Stocks were looking for direction heading into Friday’s key jobs report. The top equity indexes are basically all at all-time highs and investors are planning for 2025 now that the election is over and policy changes are coming. 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 Friday, December 6, 2024.

Let me help organize these in alphabetical order with complete sentences.

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was initiated at Outperform with a $180 price target at Raymond James.

AppLovin Corp. (NASDAQ: APP) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $460 from $335 (versus $379.07 close) at Citigroup.

Arqit Quantum Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQQ) was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $27 from $22 at HC Wainwright & Co.

BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: BHST) was initiated as Buy with a $14 price target (versus $5.97 close) at HC Wainwright.

Bitdeer Technologies Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $22 from $17 at Rosenblatt; was reiterated at Outperform with price target raised to $20 from $14 at Northland Capital Markets.

The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) was initiated as Hold at Needham.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) was started as Buy with $176 target price (versus $136.42 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: CELH) was initiated as Buy with $38 target price (versus $27.89 close) at Needham.

Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $84 from $68 at Citigroup.

Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ) was initiated as Buy with a $280 price target (versus $239.50 close) at Needham.

Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE: CWK) was initiated at Sell with a $15 price target at Goldman Sachs.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) was maintained at Market Perform but its price target was cut to $88 from $90 at Telsey Advisory Group; DG was maintained at Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $80 from $90 at Wells Fargo.

The Duckhorn Portfolio, Inc. (NYSE: NAPA) was cut to Hold from Buy with a $11 price target at Jefferies.

Energy Recovery, inc. (NASDAQ: ERII) was initiated as Buy with $22 price target (versus $16.40 close) at Seaport Global.

GitLab Inc. (NASDAQ: GTLB) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $85 from $75 at Piper Sandler; Gitlab was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $85 from $70 at Needham. KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $80 from $74. GitLab closed down 0.8% at $66.04 ahead of the call but was indicated up 8% AT $71.00 ON Friday morning.

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL) was initiated at Buy with a $352 price target (versus $273.47 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $32 from $40 (versus $27.88 close) at Jefferies.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $70 from $65 at Wells Fargo.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was lifted up to $430 from $360 at Telsey Advisory Group.

Molson Coors Beverage Company (NYSE: TAP) was started as Buy with a $72 target price (versus $61.40 close) at Needham.

Monster Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ: MNST) was initiated at Hold by Needham.

Newmark Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: NMRK) was initiated with a Buy rating and it was assigned a $19 price target (versus $15.42 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Nurix Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: NRIX) was initiated as Outperform with a $35 price target (versus $20.06 close) at BMO Capital.

PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Science Applications International Corporation (NASDAQ: SAIC) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $154 from $147 at Wells Fargo.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $140 target price (versus $114.09 close) at Loop Capital.

SiteOne Landscape Supply, inc. (NYSE: SITE) was raised to Buy from Hold with price target raised to $175 from $145 at Jefferies.

TechnipFMC plc (NYSE: FTI) was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies.

The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $95 from $80 at Jefferies.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $5 target price (versus $4.17 close) at JP Morgan.

Ulta Beauty, inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $500 from $450 at Telsey Advisory Group.

Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $270 from $260 at Needham; Veeva was also reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $290 from $280 at Piper Sandler.

Zacks has named Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) as the Bear of the Day. Despite a prominent new CEO, Zacks cites woes in China continuing and how analysts have lowered forward expectations after its last disappointing earnings numbers showed declines in same-store sales.

Two key German auto upgrades were seen as well almost making a pairs trade but it wasn’t issued that way. BMW was raised to Buy from Hold and Mercedes-Benz Group was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.