Stocks were mixed on Tuesday in early trading after Monday’s sell-off. Investors are making their plans for 2025 with a new regime and new policies taking place. All major Wall Street strategists have raised their S&P 500 targets for 2025 in the last three weeks. The decisions are even harder when considering that each week seems to be a new high for major U.S. equity index levels.
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 initiations, upgrades and downgrades from brokerage firms and independent research firms on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $260 from $240 at Mizuho. Amazon shares closed down 0.4% at $226.09 ahead of the call.
American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $24 from $14 (versus $17.16 close) at Bernstein.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy and its $260 price target was maintained at Needham. Apple closed up 1.6% at $246.75 ahead of the call.
Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI) was cut to Sell from Neutral at B. Riley Securities. AAOI closed down 7% at $36.16 on Monday and was down another 6.5% at $33.80 on Tuesday
Ball Corp. (NYSE: BALL) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Mizuho.
Bowlero Corp. (NYSE: BOWL) was initiated as Buy with a $16 price target (versus $11.74 close) at Truist Securities.
C3.ai, Inc. (NYSE: AI) closed up 2.8% at $41.68 ahead of earnings and was last seen down 7.3% at $39.00 after the earnings report. C3.ai was maintained at Underweight and its price target was raised to $32 from $21 at Morgan Stanley. Northland Capital Markets reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $45 from $35. It was maintained at Neutral with a price target hike to $42 from $24 at Piper Sandler.
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Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $32 from $24 (versus $25.39 close) at Goldman Sachs.
Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ: CIFR) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $8 price target (versus $6.38 close) at JPMorgan.
CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLSK) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $17 from $10.50 (versus $13.56 close) at JPMorgan.
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold and its price target was cut to $52 from $60 (versus $65.14 close) at Jefferies.
First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) was raised to Equal-Weight from Underweight and its price target was raised to $54 from $46 (versus $52.71 close) at Morgan Stanley.
Gilead Sciences, inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $115 from $105 (versus $90.59 close) at Oppenheimer.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $277 from $247 (versus $250.00 close) at Goldman Sachs.
IAC Inc. (NASDAQ: IAC) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Sandler. IAC closed at $48.41 ahead of the call and was indicated down 1.1% at $47.88 on Tuesday morning.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $325 from $292 (versus $273.01 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
LabCorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LH) was assumed with a Buy rating and with a $275 target price (versus $236.00 close) at Jefferies.
MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and its price target was raised to $23 from $12 (versus $23.85 close) at JPMorgan.
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $314 from $280 (versus $286.97 close) at Goldman Sachs.
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Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was reiterated with an Overweight rating and its price target was raised to $670 from $650 (versus $613.57 close) at Piper Sandler.
MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE: MTG) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and its $29 price target was maintained (versus $24.63 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Mobileye Global Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLY) was maintained at Neutral and its price target was raised to $17 from $15 (versus $17.51 close) at Mizuho.
MongoDB, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $415 from $335 (versus $350.13 prior close) at Needham.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $35 from $29 (versus $25.96 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) closed down 0.6% at $190.45 but was indicated down 6% at $179.00 after the reaction to a weaker earnings report. Oracle was maintained at Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $175 from $145 at Morgan Stanley. Mizuho reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $210 from $185 in the call. It was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $210 from $185 at Piper Sandler. BMO reiterated its Market Perform rating and raised its target to $205 from $173, and Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $200 from $190.
Oscar Health, Inc. (NYSE: OSCR) was initiated as Underperform with a $12 target price (versus $16.55 prior close) at Jefferies.
Pinterest, Inc. (NYSE: PINS) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and its price target was cut to $36 from $41 (versus $33.06 prior close) at Piper Sandler.
Rezolve AI Limited (NASDAQ: RZLV) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $4 price target (versus $1.95 prior close) at Roth MKM.
Rocket Companies, Inc. (NYSE: RKT) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform and its price target was cut to $11.50 from $16 (versus $13.32 prior close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Lt. (NYSE: RCL) was reiterated as Buy with a price target hike to $275 from $245 (versus $247.14 close) at Goldman Sachs.
SL Green Realty Corp. (NYSE: SLG) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and its price target was raised to $80 from $51 (versus $76.44 close) at JPMorgan.
Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) was started as Neutral with a $120 price target (versus $110.98 close) at JPMorgan.
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Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $400 from $310 (versus $389.79 close) at Morgan Stanley.
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform but its price target was trimmed down to $150 from $155 (versus $128.53 close) at BMO Capital Markets.
United States Antimony Corporation (NYSEArca: UAMY) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $2.50 price target (versus $1.62 close) at HC Wainwright. US Antimony was indicated sown over 6% at $1.51 on Tuesday.
Vail Resorts, inc. (NYSE: MTN) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $227 from $222 (versus $190.67 close) at Mizuho. Barclays maintained its Underweight rating but raised its target to $165 from $155, and Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal-Weight rating but raised its target to $197 from $182.
Vimeo, Inc. (NASDAQ: VMEO) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and its price target was raised to $10 from $7 (versus $7.00 close) at Piper Sandler. Vimeo was indicated up 7% at $7.50 on Tuesday in early trading.
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: WH) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $115 from $100 (versus $101.18 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.
If you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of AMD, Biogen, CBOE, Schwab, Coinbase, Robinhood, JD.com, Nokia, PayPal and over 20 more stocks.
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