Monday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Foot Locker, Halozyme Therapeutics, Kimberley-Clark, Occidental Petroleum, Texas Roadhouse, Trip.com and more

The futures traded lower on Monday as investors return after a furious end of the week rally that saw all of the major indexes close higher along with the transportation index. The across-the-board strength and the continued talking down of the inflation scenario helped to feed the buying, as investors risk appetite returned. Note though that despite the strong two-day rally, all the indexes ended lower for the week. With most first-quarter earnings reports released, investors are starting to factor in the potential for a sideways trading market for the summer as volume slows while travel returns.

Despite the concerns across Wall Street for tapering of the quantitative easing program and clear building inflationary pressures, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained, which could be one reason for the continued moves higher in the equity markets, even after sell-offs. Note that money markets continue to see massive inflows, which is another big plus.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into the market strength while repositioning portfolios for the balance of the second quarter and the rest of 2021.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week with a goal of finding new 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 Monday, May 17, 2021.

Aligos Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGS): Piper Sandler resumed coverage of the stock with an Overweight rating and a $47 price target. The consensus target is much lower at $35, and the stock closed Friday at $21.19, which was down almost 7% for the day.

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American Assets Trust Inc. (NYSE: AAT): KeyBanc Capital Markets raised Sector Weight rating to Overweight and has a $42 price target. The consensus target is lower at $32.13. The stock was last seen Friday trading at $34.97 a share.

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