The futures traded mixed to start the new trading week, after a horrible Friday that followed up a dreadful Thursday to end the week. By now most everybody is aware of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank last week, which was taken over by regulators after an old-fashioned run on the bank by its venture capital clientele. What started as an attempt to raise capital ended with $175 billion in customer deposits now controlled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, after the bank was shut on Friday by California regulators.

Treasury yields were crushed Friday, due to a rush to safe haven by investors who immediately scooped up short maturity government debt. Like most banks, Silicon Valley had the lion’s share of its deposits in Treasury and mortgage debt, a huge amount that it purchased before the gigantic rise in yields over the past year. When requests for withdrawals accelerated, the bank was forced to sell many of the bonds it held and took a reported $2 billion loss.

The stunning rush to Treasuries dropped the two-year yield on Friday to 4.59%, down an incredible 31 basis points. The short paper has closed over 5% on Wednesday last week. The 10-year note yield fell 22 basis points to close at 3.70%. The benchmark security traded over 4% last week. While the inversion between the two narrowed from over 100 basis points to the closing 89 basis points, it still suggests a recession is headed our way.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude were winners to close the week, with both closing up on Friday well over 1%. It was noted during the day by analysts that OPEC+ oil production fell by 80,000 barrels per day in February. Natural gas took it on the chin Friday, closing down 4.4% at $2.43. Gold also caught a big safe-haven bid, closing up over 2% on the day, while Bitcoin was lower by 1% to close at $20,159. The cryptocurrency giant was over $25,000 three short weeks ago, a stunning 25% decline since.

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, March 13, 2023.

Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT): Barclays downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight but raised its $96 price target to $105. The consensus target is $99.80. The closing share price on Friday was $96.06, which was down close to 5% for the day.

Ameresco Inc. (NYSE: AMRC): Piper Sandler raised its Neutral rating to Overweight and boosted its target price to $64 from $57. The consensus target is $65.54. The stock closed 4% higher on Friday at $46.05 after the upgrade.

Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE: ANET): The Zacks Bull of the Day has consistently delivered strong quarterly results, points out the analyst. Shares last closed at $146.46, and the $167.62 consensus price target would be an all-time high.
Array Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ARRY): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $24 target price. The consensus target is $27.13. The shares closed on Friday at $19.40, down over 6% on the day.

Ballard Power Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: BLDP): Scotiabank initiated coverage with a Sector Perform rating and a $7.25 target price. The consensus target is $8.23. Shares closed almost 6% lower on Friday at $5.28.

Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSIQ): Citigroup cut its Buy rating to Neutral and trimmed its $45 target price to $44. The consensus target is $42.92. Friday’s $39.25 closed was down over 5% on the downgrade.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT): The Neutral rating at UBS is now at Sell, and the $230 target price dropped to $225. The consensus target is $250.29. Friday’s close at $227.01 was down close to 6% on the day.

Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW): Goldman Sachs reiterated a Buy rating with an $80 target price. The consensus target is $91.99. The stock closed almost 12% lower on Friday, at $58.70, in sympathy with other banks after the Silicon Valley Bank failure.

Chewy Inc. (NYSE: CHWY): Roth MKM started coverage with a Buy rating and a $52 target price. The consensus target is $48.29. Friday’s close was at $38.80.

Coterra Energy Inc. (NYSE: CTRA): Goldman Sachs raised its $27 target price on the Buy-rated shares to $30. The consensus target is $30.21, and shares stock closed on Friday at $24.59.

DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU): J.P. Morgan’s downgrade to Underweight from Neutral included a price target cut to $48 from $58. The consensus target is $66.80 for now. The stock closed on Friday at $49.69, down almost 23% on the day, despite solid earnings after announcing its CFO’s departure.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS): Goldman Sachs trimmed its $18 target price on the Buy-rated retailer to $16. The consensus target is $12.21. Friday’s close at $10.87 was down over 6% after the company reported a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss.

Generac Inc. (NASDAQ: GNRC): Citigroup’s downgraded to Neutral from Buy came with a target price cut from $380 all the way to $140. The consensus target is $144.58. The shares ended trading on Friday at $113.16, down almost 4% in the wake of the downgrade.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE): Goldman Sachs raised its $84 target price for the Buy-rated shares to $96. The $90.12 consensus target is lower than Friday’s closing print of $91.00.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY): The Piper Sandler upgrade was to Neutral from Underweight. The firm also trimmed its $18.50 target price to $16.50, further below the $20.75 consensus target. Friday’s close was at $15.66.
Marathon Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: MPC): Mizuho’s upgrade to Buy from Neutral included a target price hike to $160 from $133. The consensus target is $148.87. Friday’s close was at $128.55.

Marvell Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating with a $70 target price. The consensus target is $57.42. Friday’s $38.68 close was down almost 6% on the day.

Pool Corp. (NASDAQ: POOL): Oppenheimer initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $408 target price. The consensus target is $394.33. The shares closed on Friday at $348.41.

Roblox Corp. (NASDAQ: RBLX): Jefferies maintained a Buy rating with a $48 target price. The consensus target is $41.14. Shares closed on Friday at $40.05.

Shoals Technologies Group Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLS): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price of $34. The consensus target is $31.38. The stock closed almost 6% lower on Friday at $21.84.

Silk Road Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: SILK): The Sell rating at Citigroup is now at Neutral. Its $50 target price is less than the $56.20 consensus target. The shares closed on Friday at $42.75, which was down over 4% on the day.

Stride Inc. (NYSE: LRN): Morgan Stanley’s downgrade was from Overweight to Equal Weight with a $46 target price. The consensus target is $52.25 for now. The stock closed on Friday at $40.09, down over 7% for the day on the downgrade and the weak tape.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $27 target price. The consensus target is just $18.80, and Friday’s close at $14.66 was down 5% for the day.

Sunrun Inc. (NASDAQ: RUN): Citigroup started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $16.50 target price. The consensus target is $18.80. The last trade on Friday was reported at $20.73. That was down 12% on the day, after it was reported that the company had ties to Silicon Valley Bank.

Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ZBH): Piper Sandler upgraded the stock to Overweight from Neutral. The analyst also lifted the $135 target price to $145, well above the $133.68 consensus target and Friday’s close at $123.53.

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Five top large-cap companies are Wall Street favorites and are expected to raise their dividends this week, a sign that they are doing well and have the earnings and cash flow strength to increase their payouts. These total return candidates may be ideal now for nervous investors.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Advanced Micro Devices, Asana, Etsy, Exact Sciences, Guardant Health, Hilton Worldwide, Meta Platforms, MongoDB, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Sysco and Teladoc Health.

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