Stocks were getting a boost on Wednesday ahead of the FOMC’s rate cut decision, and after a very rare 9-day losing streak for the Dow. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ remain very close to their all-time highs and investors are considering new ideas to be positioned heading into 2025. That is where the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be come into play.

Tactical Bulls searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street. These analyst calls can be a reliable source for finding some of those new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed.

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 investors and its readers 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.

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Wednesday, December 18, 2024.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target raised to $232 from $212 (versus $195.42 close) at JPMorgan.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Overweight with price target raised to $280 from $250 (versus $231.15 close) at JPMorgan.

Archer Aviation Inc. (NYSE: ACHR) was reiterated as Overweight with price target raised to $13 from $10 (versus $9.09 close) at Cantor Fitzgerald. Its shares were trading up about 5% in early trading and this was just a $7 stock late last week.

Baker Hughes Company (NYSE: BKR) was reiterated with Overweight and the price target raised to $52 from $46 at Barclays; BKR was also maintained at Buy with price target raised to $48 from $42 at BofA Securities. It previously closed at $41.41.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $110 from $100 (versus $90.43 close) at Truist Securities.

Box, Inc. (NYSE: BOX) was initiated with a Buy rating with $45 target price (versus $32.07 close) at DA Davidson. Box was indicated up about 2% on Wednesday.

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Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE: LNG) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $235 from $213 (versus $201.68 close) at Wells Fargo.

Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) was raised to Outperform from In-Line with a $56 price target (versus $40.98 close) at Evercore ISI Group. Dow was indicated up about 1% on Wednesday.

DoubleVerify Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DV) was started as Outperform with a $25 price target (versus $19.95 close) at Raymond James.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $221 from $187 (versus $180.64 close) at BofA Securities. It was indicated up almost 2% in early trading.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was maintained as Outperform but its price target was cut to $267 from $307 (versus $188.27 close) at Baird. First Solar was indicated up about 2% in early trading.

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird.

Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $640 from $570 (versus $545.16 close) at Truist Securities.

Kinder Morgan, Inc. (NYSE: KMI) was reiterated with an Overweight rating and its price target was raised to $30 from $27 (versus $26.53 close) at Wells Fargo.

Match Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTCH) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with price target cut to $33 from $40 (versus $31.58 close) at JPMorgan.

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $725 from $660 (versus $619.44 close) at JPMorgan.

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Buy with the $250 price target maintained at Rosenblatt. Micron closed at $108.60 ahead of the call and this call is right before the company’s earnings report. Micron was indicated up about 2% in early trading.

Outbrain Inc. (NASDAQ: OB) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $9 from $6 (versus $7.58 close) at Needham.

Rezolve AI Limited (NASDAQ: RZLV) was initiated with an Outperform rating and with a $5 price target at Northland Capital Markets. Rezolve AI closed at $3.29 ahead of the call but was indicated up nearly 10% in early trading indications.

Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and its price target was cut to $16 from $18 (versus $14.71 close) at Baird. Rivian was trading down about 3% in early trading on Wednesday.

Salesforce, inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Outperform with a $425 price target at Wedbush. Salesforce was reiterated as Overweight with a $405 target at Piper Sandler. Salesforce closed at $350.57 ahead of the call.

SBA Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SBAC) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital.

Sunnova Energy International Inc. (NYSE: NOVA) was maintained as Outperform but its price target was cut to $9 from $12 (versus $4.20 close) at Baird.

Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $480 from $280 (versus $479.86 prior close) at Baird.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NYSE: TEVA) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $28 from $25 (versus $20.88 close) at Barclays.

Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its $4.50 price target was maintained at Barclays. Transocean closed at $3.67 ahead of the call and was indicated up about 2% on Wednesday morning.

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U.S. Gold Corp. (NASDAQ: USAU) was started at Buy with a $10 price target at Roth MKM. It closed at $6.70 ahead of the call but this is a tiny company worth about $82 million in market cap.

Unusual Machines, Inc. (NYSEArca: UMAC) was initiated as Buy and assigned a $18 price target (versus $11.23 close) at Maxim Group.