The futures traded higher on Tuesday after a massive risk-on move to start the fourth quarter. All the major indexes closed higher Monday, with the venerable Dow Jones industrials leading the way with a gain of more than 2%. Market pundits pointed to the very oversold conditions, as the market was battered to end September, and once again, some speculation that the Federal Reserve will pivot off of its rapid interest rate increase pattern. A deluge of economic data hits the tape this week, not the least of which will be Friday’s nonfarm payroll report. Wall Street is looking for 250,000 jobs to be added, and the unemployment rate is expected to stay at 3.7%.

Treasury yields across the curve plummeted again on Monday, as buyers were very active across all maturities. The flight to safety Treasury bid seems at odds with the massive risk-on move across the equity markets on Monday, but with many managers flush with cash and concerned about a variety of issues, the safety of the government debt may be their best option in front of what could be another 75-basis-point federal funds increase early in November.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude soared Monday, with the former closing 4.04% higher while the latter was up a stunning 4.62%. The jump was in response to the OPEC meeting this week wherein the members are focused on stabilizing prices and discussing a giant 1 million barrel (and perhaps even more) production cut. Natural gas was lower Monday, while both gold and Bitcoin surged higher with the equity markets.

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 Tuesday, October 4, 2022.

Alliant Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: LNT): Credit Suisse initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $58 target price. The consensus target is higher at $64.56. Monday’s final trade was reported at $54.33.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY): Goldman Sachs lowered its $40 target price on the Buy-rated shares to $36. Wall Street has a $44.58 consensus target. The shares closed over 5% higher on Monday at $29.23, as the financials has a strong start to the quarter.

Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $255 target price. The consensus target is $252.22. The stock closed Monday at $192.46, up 3% on the day.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX): Stephens cut its Overweight rating to Equal Weight and slashed its $105 target price to $64. The consensus target is $87.25 for now. The shares were last seen Monday trading at $67.74.
Cousins Property Inc. (NYSE: CUZ): Evercore ISI initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $29 target. The consensus target is $34.43. The final trade for Monday was posted at $23.85.

Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS): Zacks has selected this department store operator as its Bull of the Day stock. The analyst makes the case that stocks that show resilience during bear markets tend to lead the upside once the market turns the corner. Shares last closed at $285.06, which is up more than 35% in the past 90 days.

Dominion Energy Inc. (NYSE: D): Credit Suisse started coverage on the utility giant with an Outperform rating and an $82 target price. The consensus target is $89.65, and the stock ended Monday’s session trading at $71.09.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ): Oppenheimer maintained an Outperform rating on the popular pizza chain and has a $415 target price. That compares with the $417.12 consensus target and Monday’s close at $316.44 a share.

Dynatrace Inc. (NYSE: DT): J.P. Morgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $46 target price. The consensus target is $49.27. Monday’s close at $35.89 was up over 3% for the day.

Enfusion Inc. (NYSE: ENFN): As BofA Securities downgraded the stock to Neutral from Buy, it trimmed the $17 target price to $15. The consensus target is $14.40. Monday’s close at $11.49 was down almost 7% on the day, likely on the downgrade.

Exelon Corp. (NASDAQ: EXC): Credit Suisse initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $43 target price. The consensus target is up at $49.28. The closing share price on Monday was $38.48.

GigaCloud Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: GCT): Aegis Capital started coverage with a Buy rating and a $26 target. Shares have traded as high as $62.00 in the past year but the final trade on Monday was for $8.24. That was down 19% for the day, likely on the downgrade.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD): J.P. Morgan’s upgrade to Overweight from Neutral included a target price hike to $80 from $72. The consensus target is $71.07. The stock was last seen on Monday trading at $62.32.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU): J.P. Morgan downgraded the stock from Overweight to Neutral with a $360 target price. The consensus target is $533.15. Monday’s closing share price was $396.80.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: JEF): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $46 target after the company’s solid third-quarter results. The consensus target is just $37.75. The stock closed on Monday at $30.68, up 4% on the day.
JFrog Ltd. (NASDAQ: FROG): J.P. Morgan resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $29 target price. The consensus target is $29.14. The stock closed on Monday at $22.11, up almost 4% for the day, likely on the resumption of coverage.

KKR & Co. (NYSE: KKR): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $72 target. The consensus target is $67.92. The stock closed on Monday at $43.97.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW): Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating with a $259 target price. The consensus target for the big-box retailer is $245.53. Monday’s final trade was reported at $193.92, up over 3% on the day.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS): Jefferies maintained a Buy rating on the venerable white glove Wall Street firm and has a $97 target price. Shares have traded as high as $109.73 in the past year but closed on Monday at $80.38.

Qualtrics International Inc. (NASDAQ: XM): BNP Paribas raised its Neutral rating to Outperform with a $15 target price. The consensus target is $19.09. The stock closed more than 5% higher on Monday at $10.72, on the upgrade.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: RGEN): Jefferies reiterated a Hold rating on the biotech giant with a $675 target price, citing new clinical data. The consensus target is up at $749.04. The stock closed almost 7% higher on Monday at $735.13.

Ryan Specialty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: RYAN): J.P. Morgan downgraded the company to Underweight from Neutral. Its $40 target price is below the $47.71 consensus and the most recent close at $41.15.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and has a $432 target price. Truist Financial maintained its Buy rating and lifted its $333 target to $348. The consensus target is just $305.34. The stock closed Monday at $242.40, down almost 9% after posting lower deliveries for the quarter. The analysts said they would be buyers of the stock on any weakness.

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Monday’s early top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Amgen, CarMax, Centene, CrowdStrike, Intuit, Micron Technology, Microsoft, Nike, NOV, Roblox, Unity Software and Wells Fargo. Analyst calls seen later in the day were on  Box, Citigroup, CF Industries, DocuSign, Livent, Mosaic, New Gold, Southwestern Energy and more.

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