With a Fed Rate Hike Coming, Analysts Upgrade or Downgrade Sirius XM, Tencent Music and More

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Markets dipped on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials leading the charge, down nearly 1%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq were each only pushing negative slightly. This comes after a fairly positive October for each of the major averages.

The core personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE) rose slightly, 0.2%, for October, which is less than expected but still a move in the right direction. The Federal Reserve closely follows the PCE, as well as the consumer price index (CPI), in regard to its policy decisions.

Be on the lookout for the next Fed policy meeting on December 13 and 14, when the central bank likely will announce another interest rate hike. Many believe that the Fed will ease up and only raise rates by 50 basis points. It remains to be seen what the Fed will do, and then how the e broad markets will respond.

Here, 24/7 Wall St. is reviewing additional analyst calls seen on Thursday. We have included the latest call on each stock, as well as a recent trading history and the consensus targets among analysts. Note that analyst calls seen earlier in the day were on AppLovin, Carvana, CrowdStrike, Fisker, Foot Locker, Shopify, Workday and more.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY): Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to Underweight from Equal Weight and cut its $28 price target to $19. The 52-week trading range is $24.83 to $53.83. Shares changed hands near $26 apiece on Thursday.

Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ: ALT): Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $20 price target. The stock has traded as high as $23.49 a share in the past year but was last seen at around $10. That is up nearly 9% year to date.

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF): Morgan Stanley’s downgrade to Underweight from Equal Weight included a price target cut to $90 from $115. The stock has traded as high as $162.40 in the past year but was last seen near $99. That is down over 28% year to date.

eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH): Craig Hallum’s upgrade was from Hold to Buy with a $6 price target. The shares traded near $4 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $2.67 to $27.89.

GoodRx Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX): Citigroup started coverage with a Buy rating and a $7 price target. The shares traded near $5 on Thursday. The 52-week range is $3.82 to $42.87.

Leslie’s Inc. (NASDAQ: LESL): Stifel cut its Buy rating to Hold and lowered its $17 price target to $15. The 52-week trading range is $12.79 to $24.40. Shares changed hands near $14 apiece on Thursday.

PagSeguro Digital Ltd. (NYSE: PAGS): Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares to Sell from Neutral and cut its $15 price target to $9. The stock traded near $10 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $9.45 to $29.28.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF): Wolfe Research boosted its Peer Perform rating to Outperform with a $24 price target. The stock traded near $23 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $18.01 to $25.57.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI): Citigroup’s downgrade was from Buy all the way to Sell. It also trimmed its $7 price target to $6. The stock was last seen trading near $6, in a 52-week range of $5.69 to $6.88.

StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ: STNE): The Sell rating at Goldman Sachs is now at Neutral, and the analyst raised the $7.50 price target to $11. Shares have traded as high as $19.66 in the past year but were changing hands near $12 on Thursday.

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE: TME): Morgan Stanley upgraded to an Overweight rating from Equal Weight and raised the price target to $8.50 from $4.50. Shares traded near $7 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $2.95 to $7.66.

The holiday shopping season is off to a strong start, and five companies have shined the brightest so far. It is a good bet that Amazon, Walmart and these other top stocks will end up in the winners’ circle come the new year.

Originally published at 24/7 Wall St.

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