Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Beyond Meat, Blackstone, Crown Castle, Enphase Energy, Ford, Hartford, Keurig Dr Pepper, Kimberly-Clark, Mosaic and More

The futures traded higher on Friday morning, as we get set to end a wild trading week. Rising interest rates put a huge damper on tech stocks, even though the head of the Federal Reserve assured investors that raising benchmark rates is very unlikely until 2023. The Dow Jones industrials posted yet another intraday all-time high before closing lower, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were both hit very hard. It should be noted that the Transports notched another all-time high, and that usually bodes very well for the economy, especially with stimulus money pouring in and the country reopening.

Despite the strong gains, top strategists on Wall Street continue pointing to “bubble” metrics, like the massive “meme” retail stock and option trading, huge hedge fund leverage and IPOs that don’t make money as examples, so the current volatility may be here for some time.

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 start 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 Friday, March 19, 2021.

Aeva Technologies Inc. (NYSE: AEVA) was started with an Outperform rating and a $20 price target at Oppenheimer. There is no consensus posted due to the recent initial public offering. The shares closed Thursday at $13.19, down over 6% on the day.

A-Mark Precious Metals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRK) was started with a Buy rating and a $55 price target at D.A. Davidson. The consensus target is just lower at $52, and the stock closed Thursday at $38.27, up almost 4% on the day.

Acutus Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: AFIB) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan, where the price target was lowered to $19. The consensus target is higher at $26. The shares were last seen trading at $16.83 on Thursday.

Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) was started with an Outperform rating and a $340 price target at Cowen. The consensus target is lower at $302.64, and the shares were last seen Thursday at $269.43.

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