Thursday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, CSX, Netflix, Philip Morris, Riot Blockchain, Rivian, Sunrun and More

Investing

Published: September 29, 2022 8:48 am

Last Updated: September 29, 2022 9:00 am

The futures were trading lower Thursday, after the market finally posted an across-the-board winning day in which all the major indexes closed decidedly higher. The venerable S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrials both ended a six-day losing streak. One big reason for the risk-on rally was interest rates plunging as buyers swooped into the Treasury complex in a big way. In addition, some feel that the Bank of England’s intervention into the bond market (it is buying its own government debt) may spark a similar change in Federal Reserve policy. Most across Wall Street feel that is extremely doubtful, given the fact that the Fed is in quantitative tightening mode and allowing $95 billion per month to run off its massive balance sheet.

The aforementioned massive drop in Treasury debt yields featured both the five-year and 10-year securities yields falling by a stunning 29 and 26 basis points, respectively. The 10-year, which had briefly breached the 4% level earlier this week, closed at 3.71%. Despite the drop, the inversion with the two-year note remained in place, as the short-term debt closed at 4.10%, a stunning 21-basis-point decline.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude both closed much higher Wednesday on concerns over Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the Florida coast as a massive category 4 storm. The hurricane, combined with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting a modest oil inventory draw from the week ending September 23, helped to spur the big rise in the benchmarks. In addition, gasoline stocks, according to the EIA, fell by 2.4 million barrels in the reporting period, with production averaging 9.6 million barrels daily.

Natural gas also closed higher, after a big midday reversal, while both gold and Bitcoin had a solid session on Wednesday, each trading up close to 3%. Bitcoin and other cryptos got a boost on the Bank of England intervention.

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, September 29, 2022.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): Rosenblatt upgraded the technology leader to Buy from Neutral and lifted its $160 price target to $189. BofA Securities lowered its Buy rating to Neutral and cut the target price to $160 from $185. The consensus target is $183.06. The stock closed trading on Wednesday at $149.84.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB): When Baird upgraded the shares to Outperform from Neutral, it boosted its $224 target price to $340. Mizuho raised its Neutral rating to Buy and raised its target to $270 from $207. The BMO Capital Markets upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform included a price objective hike to $360 from $217. The consensus target is $234.14 for now. The stock ended Wednesday at $276.61, up a stunning 40% on the day after positive clinical data on the firm’s Alzheimer drug.