Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Wednesday after a strong day on Tuesday. With the Trump administration now in office and a slew of new policies already being implemented, many investors and traders are still hunting for new ideas to be positioned for 2025 and beyond. This is where the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can come into play.

Tactical Bulls searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street to look for new ideas in Wall Street research reports 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, January 22, 2025.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been seeing its price targets come in based on weak iPhone sales in China and lack of growth. Apple was just maintained as Underweight and its price target was trimmed down to $183 from $184 at Barclays.

Cerence Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC) was raised to Buy from Hold and given a $16 price target (versus $13.66 close) at Needham.

Charles River Laboratories International Inc. (NYSE: CRL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) traded up 5.9% to $80.93 on Tuesday after posting better earnings and it was indicated up another 0.7% at $81.50 on Wednesday. Charles Schwab was reiterated at Neutral and its price target raised to $85 from $80 at Citigroup; SCHW was reiterated at Overweight with price target raised to $96 from $95 at Barclays; SCHW was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $93 from $89 at Wells Fargo.

Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) was maintained as Overweight but its price target was trimmed down to $42 from $44 (versus $40.44 close) at Barclays.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight with a $11.00 price target at Barclays, noting a deteriorating earnings situation. Bernstein also reiterated its Hold rating. Ford closed up 2.5% at $10.43 on Tuesday and was indicated down 1.7% at $10.25 on Wednesday morning.

Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $36 from $35 (versus $30.86 close) at Barclays.

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Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was reiterated as Buy with a $715 price target at Jefferies, calling it a top AI pick and not to worry about its oversized AI spending because of strong returns from the investments. Meta closed up 0.6% at $616.46 on Tuesday and was trading up 1% at $623.00 on Wednesday morning in early trading.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was reiterated as Overweight with its price target raised to $165 from $161 at Barclays; 3M was reiterated at Overweight and its price target raised to $165 from $162 at JP Morgan; 3M was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $170 from $140 at Wells Fargo. BofA reiterated its Buy on 3M and raised its price objective to $175 from $160, while Citigroup maintained its Neutral rating and raised its target to $152 from $142. 3M shares closed up 4.1% at $146.89 on Tuesday after earnings and the stock was indicated up 0.8% at $148.00 on Wednesday morning.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Overweight at Morgan Stanley but its price target was trimmed down to $$540 from $548. While this pre-earnings call still has a target more than $100 higher than currently and while the report sees an attractive setup for an attractive entry point, Morgan Stanley noted that investor sentiment has shifted negative with a wall-of-worry about its gross margins, capital spending, GenAI monetization and as the OpenAI relationship builds.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) closed up 1.3% at $869.68 ahead of earnings on Tuesday and was last seen trading up over 14% at $996.50 in the post-earnings reaction. Netflix was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $1,150 from $965 at Macquarie. It was reiterated as Buy with price target raised to $1,250 from $1,100 at Pivotal Research; was reiterated at Hold and its price target raised to $875 from $650 at Deutsche Bank; was reiterated at Overweight with price target raised to $1,150 from $1,000 at JP Morgan; was reiterated at Overweight with price target raised to $1,150 from $1,050 at Morgan Stanley; was reiterated at Buy and the price target was raised to $1,175 from $1,000 at BofA Securities/ Netflix was also reiterated as Buy and its price target raised to $1,150 from $800 at Needham, Barclays upgraded Netflix to Equal-Weight from Underweight and raised its price target to $900 from $715, and Canaccord Genuity raised its rating to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $1,150 from $940.

PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) was reiterated with a Buy rating but its price target was trimmed down to $178 from $184 (versus $148.55 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Riot Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $16 from $11 (versus $12.74 close) at Needham.

Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) closed up 3.6% at $101.25 ahead of earnings and was indicated up 6% at $107.50 on Wednesday morning. BofA Securities reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price objective to $130 from $124. Citigroup reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $125 from $120.Seagate was reiterated as Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $105 from $95 at Barclays. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its price target to $134 from $129.

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STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Barclays.

Sun Country Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNCY) was started as Overweight with a $23 price target (versus $16.63 close) by JPMorgan.

Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: VIK) was started with a Neutral rating with a $49 price target (versus $48.49 close) at Goldman Sachs.

If you missed Tuesday’s top post-inauguration analyst calls, they included Apple, Astera, GM, Navient, NRG, Schlumberger, Tesla and many more stocks.