Monday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Activision Blizzard, Adobe, Caesars, Corning, PayPal, Target, Twilio and More

The futures were trading higher to open the new trading week, after a solid close to a record-setting week that saw all the major indexes close the day higher. The S&P 500 climbed out of the longest bear market in over 70 years. The venerable index had been in bear-market territory for 248 trading days, the longest bear market since the 484 trading days that ended on May 15, 1948. Despite crawling out of a huge hole since the lows were put in, the S&P 500 is still over 10% below the all-time high.

Treasury yields closed the day and the week higher, as the sellers returned with an eye toward this week and the Federal Reserve meeting. While the futures market is only pricing in about a 30% chance for another rate increase, the May consumer price index data will come on the same day next week that the Fed meeting starts. If it comes in at or above the expected levels, combined with the huge job numbers that started the month off, Fed Chair Powell may surprise and lift the rate by 25 basis points to take it to 5.25% to 5.50%.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude ended a rollercoaster week on Friday with both of the benchmarks closing 1.5% lower. This was despite the rig count dropping, once again, last week and the prospect of a July start for a voluntary 1 million barrel per day production cut from Saudi Arabia. Natural gas closed flat on Friday at $2.26.

Gold also finished a wild week, closing lower on Friday at $1,975.40, but finishing the week up 0.4%. Like in all the other sectors, gold traders will be watching and waiting for the Fed decision on rates and keeping a close eye on any continued dollar strength. Bitcoin closed out a dreadful week down 30 basis points at $26,430. As a reminder, the cryptocurrency giant was trading over $30,000 a short six weeks ago.

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 Wednesday, June 12, 2023.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI): Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating on the shares and has a $95 price objective. The consensus target price is lower at $91.14. The final trade for Friday came in at $80.38.

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE): When Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to Overweight from Equal Weight, its $420 target price jumped to $525. The consensus target is just $422.97. The shares closed almost 4% higher on Friday at $454.00 after the upgrade.

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Braze Inc. (NASDAQ: BRZE): Oppenheimer raised its $38 target price on the Outperform-rated shares to $42. The consensus target is $40.20. Friday’s close at $39.43 was up a whopping 16% for the day on glowing analyst comments across Wall Street.

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