Stocks were indicated up marginally on Thursday, hoping to build upon Wednesday’s gains as Walmart earnings and guidance were stronger than expected. That said, early morning gains of 0.1% to 0.2% are not so strong that the day’s direction looked determined.

Tactical Bulls is always on the hunt for ideas and research that can benefit long-term investors and short-term traders alike. The daily analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations are often a strong source for new ideas. Many analyst calls are “tactical bull” calls by their nature as the “stocks to buy” may even occur when the stock market or a company’s sector are weak.

Tactical Bulls is releasing an abbreviated version of its top analyst calls for Thursday, May 16, 2024.

EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut down to $136 from $163 at Truist Securities based on relative valuations to peers.

GoodRx Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: GDRX) closed up 9.3% at $7.27 the prior day and news of signing a direct contract agreement had shares up nearly 8% at $7.85 on Thursday morning. GoodRx was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and was assigned a $10 price target at Raymond James. Elsewhere, TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating and also raised its price target to $16 from $14 in that call.

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) remains handily below its post-pandemic highs of 2022, but BofA Securities reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price objective to $35 from $32 in that call. Is another PC-upgrade cycle in the works?

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) has not been the beneficiary of trends moving from traditional processing to artificial intelligence, and its chip foundry loss projections disappointed even those who were already expecting pain. Wolfe Research has raised Intel to “Peer Perform” from Underperform. The firm calls the cautious thesis as played out but not enough for a stronger view. Intel closed up 0.7% at $31.27 ahead of the call and its reaction Thursday morning was up almost 1% at $31.55 in pre-market trading.

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Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY) is supposed to be loved as Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns over 27% of the oil giant. Then again, he did say he’d not acquire it and wouldn’t know what to do with it if he did. Occidental was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Truist Securities, and the firm cut its price target to $69 from $84 in that call. Occidental had a consensus price target of $72.38 and its 52-week range is $55.12 to $71.19.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) scored another boost with its shares off about 20% from their highs. Palo Alto was reiterated as Overweight at KeyBanc, but the firm raised its price target up to $385 from $355 in the call. JPMorgan also reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its price target to $340 from $330. Its shares closed up 3.5% at $312.32 ahead of the call, versus a consensus analyst price target of about $336 and a 52-week range of $186.75 to $380.84.

SharkNinja, Inc. (NYSE: SN) is creeping into most kitchens in America with innovative products and its shares at $72.13 are very close to the post-IPO high. BofA Securities issued a new Buy rating on SharkNinja and issued what appears to be a “street-high” $90 price objective. This call is after UBS, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Canaccord Genuity all raised their price targets in the last few trading days.

In case you missed Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Alibaba, Dell, Exxon Mobil, On, Snowflake, SunPower and many more stocks.