Stocks were indicated marginally higher on Tuesday after Monday’s gains continued the recovery from last Friday as 2025 is off to a good start. Market strategists are predicting over 12% upside on average for the S&P 500 forecast in the year ahead and investors need to be positioning for a new regime in Washington D.C. if they haven’t already started. Many changes are coming from tariffs, new policies, lower regulations and efforts to cut government spending all simultaneously.

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. As this is the start of the year, analysts are rapidly updating their ratings, price targets and rolling their models to 2025/26 from 2024/25 projections.

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.

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.

These are the top analyst initiations, upgrades and downgrades from brokerage firms and independent research firms on Tuesday, January 7, 2025.

Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: AEIS) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $145 price target (versus $121.24 close) at Needham.

Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY) was initiated with a Buy and with $42 price target (versus $36.21 close) at Truist Securities.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) was initiated with a Buy rating and a $350 price target (versus $301.88 close) at Truist Securities.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral and its price target was cut to $188 from $202 at MoffettNathanson. Apple closed up 0.67% at $245.00 ahead of the call and was indicated down about 1.2% at $242.10 on Tuesday morning.

Arbe Robotics Ltd. (NASDAQ: ARBE) was named Bull of the Day at Zacks after the stock ran 52% the prior day on a free space mapping and AI-drive capabilities collaboration with NVIDIA to further advance the automotive industry with its ultra-high-definition radar.

AudioEye, nc. (NASDAQ: AEYE) was started as Buy with a $25 price target (versus %15.39 close) at Needham.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) was started with a Buy rating and $52 price target at Truist Securities.

Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK) was started as Buy with $91 price target (versus $77.92 close) at Truist Securities.

Bloomin’ Brands (NASDAQ: BLMN) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $13 from $19 at Barclays.

BP PLC (NYSE: BP) was maintained as Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $31.80 from $34.70 in the price conversion for its ADSs at Morgan Stanley.

Bridge Investment Group (NYSE: BRDG) was cut to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan.

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Capital One Financial Corporation (NYSE: COF) was started as Buy with a $229 price target (versus $183.52 close) at Truist Securities.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (CBOE: CBOE) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral and its price target was cut to $174 from $203 (versus $191.76 close) at JPMorgan.

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was reiterated as Outperform and its target was raised to $69 from $65 at Oppenheimer. Chipotle

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was started as Buy with a $85 price target (versus $72.74 close) at Truist Securities.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $74 target price (versus $60.81 close) at Piper Sandler.

Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ: XRAY) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI Group.

Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight and its price target was cut to $32 from $43 (versus $30.04 close) at Barclays.

Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) was started as Buy with a $233 target price (versus $179.21 close) at Truist Securities.

Dow Inc. (NYSE: DOW) was cut to Neutral from Overweight wand the price target was cut to $53 from $60 (versus $39.75 close) at Piper Sandler.

Dutch Bros Inc. (NYSE: BROS) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $70 from $38 (versus $57.78 close) at Barclays. Dutch Bros hit a new 52-week high of $58.96 on Monday after another analyst upgrade to its stock.

ENI S.p.A. (NYSE: E) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and the ADS equivalent price target as raised to $30.90 from $25.80 (versus $24.97 close) at Morgan Stanley.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was initiated with a Hold rating and a $260 price target at Truist Securities.

Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. (NYSE: KDP) was started as Neutral at Piper Sandler.

The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ: KHC) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI Group.

LPL Financial Holdings (NASDAQ: LPLA) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and it saw its price target raised to $397 from $288 at JP Morgan.

Mondelez International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Wells Fargo.

Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ: NTRS) was initiated with a Hold rating at Truist Securities.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated at Buy with $190 target price was maintained at Benchmark. NVIDIA closed up 3.45 at $149.43 ahead of its CES appearances and the stock was indicated up 2.25 at $152.75 on Tuesday’s pre-market trading.

PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was started as Overweight with a $171 price target (versus $146.27 close) at Piper Sandler.

Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE: RJF) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight but its price target was still raised to $166 from $151 (versus $159.87 close) at JPMorgan.

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and the price target was raised to $43 from $20 (versus $42.71 close) at JPMorgan.

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $178 from $154 (versus $132.55 close) at Jefferies.

Shake Shack Inc. (NYSE: SHAK) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target raised to $159 from $125 (versus $132.06 close) at Barclays.

Shell plc (NYSE: SHEL) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.

Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target as raised to $200 from $150 (versus $163.08 close) at Wells Fargo.

State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) was started with a Hold rating at Truist Securities.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at BofA Securities based on valuation and execution risks, but the price objective was raised to $490 from $400 in the same call. Tesla was reiterated at Buy with price target raised to $492 from $11 at Stifel; was raised to Buy from Hold with $460 target at New Street Research.

TotalEnergies SE (NYSE: TTE) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was started as Hold at Truist Securities.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $82 price target (versus $72.03 close) at Truist Securities.

If you missed Monday’s top analyst calls, they were in shares of Apple, Boeing, Capri, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Netflix, Palantir and many more companies.