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

U.S. stocks were looking for direction on Wednesday morning. This week the Dow hit an all-time high but many tech stocks have pulled back to weigh on the S&P 500 and NASDAQ-100. Long-term investors and short-term traders are all looking for ideas about how to best be positioned for the expected interest rate cuts by Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve. Tactical Bulls continually hunts for some of those new ideas that traders and long-term investors alike can use in their investing plans.

The daily flow of research reports from Wall Street’s analyst upgrades and downgrades can be a source for many of those new ideas. Investors with a long-term horizon have to keep investing during good markets and bad markets in order to achieve their long-term plans. Short-term traders may only care about how a stock is moving for a very short period of time. These daily analyst calls can be one of the sources to help investors and traders in their decisions to buy, sell or hold.

Tactical Bulls would remind its readers and all investors that no single analyst report should ever be used as the sole reason to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy, sell or hold ultimately needs to be made by each investor along with their financial advisor.

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Wednesday, August 28, 2024.

AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and its price target was raised to $220 from $161 (versus $177.76 prior close) at R.W. Baird.

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) was maintained as Outperform but its price target was cut to $170 from $190 at Evercore ISI.

Ambarella, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA) was reiterated as Overweight at Morgan Stanley and the firm raised its price target to $73 from $67 in a post-earnings call. Stifel reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price target to $80 from $75, and TD Cowen maintained a Hold rating while raising its target to $75 from $65. Ambarella closed up 3.2% at $52.79 on Tuesday but was indicated up over 15% at $62.00 on Wednesday.

ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE: MT) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $31 from $29 (versus $23.47 prior close) at Deutsche Bank.

Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARQT) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $15 price target (versus $10.53 prior close) at Jefferies.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities. Scotiabank downgraded Bank of Montreal to Sector Perform from Outperform.

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Box, Inc. (NYSE: BOX) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $ from $ at UBS. Box closed up 0.5% at $28.82 on Tuesday and was indicated up 5% at $30.40 on Wednesday’s post-earnings reaction.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (NASDAQ: CTSH) was resumed with a Buy rating and a $90 price target (versus $77.15 prior close) at Jefferies. RBC Capital Markets maintained its Sector Perform rating but raised its target price to $82 from $81.

Concentrix Corporation (NASDAQ: CNXC) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and its price target was raised to $85 from $65 (versus $72.34 prior close) at BofA Securities.

enGene Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ENGN) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $30 price target (versus $6.53 prior close) at Oppenheimer. Its market cap was only $288 million as of Tuesday’s close.

EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: EYPT) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $15 price target (versus $9.09 prior close) at Jefferies.

Fiserv, Inc. (NYSE: FI) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $200 price target (versus $170.17 prior close) at BTIG.

GCT Semiconductor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GCTS) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $8 price target (versus $2.78 prior close) at B. Riley. GCT Semiconductor is a recent SPAC and has only a $131 million market cap. This is also the only analyst rating seen by any firm on the stock ratings.

IHS Holding Limited (NYSE: IHS) was resumed with a Buy rating and $5 price target at Citigroup. IHS closed at $3.46 ahead of the call.

Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $150 price target at Argus.

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MercadoLibre, Inc. (NASDAQ: MELI) was reiterated as Positive and its price target was raised to $2,350 from $2,300 (versus $2,036.21 prior close) at Susquehanna.

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) was raised to Hold from Reduce at HSBC with a $82 price target. Moderna closed down 3.3% at $78.98 ahead of this call.

Nanobiotix S.A. (NASDAQ: NBTX) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $12 price target (versus $5.13 prior close) at Guggenheim. Nanobiotix has a 52-week range of $4.14 to $10.15 and a market cap of only $247 million based on the prior day’s close.

Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was maintained as Underweight but its price target was raised to $20 from $18 (versus $21.14 prior close) at BofA Securities. TD Cowen raised its price target to $25 from $24 and maintained a Hold rating on Nordstrom.

PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PDD) fell another 4.1% to $95.91 on Tuesday after a 28% drop on Monday. HSBC maintained its Buy rating but cut its price target to $189 from $208 while defending the long-term value and growth opportunity.

SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SABS) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $12 price target (versus $2.51 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE: S) was reiterated as Overweight at Morgan Stanley and the firm raised its target to $29 from $27 (versus $24.75 prior close) in a post-earnings call.

Ulta Beauty, Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was maintained as Buy but its price target was cut to $448 from $552 (versus $371.35 prior close) at Deutsche Bank. JPMorgan maintained its Overweight rating on Ulta but lowered its price target to $450 from $544.

If you missed Tuesday’s top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades, they were in shares of BlackRock, Cinemark, Energizer, Hershey, Immunic, PDD and many more. Monday’s Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades included Micron, Nucor, Peloton, SentinelOne, Wayfair, Zscaler and other stocks.