Investing

Wall Street Analysts Slashing Bullish Views on Key Cyclical Stocks

Even the biggest bulls on Wall Street are becoming less bullish for the stock market in 2025. Just a week earlier it was shown that three top strategists had cut their price target on the S&P 500, and now Goldman Sachs has cut its view twice on a stagflationary environment by cutting the S&P 500 year-end target to 6,200 from 6,500 in mid-March and now looking for an implied range of 5,300 to 5,900.
While the S&P 500 is the single best market indicator of the stock market, many individual stocks with a high dependency are seeing their price targets cut even when “Buy” and “Outperform” ratings are being maintained by the analysts. The translation is that analysts are still recommending investors to hold their positions or to add more, but they are now looking for more moderated gains ahead as a result.
Tactical Bulls always reminds its readers that no single analyst call should ever be used as the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. Sometimes analysts get their thesis wrong, and sometimes the fundamentals can change in an instant.
There is a rather large number of cyclical (very economically sensitive) stocks thar are seeing price targets being slashed with those Buy or Outperform ratings being maintained. This list is just what was seen on April 1, 2025.
Air Products & Chemicals (NYSE: APD) was maintained at Overweight with price target cut to $355 from $365 at Barclays.
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was maintained at Outperform with price target cut to $48 from $51 at Evercore ISI Group.
Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $85 from $92 at Truist Securities.
Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) was maintained at Equal-Weight with price target cut to $38 from $44 at Barclays.
Ferrari N.V. (NYSE: RACE) was maintained as Buy but its target was cut to $520 from $584 at UBS.
Goldman Sachs Group inc. (NYSE: GS) was maintained at Outperform but its price target was cut to $594 from $660 at Evercore ISI Group.
JB Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ: JBHT) was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $175 from $195 at Benchmark.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was maintained at Outperform with price target cut to $265 from $273 at Evercore ISI Group.
Monro, Inc. (MNRO) was maintained at Outperform and its price target was cut to $19 from $27 at Wedbush.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) was maintained at Outperform with price target cut to $138 from $150 at Evercore ISI Group.
Northern Oil & Gas (NYSE: NOG) was maintained at Buy and its price target cut to $41 from $48 at B of A Securities.
Permian Resources Corporation (NYSE: PR) was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $17 from $19 at B of A Securities.
PVH Corp. (NYSE: PVH) was maintained as Outperform but its target was slashed to $105 from $139 at Evercore ISI.
State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was maintained as Outperform but its target was trimmed down to $106 from $109 at Evercore ISI.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: UAL) was maintained at Buy with price target cut to $80 from $154 at Jefferies. A couple of exceptions with outright downgrades:
  • American Airlines Group (NASDAQ: AAL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target cut to $12 from $20 at Jefferies.
  • Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target cut to $46 from $85 at Jefferies.
Winnebago Industries, inc. (NYSE: WGO) was maintained as Buy but its target price was cut to $60 from $70 at Benchmark.
While this list is just a partial list of bullish price targets being cut with official Buy/Outperform rating being maintained, this should show a sampling of just how widespread this trend is. And with the mighty Goldman Sachs now looking for a drop of 5% or so in the coming months it may be harder for some of the bullish analysts to stay bullish if things continue to decline for stocks.
Now what happens if and when waves of formal analyst downgrades come into the picture?