
The U.S. markets are dealing with many opposing forces at once. The federal government is now in a partial shutdown. The labor market was already under pressure before thousands of government furloughs, resignations and likely layoffs. And while the Federal Reserve has finally started its rate-cutting campaign, the U.S. stock market is challenging all-time highs with the S&P 500 now up 14% year-to-date with anticipation of more rate cuts ahead.
Should investors take their profits now or let those gains ride deeper into a bull market?
Tactical Bulls is not alone in noticing that most analyst calls on Wall Street are Buy/Outperform, mixed with Hold/Neutral ratings. It turns out that less than 10% of analyst calls have “Sell” equivalent ratings. That said, analysts are telling their investing clients to sell certain stocks specifically by name due to valuations and individual company/industry concerns.
What if all of the “Sell” equivalent ratings are right after such strong gains? These “Sell” ratings often come with ratings masquerading as “Underperform” and “Underweight” — but they are considered as Sell ratings by investors. In fact, many of these “Sell” equivalent ratings come with price targets which are lower than the current share price.
Tactical Bulls always reminds investors that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. After all, analysts can get their thesis wrong just like the rest of the investing community. And sometimes the market, or a company’s fundamentals, can change in the blink of an eye.
Please note that all analyst ratings and price targets referenced in this reporting have been issued by each firm specifically by name. Tactical Bulls maintains no formal rating of its own nor does it maintain any formal price target on any of the stocks mentioned.
Here are 10 fresh analyst calls from the week of September 29 to October 3 (2025) where analysts are telling their clients to sell out of.
The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) was reiterated with an Underweight rating and its price target was cut to $112 from $118 at Barclays on October 1. Its stock was trading at $123.30 ahead of the cut, and Clorox’ 52-week range of $116.53 to $171.37 should spell out how rough 2025 has been for it. This is supposed to be a defensive stock that historically offered downside protection in consumer products, but Clorox was last seen down 25% year-to-date around the rating action.
Doximity, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCS) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral by Goldman Sachs on October 1, although the firm did raise its price target to $64 from $57 in that call. The stock was at $73.15 ahead of the call, and its 52–week range is $40.87 to $85.21. Doximity operates a digital platform for medical professionals and its stock was up about 40% year-to-date ahead of the call.
Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE: is already rated as Sell at Deutsche Bank, but the firm placed a “Catalyst Call: Sell” notice on its as a short-term “investment” idea ahead of earnings. More specifically, Deutsche Bank’s October 2 call is now anticipating that IR will have an earnings miss this quarter due to weaker revenue trends for the quarter. The stock was at $84 late in the week, with a 52-week range of $65.61 to $106.03.
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Medpace Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MEDP) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and its price target was cut to $425 from $450 at Barclays. The October 2 call was versus a price of $535 earlier that morning, representing roughly 20% in implied downside if Barclays’ negative thesis is correct. This call mostly driven by valuation based on shares trading at peak multiples on peak earnings growth, but the firm also noted that its growth is expected to decelerate along with margin compression.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) may have blockbusters of Ozempic and Wegovy, but Morgan Stanley’s concerns about increased competition led to a downgrade to Underweight from In-Line and a slash of their U.S. price target to $47 from $59 in that September 29 downgrade. Novo Nordisk ADSs were up 6.5% at $59.00 on Wednesday and the 52-week range is $45.05 to $120.56.
NuScale Power Corporation (NYSE: SMR) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA Securities on September 30, with the firm also trimming its price objective on NuScale stock to $34 from $38. This was a $36 stock after the downgrade but investors may want to take note that this stock was up a sharp 100% year-to-date after the call due to so much investor interest in its advanced small modular reactor nuclear technology as a key theme for 2025. NuScale’s stock was just a $3 stock at the start of 2024 before all the interest in nuclear and powering AI-datacenters was all the rage.
TripAdvisor Inc. (NASDAQ: TRIP) was initiated as Underperform with a $14 price target at Mizuho on September 30. The firm’s big concern about TripAdvisor is its reliance on search to generate traffic on its site means it will struggle as AI searches take share away from traditional search — even warning that its exposure to organic search from browser traffic more than double the next-highest ranked online travel services/info. It even saw a 33% annual drop in SEO traffic in July alone and Mizuho believes this is a long-term problem rather than a short-lived blip. This was a $19 stock in September but was last seen down closer to $16. TripAdvisor shares were still up 8% year-to-date even after the call.
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United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) was reiterated as Underperform at BofA and its price objective was trimmed down to $81 from $83 on September 26. While this was a slight trim of its price target, this was the third ratings action from BofA in the same month. BofA downgraded UPS to Underperform from Neutral and cut its target to $83 from $91 on September 11 — after having maintained a Buy rating but cutting its target to $91 from $98 on September 2. Three price targets and one formal downgrade in a month isn’t exactly the strongest endorsement for a stock.
ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight at Barclays on October 1, but the firm raised its price target all the way up to $23 from $10 in this call. This satellite-based broadband and communications provider’s stock was at $29.30 ahead of the call with a 52-week range of $6.69 to $34.05.
ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GTM) was initiated with an Underweight rating and was assigned a $10 price target at Wells Fargo on October 1. While the prior close had been $10.91 ahead of the call, the prior day’s close $11.61 shows even less confidence. Its 52-week range is $7.01 to $13.39 and the stock was back to flat year-to-date on the day of the call after the stock had tripled in 2025.
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Again, all ratings and price targets mentioned in this reporting are from the firms mentioned by name in each call. It should also be noted that no analyst report on Wall Street ever come with assured outcomes. Analysts never offer any money-back guarantees if they are wrong in their views.
The ratings and targets issued by analysts are not necessarily the opinions shared by Tactical Bulls, and Tactical Bulls does not issue formal price targets and formal ratings of its own.
Tactical Bulls is not a financial advisor and no information in this reporting should be considered as investment advice. Investing involves risks, and there is the potential for investors to lose money. How each analyst call is interpreted is the job of each investor on their own, and it is strongly recommended that investors speak with their financial advisors before making any investing decisions.
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