The futures were lower Monday, after a solid week for stocks finished on Friday with all the major indexes closing higher. The venerable S&P 500 finished its fourth consecutive positive week, with stocks extended their longest winning streak since last November, and closed above 4,231. That close marked a 50% retracement of the losses the market incurred from the January 3 closing high to the June 16 closing low.

While the risk-on crowd and the meme stock traders cheered lower consumer and producer prices this week, the reality is gasoline and food prices are still skyrocketing. Grocery prices increased in July at the highest level since 1979, and some across Wall Street feel the chances of prices dropping any time soon are very unlikely.

Yields were down across the Treasury curve Friday, after a big spike higher Thursday, as the volatility in the government securities market persists with big bouts of selling and buying like we have seen so far in August. The dreaded two-year and 10-year inversion stayed in place last week, with the two-year note closing at a 3.25% yield and the 10-year note at 2.85%. Again, the bond market sees the inversion as a harbinger of recession, which technically we are already in.

Prices were lower across the energy complex, with both Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude closing down on Friday. Natural gas took a breather after a torrid week, closing at $8.77, down just over 1%. Gold and Bitcoin both closed modestly higher Friday.

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 Monday, August 15, 2022.

Alliant Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: LNT): BofA Securities increased the $62 target price on the Buy-rated stock to $70. The consensus target is $63.67. The stock close almost 3% higher on Friday at $63.65.

Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM): Wolfe Research initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $117 target price. The consensus price objective is $94.38. The stock was last seen on Friday at $86.60, close to a 3% gain for the day.

Bunge Ltd. (NYSE: BG): Wolfe Research began covering the stock with an Outperform rating and a $127 target price. The stock has traded at $128.40 in the past year but closed on Friday at $101.24.
Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ: CGNX): J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock from Neutral to Underweight with a $40 target price. The consensus target is $52.19, and the stock closed on Friday at $48.22.

CS Disco Inc. (NYSE: LAW): Jefferies downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy and cut its $35 target to $25. Cowen also downgraded the shares, to Market Perform from Outperform, and lowered the $35 target to $20. The consensus target is $34.44. The shares were destroyed Friday, closing down almost 54% after terrible second-quarter results and very poor forward guidance.

Crowdstrike Inc. (NASDAQ: CRWD): Guggenheim initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $270 price objective. The consensus target is $239.32. The stock was last seen on Friday trading at $200.87.

e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (NYSE: ELF) Cowen downgraded the cosmetics stock to Market Perform from Outperform and has a $36 price target. The consensus target is $38.63. The shares ended trading on Friday at $36.70.

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN): Baird maintained an Outperform rating with a $156 target price. That compares with the $167.81 consensus target and Friday’s closing print of $135.44.

Golar LNG Ltd. (NASDAQ: GLNG): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $33 target price. The consensus target is $35. The stock was last seen Friday at $27.19, up over 5% on the day. The company posted solid earnings last week.

GoodRx Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX): D.A. Davidson started coverage with a Neutral rating and has an $8 target. The consensus target is $9.98 The stock closed down over 3% on Friday at $7.36.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN): Baird cut its target price in a big way, to $215 from $306, and maintained a Neutral rating. The consensus target is $291.75. The stock closed down almost 9% on Friday at $208.32, after badly missing Wall Street forecasts.

Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL): Guggenheim started coverage of the legacy tech heavyweight with a Buy rating and a $107 target price. The consensus target is $88.28. Friday’s $79.15 close was up close to 3% for the day.

Palo Alto Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW): Guggenheim started coverage of the cybersecurity giant with a Buy rating and a $625 target price. That compares with a $631.41 consensus target and Friday’s closing print of $526.88.

Payoneer Global Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYO): Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating on the stock, and it lifted its $6.50 target price to $8.50. The consensus target is $7.67. The stock closed Friday at $6.70, up almost 18% after posting a stellar quarter.

Playa Hotels & Resorts N.V. (NASDAQ: PLYA): Citing strong bookings heading into 2023, Zacks selected this stock as the Bull of the Day. The shares last closed at $7.34, and the $12.54 consensus target would be a 52-week high.
Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN): Goldman Sachs raised its $36 price target on the electric vehicle shares to $41 but maintained a Neutral rating. The consensus target is higher at $60.37. The stock was last seen Friday trading at $38.90.

Ryan Specialty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RYAN): RBC Capital Markets cut its Outperform rating to Sector Perform, but it also raised the price target to $47 from $42, which was close to the $42.71 consensus target. Friday’s $44.95 closing print was higher than that consensus figure.

Safehold Inc. (NYSE: SAFE): Mizuho upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral, but in an unusual move it also slashed the $75 price target to $50. The consensus is $71.17. The shares ended Friday’s trading at $46.11 apiece.

Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) Guggenheim initiated coverage on the stock with a Sell rating and a $150 target price. The consensus target is up at $244.57, and shares ended Friday trading at $189.89.

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH): Cowen downgraded the shares to Market Perform from Outperform and has a $17 price target objective The consensus target is $15.13. The stock was last seen on Friday at $15.19.

Teladoc Inc. (NASDAQ: TDOC): D.A. Davidson initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $45 price objective. The consensus target is just $36.89. Positive analyst comments helped boost the stock by more than 6% on Friday to close at $40.32.

Toast Inc. (NYSE: TOST): Goldman Sachs raised its $18 price target on the Neutral-rated shares to $23. The consensus target is $21.23. The stock closed Friday, over 8% higher on the day at $19.64 after posting solid results for the quarter.

Warby Parker Inc. (NYSE: WRBY): Baird reiterated an Outperform rating and has a $25 target. The consensus target is $20.20. The shares were last seen on Friday trading at $17.22 apiece.

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Friday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Analog Devices, Chevron, Fisker, Healthcare Realty Trust, Paysafe, Tempur Sealy, Upstart, Walt Disney, Welltower, Wendy’s and XP. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on Ciena, Lennar, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Mister Car Wash, PagerDuty, RealReal, Six Flags and more.

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