Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Analog Devices, Chevron, Disney, Fisker, Welltower, Wendy's and More

Investing

Published: August 12, 2022 8:45 am

Last Updated: August 12, 2022 8:59 am

The futures were trading higher Friday, as we get ready to end what was a solid week for the risk-on crowd and for the meme stock army. All the major indexes finished the day lower except the Dow Jones industrials, as the early gains Thursday gave way to some profit taking by noon and through the afternoon into the close. Once again, the initial move higher was due to the producer price index coming in below expectations at a year-over-year level of 9.8% and down for July by 0.5%, the first decline since April of 2020. The bad news on the day is that first-time claims for unemployment soared to 262,000 the highest so far in 2022.

The sellers returned to the Treasury market, as yields were up across the curve, with the benchmark 30-year bond closing up 13 basis points at a 3.17% yield. Thirty-year mortgage rates also moved back over the 5% level after coming back below there recently for the first time since early April.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed over 2% higher after the International Energy Agency noted they expect global energy demand to increase by 2.1 million barrels per day in 2022. In addition, OPEC+’s puny 100,000 increase in production may end up being a non-issue as many anticipate a Russian production cut. Natural gas had a big day, closing up almost 7% at $8.76. Gold closed flat and Bitcoin pushed modestly higher.

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 Friday August 12, 2022.

Analog Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ADI): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating on the chip giant and has a $210 target price. The consensus target is $195.38. The stock was last seen Thursday trading at $174.55.

Angi Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI): Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating with a $10 target price. The consensus target is $9.55. The stock closed almost 3% lower on Thursday at $5.05.

Atlas Corp. (NYSE: ATCO): BMO Capital Markets downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered the $17 price target to $14.45. The consensus target is $16.48. The stock closed on Thursday at $14.00.