US Stock Analysis and Analyst Forecasts — August 26, 2026
Analyst-firm calls and earnings-day setups across the tracked universe: an Nvidia buy reiteration ahead of tonight's earnings, a Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley target cut on Intuit, a Nike downgrade, and a wave of momentum in the small-cap quantum-computing names.
Covered here: NVDA, CRM, CRWD, INTU, NKE, AVGO, ORCL, PLTR, META, IONQ, QBTS, QUBT, OKLO, BAC, JPM, WFC, BLK, ASTS, ABBV, MRK, LLY, PFE.
Beyond today's biggest movers, the tracked universe carried a heavier-than-usual run of analyst-firm rating and price-target actions, plus two earnings reports landing after the close. None of the following is our own view on any stock — it is a same-day record of what firms and companies actually said or did.
Nvidia (NVDA) drew a buy-rating reiteration from a major bank shortly before tonight's second-quarter report, with the desk framing the print as the read-through on AI infrastructure spending broadly rather than a single-company event. Salesforce (CRM) and CrowdStrike (CRWD) also report today; CrowdStrike's print is the more binary setup of the two, given how sharply options markets have been pricing a large post-earnings move.
Intuit (INTU) fell after issuing a softer-than-expected outlook for its next fiscal year, and two major banks cut their price targets on the stock in response — a target cut is a reaction to new information, not a fresh recommendation to sell.
Nike (NKE) declined after an analyst downgrade. Broadcom (AVGO) and Oracle (ORCL) were both the subject of "is the sell-off overdone" commentary from separate desks, a genuinely two-sided debate rather than a consensus call in either direction.
Palantir (PLTR) got a constructive note flagging its Maven defense-software program as on track for roughly $1 billion in annualized revenue — a specific operating metric, not a valuation call. Meta (META) traded volatile on continued analyst debate over a recent legal settlement's read-through for the stock.
The quantum-computing group — IonQ (IONQ), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), and Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) — was broadly active: one boutique firm raised its price target on Quantum Computing Inc., while D-Wave separately disclosed a CFO retirement, an unrelated corporate-governance event that coincided with, but did not obviously cause, weakness in the shares. Oklo (OKLO) extended a recent run even as at least one technical read flagged the move as overextended — a reminder that price momentum and analyst opinion do not always point the same direction.
Elsewhere: a group of large banks — Bank of America (BAC), JPMorgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and BlackRock (BLK) — were reported to be exploring their own stablecoin issuance, a structural theme for the sector rather than a single day's news; AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) saw mixed options positioning even as its shares eased; and newly announced tariffs on metals were cited as a factor in day's trading across several healthcare and industrial names including AbbVie (ABBV), Merck (MRK), Eli Lilly (LLY), and Pfizer (PFE).
As always: a price target is one analyst's estimate, a rating is one firm's opinion, and none of this is a recommendation to buy or sell anything.
Tickers in this brief
| Ticker | Company | Price | 1D |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | NVIDIA | $212.25 | +0.04% |
| CRM | Salesforce | $255.87 | +0.01% |
| CRWD | CrowdStrike | $239.95 | -1.05% |
| INTU | Intuit | $329.00 | -0.08% |
| NKE | Nike | $36.22 | +0.05% |
| AVGO | Broadcom | $339.46 | +0.06% |
| ORCL | Oracle | $140.05 | -0.23% |
| PLTR | Palantir | $172.14 | -0.25% |
| META | Meta Platforms | $668.39 | -0.28% |
| IONQ | IonQ | $37.05 | +0.03% |
| QBTS | D-Wave Quantum | $16.44 | +0.18% |
| QUBT | Quantum Computing Inc | $7.83 | -0.13% |
| OKLO | Oklo | $35.80 | -0.56% |
| BAC | Bank of America | $59.68 | +0.32% |
| JPM | JPMorgan Chase | $353.00 | -0.18% |
| WFC | Wells Fargo | $89.95 | +0.26% |
| BLK | BlackRock | $1057.60 | -0.08% |
| ASTS | AST SpaceMobile | $58.65 | -0.20% |
| ABBV | AbbVie | $262.50 | -0.19% |
| MRK | Merck | $144.11 | +0.24% |
| LLY | Eli Lilly | $1137.00 | 0.00% |
| PFE | Pfizer | $27.53 | -0.04% |
Published 2026-08-26. Market commentary, not investment advice. Prices are delayed end-of-day data.