Friday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Hasbro, Moderna, Snap, Under Armour and More

The futures pulled back early Friday morning, after a rollercoaster of a trading session on Thursday. If Friday’s session continues in this vein, it would mark the third consecutive day of losses. Assuming nothing too drastic happens, markets could hold on to gains for this week.

Even though there has been a pullback over the past two days, equities markets are set up to close out the week with gains following the rally on Monday and Tuesday. The two-day rally added 4% to the S&P 500, before the index started giving gains back. So far in October, the S&P 500 is up roughly 3.1%, coming off an especially weak September that saw a loss of 9.3%.

West Texas Intermediate crude was trading just under $85 a barrel Friday morning, showing a slight gain so far on the day, but still down from Thursday’s high of $87. This comes after WTI bottomed out around $76 less than one month ago. Crude is still looking for a direction in general, but with President Biden’s recent move to release an additional 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it should be heading lower into the end of the year.

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 Friday, October 21, 2022.

Amphastar Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMPH): Jefferies resumed coverage with a Buy rating and a $36 price target. The consensus target is $39.50. Thursday’s close was at $29.10.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T): Truist upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold and has a $21 price target. The consensus target is $20.50. The shares closed on Thursday at $16.74.

BlackLine Inc. (NASDAQ: BL): Goldman Sachs started coverage with a Sell rating and a $57 price target. The consensus target is $73.55. The shares closed on Thursday at $56.63.

CVB Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CVBF): Keefe Bruyette’s downgrade was from Outperform to Market Perform with a $32 price target. The consensus target is $29.58. The stock closed flat on Thursday at $27.50.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX): RBC Capital Markets lowered its Outperform rating to Sector Perform and cut its $195 price target to $158. Shares most recently closed at $150.24. The consensus price target of $194.94 represents more than 30% upside from that close.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM): Suggesting that shares of this energy giant are dirt cheap, Zacks selected it as the Bull of the Day. The shares last closed at $103.93, and the $110.38 consensus target would be a 52-week high.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN): Piper Sandler downgraded the shares to Neutral from Overweight and cut its $23 price target to $17. The consensus target is $25.75. Thursday’s close at $15.97 was a 2% loss for the day.

Hasbro Inc. (NYSE: HAS): Zacks named this toymaker as its Bear of the Day stock, citing the impact of inflation on consumers. Shares have traded as high as $105.73 in the past year but closed most recently at $64.11, which is down 21% or so in the past 90 days.

HealthEquity Inc. (NASDAQ: HQY): The Goldman Sachs upgrade to Neutral from Sell included a price target hike to $77 from $64. The consensus target is $79.69. The stock closed most recently at $73.98.

Immunic Inc. (NASDAQ: IMUX): SVB Leerink downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform and has a $5 price target. The consensus target is $23.00. The last trade on Thursday was reported at $9.20.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR): Raymond James upgraded the stock to Strong Buy from Outperform and bumped its $36 price target up to $37. The consensus price target is $33.11, and Thursday’s closing trade was at $27.61.

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