Investing

Five S&P Blue Chips Leading Tactical Plays for the Week

Tactical Bulls had a hard time not noticing some of the key gainers during the week of October 24. While these were mostly earnings-related gains, some of the moves were quite impressive considering the S&P 500 was up just 2% for the week (and up almost 16% YTD). One common theme was that Wall Street analysts were massively hiking their price targets on the heels of each company’s news gains.

All analyst ratings and price targets are assigned to each firm by name. Tactical Bulls has no formal ratings and no formal price targets on any of the companies mentioned in this report. As a reminder, analysts can be wrong in their thesis and no analyst reports ever come with assurances of continued profits or come with any money-back guarantees if gains fail to materialize.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) was seen at $549.00 late on Friday. While that’s up 23% for the week, it is still only up 5% YTD and up 6% from a year ago. That is now close to challenging the May/June highs of $560/565. Its 52-week range is $425.00 to $616.00. Price target hikes after earnings:

  • Raymond James (to $603 from $592);
  • Piper Sandler (to $610 from $595);
  • RBC (to $615 from $615);
  • BTIG (to $589 from $529);
  • and UBS (to $600 from $585).

Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) was the king of oil and gas stocks this week with a 20% gain for the week. Its shares were at $26.75 late on Friday. Its Q3 earnings report of quarterly earnings of $0.58 EPS was above consensus but below the $0.73 EPS a year earlier. Ahead of earnings, the stock had lost about 17% YTD versus the S&P 500’s gain of 14%. Even though the shares are still flat for 2025 at $26.75, this broke out to levels not seen since before the April stock market plunge took shares under $20. At $26.75, Halliburton’s52-week range is $18.72 to $32.57. Many price target hikes were seen this week:

  • Stifel ($32 from $27);
  • Susquehanna (to $29 from $27);
  • Goldman Sachs (to $28 from $25);
  • UBS (to $24 from $23); HSBC (to $30 from $23);
  • RBC (to $31 from $26);
  • and Barclays (to $25 from $20).

General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) felt like a two-fer. GM was up 18.8% for the week late on Friday, and the stock was up 30% YTD, Ford was up 16.5% for the week late on Friday, and the stock was up 27% YTD. Many analysts raised their targets on both:

  • GM — Citi (to $86 from $75); UBS (to $85 from $81); Wells Fargo (to $46 from $40); TD Cowen (to $100 from $92); RBC to $86 from $77); and Barclays (to $85 from $77).
  • Ford — RBC (to $12 from $11); Wells Fargo (to $11 from $10); Piper Sandler (to $11 from $9.50).

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (NASDAQ: WBD) is now further into a strategic review, which may result in an outright sale of the company or may result in the sale of its studios. Reporting indicated that three buyout offers from Paramount had so far been rejected. Multiple firms (UBS, Raymond James, Guggenheim, and Goldman Sachs) had already raised their target prices in the last month. Benchmark reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $25 from $18 this week. Warner Bros. shares were up 17% just for the week at $21.25, and the shares were last seen up 100% YTD.

Charts for the last 6 months have been included from stockcharts.com below for each stock.

Categories: Investing

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