Stocks were looking for direction ahead of Tuesday’s opening bell. Dow futures were down less than 0.1% in thin volume and S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were slightly in the green. Tactical Bulls is continually on the hunt for new ideas and research for both long-term investors and short-term traders. Wall Street’s daily flow of analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be a strong source for some of those new ideas.

Many of the daily analyst calls are “tactical bull” calls by nature. Other analyst calls may seem more permanent as analysts can maintain the same rating for years in many cases. Many analysts feature stocks to buy daily but some calls also offer ideas for stocks to sell or stocks to avoid.

Investors do need to always keep in mind that no analyst call should act as the sole reason to buy or sell a stock. These daily analyst calls and the impact from the calls also help to enforce one of the Tactical Bulls mantras that the so-called Efficient Market Hypothesis is not all that efficient in its assumptions.

Here are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $245 from $225 at JPMorgan. The firm also raised its 2025 iPhone shipment projection to 250 million units in 2025 (from 228 million in 2024) and sees 275 million shipments in 2026 based on the AI-led upgrade cycle.

CRH plc (NYSE: CRH) was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $95 price target at Stephens & Co. CRH closed up 2.8% at $78.72 ahead of the call.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $40 price target at Argus Research. Juniper closed at $35.50 ahead of the call.

The Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $60 from $58 at BMO Capital Markets. Kroger closed up 1.3% at $51.05 on Monday and the shares were indicated up 1.8% at $52.00 on Tuesday.

Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $41 price target at Argus Research. It closed at $34.72 ahead of the call.

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $170 from $130 at Wedbush Securities. Micron closed up 4.6% at $147.83 on Monday after two similar price target hikes.

Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIRM) closed up 27% at $33.00 on Monday after reporting positive trial results for its prospective cholangitis treatment. Mirum Pharmaceuticals was reiterated as Overweight and its target was raised to $57 from $53 at Morgan Stanley, and it was reiterated as Market Outperform with a price target hike to $68 from $66 at JMP Securities.

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Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAX) was started as Buy with a $155 price target at Guggenheim. Praxis Precision closed down 6.2% at $36.55 ahead of the call and was indicated up almost 3% at $37.60 on Tuesday after the new rating.

Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ: RGEN) was started with a Neutral rating at Guggenheim.

STMicroelectronics N.V. (NYSE: STM) was raised to Neutral from Sell and its ADS target was raised to $45.80 from $35.50 at Goldman Sachs. STM’s ADSs closed up 1.5% at $43.10 on Monday and the ADSs were indicated down 0.7% at $42.80 on Tuesday after the call.

Third Harmonic Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRD) was started with a Buy rating with a $23 price target at Stifel. Third Harmonic Bio closed down almost 3% at $12.95 on Monday and was indicated up 1.2% at $13.11 on Tuesday after the call.

Vizsla Silver Corp. (NYSE American: VZLA) was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $3.50 from $3.25 at HC Wainwright. Vizsla Silver closed at $1.65 ahead of the call.

Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ: WING) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $460 from $420 at Stifel. Wingstop closed up 4.6% at $417.38 ahead of the call.

In case you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they covered shares of Arm, Best Buy, eBay, Micron, Microsoft, Newmont, NIKE, Oracle, TSM and more.