Stocks have posted gains for the prior two days this week, but the market was mixed and looking for direction on Thursday as earnings season is afoot. The Trump administration is now in office and a slew of new policies already being implemented. Many investors and traders are still trying to decide how they want their assets 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 Thursday, January 23, 2025.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained with a Buy rating but its price target was trimmed down to $280 from $286 at Goldman Sachs. Wedbush has remained a top bull on Apple and Dan Ives reiterated his Overweight rating and his $325 price target, calling the iPhone and China fears out as overblown. Multiple firms have joined in on downgrades and/or target price cuts in recent days.  Apple closed up 0.5% at $223.83 on Wednesday and was indicated up 0.2% at $224.25 on Thursday.

Boot Barn Holdings (NYSE: BOOT) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $190 target at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) was cut to Neutral from Overweight and its price target was slashed down to $275 from $370 at Piper Sandler.

Deckers Outdoor Corporation (NYSE: DECK) was maintained at Neutral and its price target raised to $215 from $178 at Citigroup. Deckers was maintained as Outperform with a $240 price target at Telsey Advisory Group. Deckers closed at $214.92 on Wednesday and was flat on Thursday morning.

Dentsply Sirona Inc. (NASDAQ: XRAY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was slashed down to $20 from $30 (versus $19.36 close) at Jefferies.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was maintained at Overweight and its price target was cut to $67 from $76 at Barclays. Edison closed down 6.3% at $58.29 on Wednesday and was indicated flat on Thursday.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) closed down 0.6% at $142.35 ahead of earnings and was indicated down 17% at $118.00 after the earnings report. Electronic Arts was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James; EA was cut to Neutral from Buy and its price objective was cut to $130 from $170 at BofA Securities; Baird kept its Outperform rating but cut its target to $158 from $175; EA was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and its price target was cut to $145 from $160 at BMO Capital.

GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE: GEV) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $487 from $420 at Barclays. GEV was also reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $436 from $374 at JP Morgan. GEV shares closed up 2.6% at $427.10 on Wednesday after this week’s earnings and shares were flat on Thursday morning.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) was maintained as Neutral and its price target was bumped up to $233 from $227 at JP Morgan. IBM was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $260 from $250 at BofA Securities. IBM closed down almost 0.5% at $223.26 ahead of the calls and the stock was indicated up 0.3% at $224.00 on Thursday morning.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price objective was raised to $710 from $660 (versus $623.50 close) at BofA Securities. Meta closed up 1.1% at $623.50 on Wednesday and was indicated up 0.6% at $627.50 on Thursday.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was maintained as Underweight and its price target was lowered down to $21 from $23 at Morgan Stanley. Sirius XM shares was down 0.4% at $22.10 on Wednesday and the shares were indicated down 0.5% more at $22.00 on Thursday morning.

Veeva Systems Inc. (NYSE: VEEV) was downgraded to Sell from Buy and its price target was cut to $200 from $261 at Goldman Sachs. Veeva shares closed up 2.7% at $229.07 on Wednesday but were indicated down almost 5% at $218.25 on Thursday.

Additional analyst calls worth noting but only mentioned in summary are below.

• Acushnet was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• Aflac was started as Market Perform by BMO Capital.
• Casella Waste Systems was cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
• FirstEnergy was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research
• Logitech was raised to Equal-Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• MetLife was initiated at Market Perform by BMO Capital.
• Principal Financial was initiated at Market Perform by BMO Capital.
• Procter & Gamble was maintained at Buy with a $209 target at DA Davidson.
• Prudential Financial was started as Underperform by BMO Capital.
• SAP was maintained at Overweight and its price target raised to $283 from $275 at Barclays.

If you missed Wednesday’s top analyst calls, they were in shares of Apple, Schwab, Ford, Meta, 3M, Microsoft, Netflix, Seagate and many more stocks.