Thursday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: BlackRock, Devon Energy, DuPont, JD.com, PayPal, Qualcomm, Simon Properties, Square and More

The futures were higher again on Thursday, after the markets kept the winning streak alive on Wednesday. Once again, all the major indexes printed fresh all-time highs, and the risk-off strength could very well stay in place after the services numbers and factory orders came in way above expectations. Two additional positives for the risk-on crowd was the ADP private payrolls, which were up 571,000 in October, well above estimates on a jump in hospitality hires, and the Federal Reserve, which delivered no surprises from their meeting, after telegraphing for the past week what they had in mind.

In addition, while interest rates are going nowhere anytime soon, quantitative easing will indeed start this month. Given those positive ADP numbers, Friday’s nonfarm, payrolls will become a crucial data point for Wall Street.

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 Thursday November 4, 2021.

APA Corp. (NYSE: APA): Truist Securities upgraded the oil giant’s stock to Buy from Hold and has a $45 price target. The posted consensus target is $30.86. The final trade for Wednesday was reported at $27.63. Shares were almost 5% higher in the premarket, after the company posted solid third-quarter earnings.

BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK): BofA Securities resumed coverage of the financial money management giant with a Buy rating and a $1,080 price target. The consensus target is $974.27, and the final trade on Wednesday came in at $951.70 a share.

Bloomin’ Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN): Barclays reiterated an Overweight rating but trimmed the price target on the shares to $37 from $30. That is right in line with the $30.25 consensus target. Wednesday’s closing trade of $21.43 was up close to 6% for the day.

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