Stocks saw the major tech sector take a beating on Wednesday, but the stocks were trying to stage modest recoveries on Thursday. The Dow was down less than 100 points (0.2%) and the S&P 500 was up 0.3% with the NASDAQ indicated up 0.7% in early trading indications. Tactical Bulls is continually looking for new ideas and research for long-term investors and short-term traders alike.

Markets have hit all-time highs and investors are looking for help on deciding which stocks and indexes they should take profits in, just keep holding r even adding to. 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. The notion that analyst reports do move stocks up or down actually helps to reinforce one of the Tactical Bulls mantras that the so-called Efficient Market Hypothesis is not all that efficient.

Here are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Thursday, July 18, 2024

Crown Castle Inc. (NYSE: CCI) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $127 from $124 at TD Cowen. BofA Securities reiterated its Neutral rating but raised its price objective to $110 from $105. Crown Castle closed up 1.6% at $105.63 ahead of the calls.

DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) was maintained as Buy but its price target was cut to $53 from $55 at Truist. DraftKings closed down 3.7% at $38.35 ahead of the call.

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (NYSE: ELF) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $230 from $210 at Robert W. Baird. Shares of elf beauty closed down 9.7% at $170.70 the prior day and shares were indicated up over 4% at $178.00 on Thursday.

Five Below, Inc. (NASDAQ: FIVE) was down 25% to $76.50 the prior day after earnings and a CEO resignation took it to 52-week lows. There were many downgrades already seen on Wednesday on the news. Thursday’s calls included Deutsche Bank downgrading Five Below to Hold from Buy and slashing the price target to $79 from $155 in its call.

Foot Locker, Inc. (NYSE: FL) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $18 from $24 at Morgan Stanley. Foot Locker shares closed at $26.45 ahead of the call and the stock was indicated down over 4% at $25.30 after the call.

The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was raised to $29 from $27 at Morgan Stanley. Gap shares closed down 4.6% at $22.95 ahead of the call.

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Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited (NASDAQ: MLCO) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and its target price was lowered down to $7 from $10 at JPMorgan. Melco Crown closed down 2.4% at $6.49 ahead of the call and shares were indicated down another 1.5% at $6.39 after the call.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $495 from $470 (versus $443.52 prior close) at TD Cowen.

Molson Coors Beverage Company (NYSE: TAP) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $47 from $55 at Barclays. Molson Coors closed at $53.98 ahead of the call and was indicated down 2.3% at $52.75 after the call.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR) was reiterated as Outperform with a $35 price target (versus $28.22 prior close) at Wedbush Securities. Where the call matters more than the official target may be the “bull case” scenario where the stock can rise to $50 as companies continue to spend more on AI services.

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: PANW) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at a firm called Redburn Atlantic. Palo Alto was down 1.9% at $332.14 on Wednesday and the stock was down another 0.5% at $330.00 in early indications on Thursday.

PayPal, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair. PayPal closed down 0.9% at $61.24 on Wednesday and was indicated down almost 1% at $60.70 on Thursday.

10x Genomics, Inc. (NASDAQ: TXG) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan, with a major price target cut down to $20 from $40 in the call. BofA Securities maintained its Neutral rating but cut its price objective down to $25 from $36. 10x Genomics closed at $19.84 ahead of the call and was down another 2.2% at $19.40 after the call.

Wednesday’s Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades included Amazon, Chevron, Five Below, Qualcomm, Netflix, Rivian and many more stocks.