Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades: Barrick, Capri, Chevron, Delta, Morgan Stanley, Southwest, Starbucks, Target & More


Stocks were looking at a mixed open in early trading indications on Tuesday. This is after the strong rally continued and the major indexes are all at or close to all-time time highs. Now that the election outcome is known and with a new regime and new policies coming, investors need to be planning how to position their portfolios for 2025 and beyond. This is where Wall Street research can come into play with Wall Street’s top market pundits having some insights to share.

Tactical Bulls parses through the daily flow of analyst research reports covering Wall Street’s upgrades, downgrades and initiations to look for new ideas. These analyst reports generally try to look out a year out into the future for their ratings and price targets and often have new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed.

Some analyst calls are just reactionary to earnings and other news. Other analyst calls are preemptive and can move stocks. Short-term traders get a glimpse of immediate price reactions to news and to those analyst calls. Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings for longer-term ideas.

Tactical Bulls always reminds its readers and investors that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy or sell, or hold or short sell, is up to each investor and the decision should be made with a financial advisor. And there are of course no assurances that any of the price predictions and the scenarios that back the calls up will actually come to fruition.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Tuesday, November 26, 2024.

American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) was assigned a Neutral rating at UBS.

AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ: AZN) was reiterated as Buy with a $85 price target (versus $66.40 close) at Argus, with the independent research firm citing multiple product approvals in recent months, raised guidance and expectations for a higher dividend.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD) was maintained as Buy at Argus with a $24 price target, with the independent research firm calling the recent weakness a buying opportunity.

Capri Holdings Limited (NYSE: CPRI) was raised to Buy from Neutral with $30 target (versus $21.54 close) at Guggenheim.

Cassava Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVA) was cut to Neutral from Buy at HC Wainwright.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup, noting that it has underperformed Exxon and the S&P 500 in 2024 as an overhang of worries that its Hess acquisition may be blocked over its Guyana oil field interests.

Church & Dwight Co. Inc. (NYSE: CHD) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $125 from $117 (versus $110.41 prior close) at Argus, with the independent research firm citing strong earnings and supporting its 8% earnings growth forecast.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was assigned a Buy rating with an $88 target (versus $64.49 close) at UBS.

Dyne Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: DYN) was initiated with an Outperform rating with $45 price target (versus $29.45 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Everest Group, Ltd. (NYSE: EG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

First Interstate BancSystem, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIBK) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $42 from $32 (versus $35.47 close) at DA Davidson.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy but its price target was raised to $608 from $569 (versus $603.03 close) at HSBC.

Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE: HBI) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was lifted up to $11 from $9 (versus $8.45 close) at UBS.

Hubbell Inc. (NYSE: HUBB) was cut to Hold from Buy at Deutsche Bank.

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) was assigned a Sell rating with $5 target (versus $6.12 close) at UBS.

L3Harris Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LHX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $300 price target at Argus.

MongoDB, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target raised to $425 from $335 (versus $341.36 prior close) at Piper Sandler.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy but its price target was raised to $131 from $128 (versus $133.66 close) at HSBC.

Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAIC) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight but its price target was cut to $147 from $157 (versus $122.22 close) at Wells Fargo.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) was assigned a Sell rating with $27 target (versus $32.43 close) at UBS.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $115 from $110 (versus $101.84 close) at Wells Fargo.

Summit Materials, Inc. (NYSE: SUM) was cut to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup and it was also cut to Hold from Buy at Loop Capital.

Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Daiwa. Target was also named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, noting that sagging sales and negative earnings caught analysts and investors off guard again to reduced expectations.

Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI) was started with an Equal-Weight rating at Wells Fargo.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) was assigned a Buy rating with $139 target (versus $96.83 close) at UBS.

Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks after its Investor Day presentations included solid growth forecasts in datacenter solutions through 2029.

If you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Arm, Chewy, CrowdStrike, MicroStrategy, NIO, Palantir, P&G, Salesforce and many more stocks.