2 Stocks Popping After Analyst Upgrades

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) and DuPont de Nemours Inc (NYSE:DD) both sport healthy leads this morning, after analysts upgraded the two stocks.

Baird upgraded ALB to "outperform" from "neutral" and hiked its price target to $288. noting the lithium maker's shares could add more than 45% and may be a near- and long-term leader. The equity is up 4.5% to trade at $204.53 at last glance, rallying back from its late-April, 12-month low of $171.93. Year-to-date, however, Albemarle stock is 6.2% lower.

Call traders are taking up space in ALB's normally quiet options pits. Already today, 3,616 bullish bets have been traded, which is double the amount typically seen at this point. Most popular is the May 210 call, indicating these traders see more gains to be had by this week's end.

DuPont de Nemours stock is 2.3% higher to trade at $65.22 at last check, after Deutsche Bank praised its price compared to its peers. The Wall Street firm upgraded the chemical stock to "buy" from "hold" and raised its price objective to $80 from $70, noting it is 50% more affordable than its competitors.

This bull note is in stark contract to recent analyst sentiment, as a deluge of price-target cuts rolled in after the company's early May earnings report. In fact, that quarterly outing resulted in a bear gap that DD is still attempting to recover from, and contributed to its 5.1% year-to-date deficit.

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