The futures for all the major indexes turned lower on Tuesday, after edging out a small gain to start the week. While earnings season is still in full swing, markets remain hesitant to decide whether they are in back on the upswing. This partly is due to the fact that the Federal Reserve is still somewhat uncertain on the future of interest rates. On one hand, rampant inflation should be met with higher rates, as the policy has been, but with an easing of rates there is decreased risk of recession later on. It is a difficult tightrope for Fed Chair Powell to walk in the near term.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude bounced back slightly on Monday, but WTI pushed lower Tuesday morning, with its price holding just above $78 a barrel. While oil has backed up from the big move higher, which was a result of OPEC announcing a big production cut, analysts cite the summer driving season and increased Chinese demand as support for higher prices to come.

Gold edged lower Tuesday but was holding just below the $2,000 level at $1,989. Some feel that gold can take a run at new all-time highs, should there be any disruptions in the equity markets. Bitcoin continued its slide yet again in Tuesday’s premarket, down slightly at $27,388.

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, April 25, 2023.

Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL): Wells Fargo initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $73 price target. The consensus target is $70.67. The stock closed on Monday at $66.08.

ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML): Stifel downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy. The consensus target is $736.29. The stock closed down almost 1% on Monday at $627.38.

Black Knight Inc. (NYSE: BKI): Citing negative year-over-year growth and falling estimates, Zacks selected this software stock as its Bear of the Day. Shares have traded as high as $79.78 in the past year but closed most recently at $55.54. That is down about 10% year to date.

Blackstone Mortgage Trust Inc. (NYSE: BXMT): BTIG Research resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $19 price target. That is well below the $22.83 consensus target but above Monday’s closing print of $17.70.
Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (NASDAQ: CALM): Stephens downgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Overweight and cut its price target to $60. The consensus target is $61.00. Monday’s final trade was for $54.34 a share.

Capri Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: CPRI): Jefferies downgraded the shares to Hold from Buy and cut the price target to $45 from $58. The consensus price target is $60.03. Monday’s closing share price was $45.00.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: CHK): Stephens started coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $91 price target. The consensus target is $110.00. The shares closed on Monday at $82.47.

CNX Resources Corp. (NYSE: CNX): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $17 price target. The consensus target is $19.22. The shares closed on Monday at $15.68.

Columbia Sportswear Co. (NASDAQ: COLM): Piper Sandler started coverage with a Neutral rating and a $92 price target. The consensus target is $98.64. Monday’s close was at $89.78.

DigitalOcean Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DOCN): Needham downgraded it to Hold from Buy. The consensus target is $40.00, and Monday’s close was at $32.87.

EQT Corp. (NYSE: EQT): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and a $36 price target. The consensus target is $42.08. The stock closed on Monday at $32.74.

First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC): Janney’s downgrade was to Sell from Neutral. It also trimmed its $10 price target to $8. The consensus target is $53.30. Monday’s $16.00 close was up almost 12% for the day.

Globe Life Inc. (NYSE: GL): Wells Fargo initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating. The firm’s $120 price target is much less than the $129.13 consensus target. The stock closed down slightly on Monday at $107.31.

Ladder Capital Corp. (NYSE: LADR): BTIG Research resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $10 price target. The consensus target is $12.50. Shares closed on Monday at $9.18.

Luminar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LAZR): Jefferies initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $12 price target. The consensus target is $12.68. Monday’s close at $5.61 was down over 1% on the day.

Masimo Corp. (NASDAQ: MASI): Zacks makes the case that its Bull of the Day stock has benefitted from a resurgence in the health care sector. Shares hit a 52-week high of $198.00 in the past week and last closed at $196.06, which is up more than 32% year to date.
PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD): Goldman Sachs lowered its Buy rating to Neutral and cut its $116 price target to $93. The consensus target is $106.69, and shares closed slightly higher on Monday at $66.75.

Squarespace Inc. (NYSE: SQSP): Citigroup’s upgrade was to Buy from Neutral. It also raised its $30 price target to $40. The consensus target is $29.42, but Monday’s close was at $30.71.

Starwood Property Trust Inc. (NYSE: STWD): BTIG Research resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $19 price target. The consensus target is up at $23.21. The stock closed on Monday at $17.49.

Talos Energy Inc. (NYSE: TALO): Stephens initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and a $21 price target. The consensus target is $24.20. The stock closed on Monday at $13.75.

Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS): When Barclays upgraded the stock to Equal Weight from Underweight, it also raised its $132 price target to $142. The consensus target is $141.47. The stock closed on Monday at $140.70.

V.F. Corp. (NYSE: VFC): Piper Sandler resumed coverage with an Overweight rating and a $29 price target. Shares last closed at $22.92, below the $28.36 consensus price target.

XPeng Inc. (NYSE: XPEV): Jefferies lifted its Underperform rating to Hold and its $4.20 price target to $9.30. The consensus target is $13.25. The stock closed at $9.29 on Monday.

Zebra Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: ZBRA): The Credit Suisse upgrade to Outperform from Neutral came with a price target hike to $326 from $311. The consensus target is $360.08. Monday’s close was at $288.19.

ZTO Express Inc. (NYSE: ZTO): As Goldman Sachs upgraded the shares to Buy from Neutral, its price target increased to $42 from $37. The consensus target is $35.21. The stock closed on Monday at $27.94.

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Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Ally Financial, Arbor Realty Trust, Chesapeake Energy, C3.ai, Endeavor, First Solar, Kingsoft Cloud, Kite Realty, Medtronic and Opendoor Technologies.

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