Monday brought a flurry of analyst action across Wall Street, with some major calls that could signal significant moves ahead for several stocks. Let's break down the ten most notable changes.
Energy Sector Gets Love
Wells Fargo analyst Sam Margolin had a change of heart on ConocoPhillips (COP), upgrading the energy giant from Equal-Weight to Overweight while bumping the price target from $100 to $132. That's a meaningful vote of confidence considering the stock closed Friday at $97.51, suggesting upside of more than 35% if Margolin's target proves accurate.
Not all energy names fared as well. Vista Energy SAB de CV - ADR (VIST) got an upgrade too, with UBS analyst Tasso Vasconcellos moving from Neutral to Buy and raising the price target from $50 to $65. The stock closed at $46.17 on Friday. Meanwhile, Seadrill Ltd (SDRL) took a hit as Citigroup analyst Scott Gruber downgraded it from Neutral to Sell, cutting the target from $35 to $32. Seadrill shares finished Friday at $35.47.
The Big Tech Moves
Here's where things get interesting. Susquehanna analyst Mehdi Hosseini made perhaps the boldest call of the day, upgrading Applied Materials Inc (AMAT) from Neutral to Positive and more than doubling the price target from $180 to $400. With the stock closing at $301.18 on Friday, that implies roughly 33% upside. That's the kind of call that makes you wonder what Hosseini is seeing in the semiconductor equipment space.
Snowflake Inc (SNOW) faced headwinds as Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow downgraded the cloud data platform from Overweight to Equal-Weight, trimming the price target from $290 to $250. The stock closed at $219.09 on Friday, already well below the old target.
In a complete about-face, Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss upgraded Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM) from Underweight to Overweight, simultaneously raising the price target from $83 to $115. That's quite the reversal. Akamai shares settled at $88.12 on Friday.




