Tactical Bulls tracks daily analyst upgrades and downgrades from brokerage firms and research firms on Wall Street. These research reports often contain new ideas or factor in new developments that are happening around stocks, sectors and the markets. One of the most interesting types of analyst upgrades is when analysts stick their neck out with a formal upgrade or new “Buy” shortly before a company’s earnings report.

Any analyst, and any investor for that matter, can make ratings and price target changes after an earnings report has already been released. And then the stock prices already reflect the bullish or bearish sentiment are already seen. Making a substantial call ahead of earnings actually involves an analyst sticking their neck out and putting their reputation at risk. It generally implies that the analyst is calling for event-driven upside not yet reflected in the stock.

Investors are supposed to all have access to the same information in the modern age as Wall Street analysts and even as institutional investors. We don’t actually have all of the same access and information, but we are supposed to. Tactical Bulls is featuring what are seen as substantial analyst upgrades right before companies jump into earnings season. After all, those are classic “tactical bull calls” by their design.

To qualify as substantial analyst upgrades, either the firm’s formal rating had to be raised or the firm’s price target had to be raised by more than 5% ahead of a report. Again, these analyst calls were made ahead of the earnings rather than the days after when the stock has already adjusted to earnings and guidance.

Tactical Bulls always issues a reminder to its readers that no single analyst report should be used as a sole decision to buy or sell a stock. Some analysts can simply get too carried away in their own views. And some analysts just get their analysis and projections wrong. And other reminder is that Tactical Bulls does not endorse every analyst call as fact. Any decision to buy, sell or hold these stocks or any other stocks is the sole responsibility for each investor and their financial advisors.

These are some of the most substantial tactical bull analyst calls ahead of earnings season seen on July 15, 2024.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) was reiterated as Buy at Citigroup but the firm launched its price target to $210 from $176 in the pre-earnings call. Citi expects that this earnings season will be another positive catalyst for the top semiconductor stocks as their earnings are being driven higher. On top of A.I. as a leading force, improving metrics and stabilization in PC upgrades, wireless orders, data centers, and even analog companies. TD Cowen also reiterated its Buy rating on AMD and raised its target price to $210 from $200.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was given a formal upgrade to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $300 from $170 at Loop Capital. The pre-earnings call sees Apple having the opportunity to position itself as one of the generative-AI “base camps” for consumers. Apple was trading at $230.54 ahead of the call, but shares were trading up over 1% at $234.00 after the call.

KLA Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised all the way up to $980 from $760 at Citigroup. KLA was trading at $857.72 ahead of the target hike. While this feels like a “catch-up call” on the target price, Citi also named it the firm’s top pick in the semiconductor cap-ex space with the sector in a late Phase-2 stage after outperforming the S&P 500 with above consensus targets on the 2024-25 wafer fab equipment spending and sees KLA having mid-to-high-teens growth in 2025 and giving confidence for 2026.

Mobileye (NASDAQ: MBLY) is the leading independent player in autonomous driving and driver-assistance technologies. Barely two weeks ahead of earnings, HSBC issued a new Buy rating and issued a $33 price target. While this call is not even the most ambitious price target from all analysts, it is a fresh call that implies about 25% upside to this new price target. It is also after two key firms lowered their targets a week earlier — Goldman Sachs to $32 from $40 and UBS to $33 from $36. Mobileye closed at $26.46 ahead of the new Buy rating and its 52-week range is $23.49 to $45.10.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was yet again included in the analyst upgrade brigade ahead of earnings in August. TD Cowen reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $165 from $140 in its earnings preview for the leader in AI-related semiconductor stocks. NVIDIA’s fundamental strength remains in place and the firm sees even more upside in datacenter demand as Hopper/Blackwell orders continue to outpace supply.

The Trade Desk, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTD) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $120 from $105 at Oppenheimer. Trade Desk shares were at $99.48 ahead of the call and Oppenheimer sees the online advertising giant as one of the cleanest secular growth stories in its space as consumers continue their shift to streaming and ecommerce. Oppenheimer sees higher ad-agency spending to support revenue upside and it is targeting roughly 17% annual revenue growth thru 2030.

UDR, Inc. (NYSE: UDR) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $45 from $39 at BMO Capital Markets. UDR had traded at $40.35 ahead of the call and the REIT has a 4.2% dividend yield. BMO’s call favors coastal multi-family REITS heading into earnings season and they see strong fundamentals (particular around Washington, D.C. — UDR’s top market) BMO’s call also sees accelerating rents in some of UDR’s other top 10 markets for continued FFO/Earnings growth in 2025.

Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (NYSE: ZETA) saw another upgrade, but the new Buy rating from Truist Securities has a $23 price target rather than the $20-21 targets seen in competing upgrades. Zeta is referred to a potential disruptive force in the marketing tech space as it serves large customers with a unique combination of data, AI-powered intelligence and marketing cloud that will help drive continued strong revenue growth. Higher profits and higher cash flows should also drive further “multiple expansion” via higher valuations for Zeta’s stock. Zeta was trading at $17.66 prior to the call. Its stock was up about 5% at $18.50 after the call was made.

Tactical Bulls tracked 9 similarly substantial pre-earnings analyst upgrades (and two downgrades) last Friday. These names included Booking, Carvana, Domino’s, J.Jill, Microsoft, Netflix, Tesla and others.