Stocks were marginally higher on Thursday with the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all basically at all-time highs. With the election over and a new regime coming in, investors are planning for 2025. Tariffs and government spending cuts are being taken into consideration into forecasts as well, and Wall Street strategists have all just raised their S&P 500 targets for 2025.

Tactical Bulls searches the daily flow of analyst research reports covering the upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Wall Street looking for new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed. These analyst reports generally try to look out a year out into the future with ratings and target prices.

Some analyst calls are just reactionary to earnings and other news. Other analyst calls are preemptive and can move stocks. Short-term traders get a glimpse of immediate price reactions to news and to the analyst calls. Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings with targets looking a year out.

Tactical Bulls always reminds its readers and investors that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy or sell, or hold or short sell, is up to each investor and the decision should be made with a financial advisor. And there are of course no assurances that any of the price predictions and the scenarios that back the calls up will actually come to fruition.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Thursday, December 5, 2024.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight with price target cut to $164 from $179 at Morgan Stanley.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target raised to $28 from $25 at JPMorgan.

Bloomin’ Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLMN) was initiated at Sell with $13 target at Goldman Sachs.

Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) was initiated at Buy with a $150 target at Goldman Sachs.

Chewy, Inc. (NYSE: CHWY) was down for a second day after earnings. Chewy was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $36 from $34 at Guggenheim.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target raised to $123 from $120 at JP Morgan.

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) was reiterated as Outperform with price target raised to $1,075 from $975 at Baird. Costco was also maintained at Equal-Weight with a price target hike to $950 from $850 at Wells Fargo.

Darden Restaurants Inc. (NYSE: DRI) was initiated at Neutral with $183 target at Goldman Sachs.

Diageo plc (NYSE: DEO) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE: GEV) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $400 from $300 at Guggenheim; GEV was initiated as Outperform with a $403 target price at Wolfe Research.

Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNRC) was initiated at Equal-Weight by Barclays.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $28 from $23 at Morgan Stanley.

Okta Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target raised to $129 from $123 at Bernstein.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $220 from $200 at Guggenheim. Oracle was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $220 from $190 at Jefferies.

Polestar Automotive Holding (NASDAQ: PSNY) was initiated as Neutral with $1.25 price objective (versus $1.05 prior close) at BofA Securities.

Principal Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PFG) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $80 from $86 at Morgan Stanley.

Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: PB) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research.

Rezolve AI Limited (NASDAQ: RZLV) was initiated at Overweight with $5 target (versus $2.29 prior close) at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) was reiterated as Overweight with price target raised to $47 from $30 at Keybanc.

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE: FOUR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and its price objective was cut to $105 from $112 at BofA Securities.

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW) was reiterated with an Overweight rating and its price target was raised to $210 from $185 at Keybanc.

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated at Sell with price target raised to $175 from $156 at Guggenheim. Tesla was reiterated as Buy and its price objective raised to $400 from $350 at BofA Securities.

Texas Roadhouse, Inc. (NASDAQ: TXRH) was started with a Neutral rating at Goldman Sachs.

Toast, Inc. (NYSE: TOST) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with price target cut to $38 from $44 at DA Davidson.

UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was reiterated at Overweight with price target raised to $675 from $605 at Stephens.

Veracyte, Inc. (NASDAQ: VCYT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was initiated at Hold with $120 target at Jefferies.