Bulls usually win over bears in the long-term. Can long-term value win over growth?

Stocks had surged on Tuesday with strong earnings and a more improved outlook for a Fed rate cut as soon as September. Wednesday’s indications were all red though on more geopolitical tensions and word that the U.S. may impose further chip-related export restrictions on goods heading to China. Tactical Bulls is continually looking for new ideas and research for long-term investors and short-term traders alike. The search for new ideas is happening even when markets are challenging all-time highs, and whether investors and traders are looking for new ideas 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 daily analyst reports are tactical bull calls by nature. Some of the daily analyst calls will seem more permanent as analysts can maintain the same rating for years. While the reports often feature “stocks to buy” there also some analyst calls featuring “stocks to sell” or “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. Analyst reports having an impact on shares also helps to reinforce 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 Wednesday, July 17, 2024.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $210 from $205 (versus $193.02 close) at Needham & Co.

Axon Enterprise, Inc. (NASDAQ: AXON) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $380 price objective at BofA Securities. Axon closed at $319.43 ahead of the call.

CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) was downgraded to Equal-Weight from Overweight and its target price was trimmed down to $29 from $30 at Morgan Stanley. CenterPoint closed up 1% at $28.57 on Tuesday but this is down from $30.25 just a few days ago as its Houston market was slow to have power restored on the heels of Hurricane Beryl.

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was cut to $71 from $88 at TD Cowen. Charles Schwab shares closed down 10% at $67.43 on Tuesday and the stock was indicated down another 0.6% at $67.00 on Wednesday.

Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and its price target was lowered down to $167 from $183 at Bernstein. Chevron closed at $157.77 ahead of the call.

Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) was last seen trading down 14% at $88.00 at new 52-week lows on Wednesday morning after weak guidance and with its CEO stepping down. Five Below was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and its target was cut to $85 from $150 at Mizuho. Evercore ISI downgraded it to In-Line from Outperform and cut its target to $113 from $160. Truist downgraded Five Below to Hold from Buy and cut its target price down to $89 from $136. Five Below was also downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and its price target was lowered to $100 from $160.

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) was raised to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $57 price target at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Fluor previously closed up 3.7% at $50.26 ahead of the call.

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target was raised to $172 from $166 at Bernstein. Hess closed at $150.53 ahead of the call and was indicated up 0.8% at $151.75 on the early trading indications.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $200 price target at HSBC. Qualcomm shares were already at $209.64 ahead of the call but the stock was down another 4.5% at $200.00 on news of more potential industry-wide export restrictions to China.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $735 from $700 at Guggenheim. Netflix closed at $656.32 ahead of the call but it was down 0.6% at $652.00 on Wednesday morning.

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Rezolute, inc. (NASDAQ: RZLT) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $13 price target at BTIG. Rezolute shares closed down 1.4% at $4.78 on Tuesday but the stock was up over 4% at $5.00 in early indications on Wednesday. Its 52-week range is $0.72 to $6.10 and its market cap was only $254 million ahead of the call.

Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $17 from $13 (versus $17.94 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. Rivian shares were indicated down 2.5% at $17.50 on Wednesday.

Southwest Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: LUV) was maintained as Hold but its price target was cut down to $19 from $26 at TD Cowen.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) was up 6.5% at $548.87 on Tuesday after posting earnings of over $4 billion. UnitedHealth was reiterated as Outperform and its target price was raised to $640 from $600 at Robert W. Baird. UnitedHealth was also reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $615 from $595 at Morgan Stanley.

Valero Energy Corporation (NYSE: VLO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its target price was raised to $175 from $165 at Mizuho. Valero closed at $148.83 ahead of the call and the stock was indicated up 1% at $150.25 after the upgrade.

You may be surprised to see which stocks are receiving the top analyst upgrades ahead of their earnings reports coming soon. Remember that any analyst or investor can make easy changes after the earnings, but making a call ahead of time is an analyst sticking their neck out and putting their reputation on the line.