Last week was a broken-up week due to the Fourth of July being on Thursday, but stocks were indicated up marginally higher on Monday morning. Key inflation data is coming this week and the earnings season for Q2-2024 results will kick off with banks late this week.

Tactical Bulls is continually looking for new ideas and research for long-term investors and short-term traders alike. This hunt is whether more investors and traders are looking or not. Wall Street’s daily flow of analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be a strong source for some of those new ideas.

Many analyst calls are “tactical bull” calls by nature, but some analyst calls look more permanent as analysts can maintain the same rating for years in many cases. The daily reports are also usually skewed to “stocks to buy” but there are often other analyst calls Showing their “stocks to sell” — or just some stocks to avoid.

Investors should 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 Monday, July 8, 2024.

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDA: AKAM) was started as Outperform with a $110 price target (versus $90.47 prior close) at Scotiabank.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was maintained as Equal Weight at Wells Fargo but the firm raised its target price to $187 from $168in the call. Alphabet closed at $190.60 ahead of the call.

Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a price target of $45 at JPMorgan. Ally closed at $39.84 ahead of the call.

Alphatec Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATEC) was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $19 price target at Barclays. Alphatec closed at $10.29 ahead of the analyst call and the firm sees a disconnect between the stock and the solid sales execution.

Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James, but the firm raised its target to $82.50 from $62 (versus $70.77 prior close) based on being close to fair/full value after a huge gain so far in 2024.

Bumble Inc. (NASDAQ: BMBL) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and its price target was cut to $10 from $15 at Wells Fargo. Bumble closed at $9.34 ahead of the call.

Canadian National Railway Company (NYSE: CNI) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Bernstein.

Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) was initiated with a Sector Perform rating and $85 price target (versus $86.96 prior close) at Scotiabank.

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Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $92 from $84 at Stifel. Columbia Sportswear closed at $76.16 ahead of the call and was indicated up 3% at $78.50 after the call.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities, and Bernstein kept its Market Perform rating while raising its price target to $36 from $35. CSX closed at $33.30 ahead of the call.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $64 from $62 (versus $47.03 prior close) at JPMorgan.

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $93 price target at Raymond James, with the firm talking up very positive data in HIV prophylaxis and an expected cholangitis approval to push revenue above expectations. Gilead closed at $66.69 ahead of the call, with a 52-week range of $62.07 to $87.87.

GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research as valuations reaching an all-time high and a premium to other banks.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ: META) was maintained as Overweight at Wells Fargo and the firm raised its price target to $625 from $593. Meta shares closed at $539.91 ahead of the call.

Norfolk South Corp. (NYSE: NSC) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was trimmed down to $285 from $288 at Bernstein. Morgan Stanley resumed its NSC coverage with an Underweight rating and $175 price target. Norfolk Southern closed at $215.86 ahead of the calls.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $150 from $120 at UBS, based on solid demand for Blackwell and the firm sees $5.00 in EPS as doable in 2025. Many recent price target hikes have also been seen.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was hiked up to $179 from $165 (versus $156.51 prior close) at UBS.

Raymond James Financial (NYSE: RJF) was downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research.

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ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE: NOW) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $640 price target at Guggenheim. ServiceNow was at $806.46 before the downgrade but the shares were trading down almost 4% at $771.00 after the call on Monday.

SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEDG) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with a $29 price objective at BofA. SolarEdge closed at $25.05 ahead of the call and the stock was indicated up almost 10% at $27.50 on Monday after the call.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) was maintained as Buy at Deutsche Bank, but the firm lowered its target price to $32 from $37 (versus $26.94 prior close) in the midst of the activist battle but the call is mostly based on the slowing economy and moderating demand.

Spirit Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: SAVE) was downgraded to Sell from Hold and its price target was cut to $2.00 from $3.00 at Deutsche Bank. Spirit Airlines closed at $3.31 ahead of the call. Raymond James had downgraded Spirit Airlines to Underperform from Market Perform on Friday as well.

State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) was downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research.

Stifel Financial (NYSE: SF) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at TD Cowen.

Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was cut to $273 from $290 (versus $225.17 prior close) at Bernstein.