Rivian stock drops following Barclays downgrade: 4 big analyst cuts

Investing.com — Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst cuts you may have missed today: downgrades at Rivian Automotive, Hershey, Power Integrations, and Duke Energy.

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Rivian Automotive drops following downgrade

Barclays downgraded Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) to Equalweight from Overweight with a price target of $16.00 (from $25.00), as reported in real-time on InvestingPro.

Following the downgrade, Rivian shares fell more than 3% pre-market today.

The company is set to report its Q4/23 earnings on Feb 21. Street estimates stand at ($1.35) for EPS and $1.28 billion for revenues.

Hershey cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley

Hershey (NYSE:HSY) shares fell nearly 1% pre-market today after Morgan Stanley downgraded the company to Underweight from Equalweight, with a price target of $183 (from $191), noting it sees several risks reducing visibility on Hershey's midterm outlook and EPS.

Despite Hershey's Q4 earnings last week offering some reassurance with a stable 2024 EPS outlook and proactive measures on ingredient costs and productivity, Morgan Stanley's concerns have deepened, especially after a 25% move in cocoa prices since their recent note.

The downgrade hinges on challenges including low-quality Q4, rising cocoa prices pressuring margins, and soft organic sales growth in the face of increasing competition/softer demand in confectionery and salty snacks, which make it harder to take price.

Two more downgrades

Power Integrations (NASDAQ:POWI) shares fell more than 1% pre-market today after Northland Capital Markets downgraded the company to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $67.00.

POWI faces significant headwinds. External USB PD chargers are increasingly being reused, reducing demand. Other designs using pin-forpin compatible GaN MOSFET are available from multiple suppliers, driving pricing pressure. Increasingly, POWI revenue is from power products used in a system where reliability is more highly valued. However, internal power delivery systems markets change slowly. We do not see POWI's revenue recovering to a peak level until CY26 or CY27 and thus downgrade to UP.

BofA Securities downgraded Duke Energy (NYSE:DUK) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $96.00 (from $105.00), following the company’s reported Q4 miss last week.

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