TipRanks
Bull Moves: Analysts Just Upgraded These 3 Hot Stocks
The world’s largest asset manager is impressed with the market’s recent gains, and it has made that sentiment clear by upgrading US stocks. In its recent reassessment of conditions in the American financial markets, investment giant BlackRock issued a general upgrade for Wall Street. This wasn’t an upgrade on particular stocks, but on the US market as a whole.Explaining the move, the BlackRock note points out that the daily COVID news is just noise – the real news is on the vaccine front, where at least two effective vaccines are just months away from public distribution. A viable vaccine for the coronavirus disease will push us back to normal conditions, and boost investors’ mood immeasurably. Hence, the upgrade.“We upgrade US equities to overweight, with a preference for quality large caps riding structural growth trends, as well as smaller companies geared to a potential cyclical upswing,” BlackRock said. The company expects to see a cyclical upturn in the US economy in 2021, as the coronavirus crisis fades into the background and the political landscape moves back to pre-Trump patterns.The general upgrade by BlackRock was only one sign of confidence in the US markets. Several of Wall Street’s research firms have also been issuing upgraded stances, taking a micro view and applying their revisions to specific equities. We’ve pulled up three from the TipRanks database, and found that they fit BlackRock’s preference: mid- to large-cap companies with established positions in the market.Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc. (CLF)We’ll start with Cleveland-Cliffs, an Ohio based mining company. Cleveland-Cliffs specializes in iron production, and has four active mines in Minnesota and Michigan. The company focuses on mining, beneficiating, and pelletizing the ore, a process that produces iron pellets in a variety of grades fit for blast furnace smelting, steelmaking, and alloying. Cleveland-Cliffs is capable, on its own, of producing more than 40% of the total US capacity in iron pellets. It also produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless steel, and electrical steel products.As the economy ramps back up, recovering from the deepest coronavirus hits, Cleveland-Cliffs’ revenues have been rising. The company’s top line has grown since the first quarter of 2020, posting sequential gains in both Q2 and Q3. The third quarter number, at $1.65 billion, was in line with analyst expectations, and came in far ahead of the $555.6 million posted in the year-ago quarter.The share price has mirrored this recovery. The stock hit bottom back in mid-March, at just $3.14 per share. Since then, it has shown impressive growth. The shares have fully recouped those mid-winter losses, and are now trading up 32% year-to-date.GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson sees Cleveland-Cliffs gaining as the pandemic draws back and its customers resume normal economic activity. To this end, the analyst upgraded CLF from Hold to Buy, and his $15.80 price target suggests it has a 46% upside in the coming year. (To watch Johnson’s track record, click here)“US automotive production has rebounded to pre-pandemic…
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