Earnings season is rapidly approaching, and Tactical Bulls wants to know which stocks have garnered the most attention from Wall Street in the immediate weeks ahead of each company’s earnings report. The move here is to look for large cap stocks receiving the most analyst upgrades, which also includes new positive ratings and/or significant price target hikes.

Please Note: Generally speaking, this screen has a three-week lookback to it so these analyst reports should not be considered breaking news.

Investors need to keep their heads on and may want to consider that analyst calls for higher prices are no assured outcome of a strong earnings report. And some stocks have performed strong enough in the last month and in 2025 that their earnings report better have some stellar news to prevent profit-taking into otherwise good news. Investors should also consider that even if stronger earnings are issued, there can always be trouble in the guidance or accounting that can turn otherwise good news into major stock losses.

Tactical Bulls is going to get right to it. Of the top performing stocks in the S&P 500, here are five stocks with a very large number of upgrades, positive initiations and/or price target hikes seen coming into this earnings season. These companies are all also expected to report earnings during October.

Also please keep in mind that all formal ratings and price targets mentioned in this reporting have been assigned to each firm making the call by name (and date). Tactical Bulls does not maintain, nor does it issue, formal ratings or price targets on any companies mentioned.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has had a large number of analysts pointing to new iPhone sales running much better than expected and better than prior upgrades. The iPhone Air is one driver, even though Apple’s major AI push is still delayed. One downgrade was seen as Jefferies downgraded Apple to Underperform from Hold at Jefferies on October 3 based on excessive expectations, but its price target was trimmed by less than $1 in the call. Apple is up 7% in the last month, but its stock is only up about 3% so far in 2025. Here are all the price target hikes seen in the last three weeks:

• Morgan Stanley (Overweight) target raised to $298 from $240 on 10/02
• Seaport Global (Buy) target set at $310 on 10/01
• Evercore ISI Group (Outperform) target raised to $290 from $260 on 09/26
• Wedbush (Outperform) target raised to $310 from $270 on 09/22
• Tigress Financial (Strong Buy) target raised to $305 from $300 on 09/17
• Bernstein (started as Outperform) target set at $290 on 09/16

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) has had a lot going on in a major long-term turnaround and change of events. With President Trump taking a stake for the United States, Softbank, NVIDIA and maybe even Apple all getting behind Intel its future is suddenly much more secure. That said, there will not likely be a single benefit seen for the last quarter ending September 30 unless cash invested into the company is somehow classified as revenues or some other accounting recognition. Keep in mind that Intel is now up 87% year-to-date and up 53% in just the last month. Here are the analyst price changes over the last three weeks:

• Deutsche Bank (Hold) target raised to $30 from $23 on 09/29
• Seaport Global raised to Neutral from Sell on 09/25
• UBS (Neutral) target raised to $35 from $25 on 09/19
• Barclays (Equal-Weight) target raised to $25 from $19 on 09/19
• Citi (Sell) target raised to $29 from $24 on 09/19
• Benchmark (Buy) target raised to $43 from Hold on 09/19

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is the biggest bank and it is far from alone in seeing analyst calls touting the stock ahead of earnings in the last three weeks. Its earnings report is slated for Tuesday, October 14, 2025 and Wall Street has juiced up its expectations now that the Federal Reserve has (finally) rekindled its rate-cutting campaign. Chase has the highest book-value multiple (2.5) of the major banks due to its fortress balance sheet. Its stock is also up 5% in the last month and up almost 29% year-to-date. Jamie Dimon must be happy (even if he keeps issuing Negative Nancy” economic views and opinions). Here are the analyst calls with price target hikes:

• Evercore ISI Group (Outperform) target raised to $330 from $309 on 09/30
• Morgan Stanley (Equal-Weight) target raised to $336 from $298 on 09/29
• Truist Securities (Hold) target raised to $319 from $290 on 09/24
• Citigroup (Neutral) target raised to $325 from $275 on 09/24
• Wells Fargo (Overweight) target raised to $345 from $325 on 09/16

Robinhood Markets Inc. (NASDAQ: HOOD) is riding the crypto train, and many clients have even forgotten they are a destination for stocks and ETFs as well. Its stock has tripled or more in 2025 and the shares were last seen up 45 over the last month alone. The reality is that its merry clients are riding the crypto wave and Robinhood is one of the beneficiaries. Here are the analysts raising price targets with each date specified:

• B of A Securities (Buy) target raised to $157 from $139 on 10/02
• Morgan Stanley (Equal-Weight) target raised to $146 from $110 on 10/01
• Goldman Sachs (Buy) target raised to $152 from $134 on 10/01
• Needham (Buy) target raised to $145 from $120 on 09/30
• Piper Sandler target raised to $140 from $120 on 09/23
• Citigroup (Neutral) target raised to $135 from $120 on 09/23

Robinhood was also initiated as Overweight with a $120 price target just on 9/10, but the firm has since raised its price target as shown above.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is coming back in favor with Wall Street now that Elon Musk isn’t in the constant spotlight with DOGE or arguing with the president. Many analysts are now not even evaluating Tesla for its monthly/quarterly EV sales data. They are looking at the robotaxi, or AI, or the Optimus robot as mega-growth drivers. Tesla’s stock is up 27% in the last month alone, but it’s only up about 11% year-to-date. Dan Ives at Wedbush Securities reiterated his Outperform rating on Tesla with a $500 price target in mid-September, but he then raised his price target to $600 on September 26 based on strong AI growth trends and robotics as both being underappreciated by Wall Street. Here are other upgrades and price target changes seen for Tesla:

• Canaccord Genuity (Buy) target raised to $490 from $333 on 09/30
• Deutsche Bank (Buy) target raised to $435 from $345 on 09/26
• Wedbush (Outperform) target raised to $600 from $500 on 09/26
• Mizuho (Outperform) target raised to $450 from $375 on 09/23
• Piper Sandler (Overweight) target raised to $500 from $400 on 09/22
• Goldman Sachs (Neutral) target raised to $395 from $300 on 09/18

Tesla was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its price target was raised to $548 from $320 at Robert W. Baird on 9/19.

For the record, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) would have also qualified in this screening with nearly 10 price target hikes in the last three weeks. The only reason it was not included was that its earnings report is not expected until later in November — and that date has not even been set yet.