Investing

Friday's Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Amgen, Harley-Davidson, Hertz, Las Vegas Sands, Meta Platforms, PayPal, Pinterest, T-Mobile, Visa and More

The futures were lower on Friday, after a rollercoaster week and month that began with some heavy selling. It looks poised to end the way it started, with more selling. All the major indexes finally found a way to close higher Thursday, with a massive across-the-board rally despite a gloomy negative first-quarter gross domestic product report and interest rates once again moving higher.

Some very solid technology earnings numbers and guidance were helped along with very oversold conditions, which were cited as the main reasons for the huge bounce, but lousy earnings reports from Amazon and Apple added to the pressure Friday.

The aforementioned interest rate moves were seen across the Treasury curve, with the 30-year government bond closing in on a 3% handle once again. The good news for Wall Street is the Treasury yield curve moved somewhat higher and is avoiding the inversion status we saw earlier this month.

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, April 29, 2022.

Align Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: ALGN): Baird reiterated an Outperform rating on the stock but slashed the $625 target price to $510. The consensus target is (for now) at $606.92. The shares were last seen Thursday at $304.66, which was down almost 16% after the company posted disappointing earnings.

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED): Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and has a $200 price objective. The consensus target is $186.93. The stock was last seen on Thursday trading at $131.89.


Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN): Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating on the biotech giant after earnings, and it has a $291 target price. The consensus target is $248.64. The stock closed on Thursday at $238.13, down over 4% on the day.

Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH): Baird maintained an Outperform rating and has an $85 price target. The consensus target is $86.69. The final trade for Thursday was reported at $73.55, which was up almost 5% on the day.

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