $140. The consensus target is $146.44 and Thursday’s closing trade was at $104.86.

Berry Global Group Inc. (NASDAQ: BERY): Credit Suisse lifted its Neutral rating to Outperform with a $78 target price. The consensus target is $71.47. Wednesday’s final print was $55.71 per share.
Caesars Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: CZR): Susquehanna started coverage on the casino heavyweight with a Neutral rating and a $32 target price. The consensus target is up at $92.15. The stock closed almost 6% higher on Wednesday at $44.25 on no news that we saw.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX): Though HSBC Securities raised its Hold rating to Buy, it also lowered its $183 price target to $167. That compares with the $176.27 consensus target and Wednesday’s close at $146.49.

Danaher Corp. (NYSE: DHR): UBS started coverage with a Buy rating and a $297 target price. The consensus target is higher at $322.49. The stock closed on Wednesday at $254.96.

Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG): Bernstein initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $172 target price. The consensus target is just $154.42. The stock closed at $100.88 on Wednesday.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG): MKM Partners resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $123 target price. The consensus target for the energy giant is $148.82. Wednesday’s close was at $105.53.

EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT): Citigroup resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $48 target price. The consensus target for the natural gas giant is up at $55.83. The last trade on Wednesday was reported at $41.21, which was up over 5% after the company announced a big dividend increase.

FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC): KeyBanc Capital Markets upgraded the shares to Overweight from Sector Weight. Its $122 target price is less than the $136.00 consensus target. The stock closed on Wednesday at $104.95.

Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG): BofA Securities reiterated a Buy rating on the venerable motorcycle giant but lowered its $70 price target to $60. The consensus target is $47.11. The last trade on Wednesday was reported at $35.28.

Hologic Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLX): BofA Securities downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy and sliced the $81 target price to $75. The consensus target is $79, and the stock was last seen on Wednesday trading at $70.11.

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS): Wells Fargo raised its Equal Weight rating to Overweight and bumped the $43 price target to $45. The consensus target is $45.69. The shares closed almost 5% higher on Wednesday at $37.08. The stock was up an additional 4% in the premarket, after the casinos in Macau were reopened.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX): Stifel upgraded the streaming and programming giant to Buy from Hold but lowered the $250 target price to $240. The consensus target is $281.59. Wednesday’s $216.44 closed was up over 7% on the day after the company posted better than expected results for the quarter.
Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD): MKM Partners resumed coverage of the Permian Basin energy giant with a Buy rating and a $264 price target. The consensus target is $296.53. The last trade for Wednesday was recorded at $216.84.

Rio Tinto Group (NYSE: RIO): Zacks selected this as its Bear of the Day stock, with the analyst pondering whether the mining giant’s best days are behind it. Shares have traded as high as $89.51 in the past year but closed most recently at $57.30. That is down more than 24% in the past six months.

Sealed Air Corp. (NYSE: SEE): Credit Suisse’s downgrade was from Outperform to Neutral with a $64 target price. The consensus target is $73.46., and shares ended trading on Wednesday at $57.62.

Twilio Inc. (NYSE: TWLO): Bernstein started coverage with a Market Perform rating and a $91 price objective. The consensus target is up at $191.46. The stock closed almost 5% higher on Wednesday at $93.44.

VICI Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI): Evercore ISI resumed coverage of the gaming REIT giant with a $37 target price. The consensus target is $35.50. The last trade Wednesday came in at $33.00.

Vital Farms Inc. (NASDAQ: VITL): Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight and has a $12 target price. The consensus target is $17.93. The shares closed over 16% higher on Wednesday at $10.53, likely due to the upgrade.

Western Union Co. (NYSE: WU): Wolfe Research downgraded the stock to Underperform from Peer Perform and trimmed the $20 target price to $17. The stock closed at $16.76 on Wednesday.

Wolverine World Wide Inc. (NYSE: WWW): Stifel’s downgraded to Hold from Buy included a price target cut to $23 from $26. The consensus target is $27.75. The shares closed on Wednesday at $22.59.

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Wednesday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Apollo Global Management, Asana, Block, Caesars Entertainment, Dollar General, Gilead Sciences, Goldman Sachs, Invitation Homes, Medtronic, Microsoft, Ovintiv, Plains All American Pipeline, Pioneer Natural Resources and Sunnova Energy. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Alibaba, Alphabet, Apple, PayPal, Tyson Foods, Zoom Video Communications and more.

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