Stocks kicked 2025 off with a gain of less than 1% on the morning of the first trading day of the year. Higher bond yield squashed the dreams of a Santa Rally for stocks in December, but strategists are calling for about 12% upside on the S&P 500 in 2025. Investors need to be planning their 2025 positions as the economy will have a new regime in Washington D.C. and expectations of “higher for longer” interest rates. And there are expectations of tariffs, new policies, lower regulations and government spending cuts expected to come into the mix.

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 ahead of key events and developments 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 Thursday, January 2, 2025.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Market Outperform at JMP Securities. The firm maintained its $220 price target but is warning investors that the DOJ overhang may weigh on the shares as a severe antitrust action risk along with technological inflections becoming more widespread in the year ahead. Alphabet closed at $189.30 to end 2024. Its shares were up about 35% from a year ago.

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALAB) more than doubled after the AI infrastructure semiconductor player debuted in 2024. Astera Labs was given a downgrade to Market Perform from Outperform at Northland Capital Markets, although the firm’s price target was raised to $120 from $100 to reflect a higher valuation.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) had a rough 2024 with close to a 30% loss to close the year at $177.00, but it is seeing an analyst upgrade on the first trading day of the year. Boeing was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $215 from $184 at Deutsche Bank.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs. The firm still sees some upside for the cybersecurity stock as it raised its price target up to $207 from $204. Check Point closed out 2024 at $186.70 and rose about 25% for the year.

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) was raised to Buy from Sell and the price target was raised all the way up to $140 from $77 at Goldman Sachs. Cloudflare closed at $107.68 ahead of the double-upgrade after rising about 30% in 2024.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) saw many continued upgrades at the end of 2024 and it closed out the year up over 60% at $585.51. Meta was reiterated as Market Outperform and the price target was raised to $750 from $660 at JMP Securities.

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Orchestra BioMed Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: OBIO) looks to be the first small-cap biohealth player to get an “exponential upside” call of 2025. Orchestra BioMed was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $16 price target at Barclays. Its shares closed at $4.00 to end 2024 and its 52-week range is $3.96 to $10.06. Its flagship product candidates include BackBeat Cardiac Neuromodulation Therapy (CNT) as a treatment of hypertension and Virtue Sirolimus AngioInfusion Balloon (SAB) to treat atherosclerotic artery disease.

SoFi Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI) entered the year on a sour note after it was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. KBW did raise the price target to $8 from $7 in its call, but the firm sees a difficult path ahead as it may struggle to reach its financial guidance. SoFi closed at $15.40 at the end of 2024. Its shares were down 6% initially on this call.

Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp. (NYSE: MODG) had a rough 2024 after losing about one-third of its value. Topgolf Callaway was given an upgrade to kick off 2025 as it was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies. The firm also raised its price target raised to $13 from $11 in the call. Its shares closed out 2024 at $7.86, but the stock was surging by more than 10% on the heels of the call.

Uber Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: UBER) had been a big gainer up through October, but its shares slid handily from there and barely closed out higher in 2024. Uber was downgraded to Market Perform from Market Outperform at JMP Securities. In a competing call, Goldman Sachs added Uber to its Conviction Buy List but kept its $96 target price in place.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was trimmed down to $600 from $605 at Piper Sandler. UnitedHealth shares closed out 2024 at $505.86, but that was down from $610 at the start of December before its CEO was murdered.

US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was given a larger than normal upside price target to kick off 2024. US Bancorp was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $60 from $58 at DA Davidson. The stock closed 2024 out at $47.83 and it has roughly a 4.2% dividend yield.

Some additional calls were seen as well to kick off 2025:

• CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBRE) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $152 from $133 (versus $131.29 prior close) at Jefferies.
• Cushman & Wakefield plc (NYSE: CWK) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $14 from $18 (versus $13.08 prior close) at Jefferies.
• CyberArk Software Ltd. (NASDAQ: CYBR) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $410 from $350 (versus $333.15 prior close) at Wells Fargo. Its shares are up about 50% from a year ago.
• Evergy, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVRG) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $68.50 target price (versus $61.55 prior close) at Ladenburg Thalmann.
• Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN) was started with a Buy rating and was given a $2.00 price target (versus $1.36 prior close) at Canaccord Genuity.
• L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: LHX) was cut to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James.
• Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $523 from $611 at Deutsche Bank. Lockheed Martin shares closed at $485.94 ahead of the call and its gain was less than 10% over the last year.
• NIKE Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was named the Bear of the Day at Zacks, wondering if the turnaround will ever turn around.
• RTX Corporation (NYSE: RTX) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $140 from $131 (versus prior $115.72 close) at Deutsche Bank. RTX managed to gain nearly 38% versus a year ago.
• Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: VIK) was named the Bull of the Day at Zacks, noting that it has beaten earnings expectations and is adding new routes in 2026 and 2027 for additional growth ahead.

Please note that Tactical Bulls does not maintain formal ratings or price targets on the companies mentioned in this report. All ratings and price targets cited above are from the firms issuing the calls.