Apple, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Verizon and More Thursday Afternoon Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

With the trading day roughly halfway over, the broad markets were mixed on Thursday, coming off a strong two-day rally. Jobless numbers released earlier in the morning scared investors, but it is yet to be seen if these will have any staying power. Despite this, large-cap tech stocks were performing fairly well on the day.

24/7 Wall St. is reviewing some big analyst calls seen on Thursday. We have included the latest analyst call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts.

For those that might have missed it, 24/7 Wall St. had an earlier round of analyst calls on Thursday that included Airbnb, AT&T, Chevron, Foot Locker, T-Mobile and more.

Academy Sports and Outdoors Inc. (NASDAQ: ASO): Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and a $40 price target. The stock traded near $37 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $12.05 to $42.75. It has a consensus price target of $46.00.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): Canaccord Genuity reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $175 from $165. The shares were changing hands at around $147 apiece on Thursday, in a 52-week trading range of $89.14 to $150.00.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO): Credit Suisse reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target to $63 from $62. Citigroup reiterated a Neutral rating and raised its target to $60 from $57. Wells Fargo reiterated an Overweight rating and raised its target from $62 to $64. JPMorgan reiterated a Neutral rating, and it raised the target to $59 from $56. The stock traded near $56 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $46.22 to $57.56. It has a consensus price target of $59.80.

CSX Corp. (NASDAQ: CSX): TD Securities upgraded the stock to a Buy rating from Hold and raised the price target to $38 from $36. Credit Suisse reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its target to $39 from $38. RBC Capital Markets also reiterated an Outperform rating, and it raised the target from $36 to $37. The stock was trading at around $33 a share on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $22.69 to $34.96.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): Citigroup reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $378 from $310. The stock was changing hands near $286 a share on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $196.25 to $286.40.

Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN): Wolfe Research upgraded to an Outperform rating from Peer Perform and raised the price target to $7 from $5. The stock traded near $5 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $2.18 to $5.85.

Texas Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: TXN): BofA Securities reiterated a Buy rating and raised the price target to $225 from $210. Rosenblatt also reiterated a Buy rating, and it raised the target to $230 from $220. Raymond James reiterated an Outperform rating and raised the price target from $220 to $230. The stock traded near $185 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $125.43 to $197.58. It has a consensus price target of $201.36.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ): Credit Suisse reiterated an Overweight rating and raised the price target to $60 from $59. JPMorgan reiterated an Overweight rating as well, and it raised the target price to $65 from $64. Cowen reiterated an Outperform rating and raised its target to $68 from $66. The stock was trading at around $56 a share on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $53.83 to $61.95.

Baird is very positive on some of the large-cap aerospace and defense leaders. Four of them have Outperform ratings and are likely to give positive forward guidance when they report earnings. They look like outstanding ideas, especially for long-term growth portfolios.

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