Tuesday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Applied Materials, Dollar Tree, Dow, DXC Technology, KLA, Lucid, Stryker and More

The futures were up across the board on Tuesday after a wild Monday that saw all of the indexes open up big, before the Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 turned negative and then rebounded in the afternoon, with only the Nasdaq closing lower. While some pointed to the “buy the dip” trend after last week’s selling, many additional items were clouding the future. They include the tapering of quantitative easing, the very difficult path for additional fiscal stimulus and the slowdown of the reopening momentum as a result of the spread of the Delta variant. Analysts also pointed to ongoing supply chain issues and inflation pressures on both corporate sales and profit margins.

Despite worries and the potential for a “taper tantrum” like we saw in 2013, the Federal Reserve is vowing to keep interest rates contained. With that in mind, Fed officials have strongly hinted that the $120 billion per month quantitative easing purchases will start to be cut back as early as November, and all the massive bond buying could be completed by the end of 2022.

With major Wall Street firms still warning of the potential for impending 5% to 10% correction across the board, which may have begun last week, it makes sense for investors to continue building some cash reserves into any market strength while repositioning portfolios for 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 Tuesday, September 14, 2021.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT): Susquehanna downgraded the stock to Neutral from Positive and lowered the price target to $160 from $170. The consensus price target for the semiconductor capital equipment giant is $162.47. The stock closed Monday at $139.44 a share.

Casey’s General Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: CASY): Northcoast raised the stock to Buy from Neutral and has a $247 price objective. The consensus target is $225.36. The last trade for Monday came in at $194.60.

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