Stocks were mixed and looking for direction on Wednesday morning ahead of the highly anticipated Federal Reserve decision to lower interest rates. The field is still mostly split on whether a 50 basis point cut or a 25 basis point cut is coming, although the CME FedWatch Tool was now favoring 50 basis points with a 65% chance on last look. Long-term investors and short-term traders alike have been trying to position and are still looking for new ideas about how to prepare for a lower rate environment. Tactical Bulls searches each morning for some of those new ideas inside the daily flow of Wall Street research reports.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades can be a reliable source for finding new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed. Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings with targets a year out. Short-term traders get a glimpse of immediate price reactions to news and to the analyst calls.

Tactical Bulls always reminds its readers and all investors that no single analyst report should ever be used as the sole reason to buy or sell a stock. The decision to buy, sell or hold 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, September 18, 2024.

ARM Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: ARM) was started with an Outperform rating at William Blair. ARM closed down 1.1% at $136.84 ahead of the call.

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: AMBC) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $15 from $13 (versus $11.17 close) at Roth MKM. The firm noted that the sale of its financial guarantee business is expected to close by year-end with a $50 million buyback after the closing. This should also allow its holding company to finally start seeing earnings within a year or so.

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was started with an Outperform rating at William Blair. Broadcom closed down 0.95% at $162.47 ahead of the call.

Builders FirstSource, Inc. (NYSE: BLDR) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $225 from $205 (versus $193.89 close) at Oppenheimer.

Cencora, Inc. (NYSE: COR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities. Cencora closed down 2.8% at $234.53 and was indicated down another 0.5% in Wednesday’s early indications.

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. (NYSE: CLF) was reiterated as Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $cut to $13.50 from $15.00 (versus $11.81 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) was named as the Bear of the Day at Zacks after narrowed guidance and weak quarterly results are painting a challenging picture. Dollar Tree previously closed up 2.2% at $73.50.

DoubleVerify Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DV) was maintained with a Buy rating but its price target was cut to $26 from $32 (versus $17.16 prior close) at Truist Securities.

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Erie Indemnity Company (NASDAQ: ERIE) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks after rising 20% since its Strong Buy rating at the end of July. Erie Indemnity shares closed down 0.5% at $524.93 ahead of the call.

FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was maintained with a Buy rating just a day ahead of the earnings report but its price objective was trimmed down to $345 from $347 (versus $297.34 close) at BofA Securities.

GE Healthcare Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: GEHC) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $100 price target (versus $86.79 close) at BTIG, with the firm noting its second half has a lower bar now and lower comparisons to contend with.

Incyte Corporation (NASDAQ: INCY) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Truist Securities.

Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was cut to $170 from $176 (versus $142.18 close) at Morgan Stanley.

On Holding AG (NASDAQ: ONON) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $59 from $45 (versus $49.25 close) at Stifel.

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ResMed Inc. (NYSE: RMD) was downgraded to Underperform from Peer Perform with a $180 price target (versus $250.88 close) at Wolfe Research.

Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RYTM) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $64 price target (versus $53.17 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Sirius XM Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) was raised to Buy from Neutral and its price target was raised to $30 from $29 (versus $23.27 close) at Guggenheim. The firm sees positive trends on operating metrics, subscribers and stable cash flow.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) was reiterated as Buy and its price objective was raised to $118 from $112 (versus $96.44 prior close) at BofA Securities.

Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was reiterated as Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $131 from $138 (versus $114.49 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $600 target price (versus $439.38 close) at Needham & Co. The report sees high revenue growth through 2026 but also sees margin recovery a bit more conservative than management’s forecasts.

Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY) was maintained with a Buy rating but its price target as cut to $300 from $350 (versus $248.12 close) at Needham & Co.

Zoetis Inc. (NYSE: ZTS) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $210 from $200 (versus $195.71 close) at Stifel.

BofA Securities made multiple changes to its prized US1 List of top picks favoring cyclical stocks for a lower interest rate environment.

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Airbnb, Dell, GE Vernova, Lightspeed, Microsoft, Super Micro, USBancorp and many more stocks.