Stocks were marginally lower on Wednesday as the stock indexes are looking for direction after the sharp post-FOMC moves. Chinese shares also took a breather after Tuesday’s post-stimulus gains may have been too strong. Investors and traders alike are looking for new ideas to be positioned for the coming months and into 2025 for lower interest rates.

Tactical Bulls searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street looking for new ideas in Wall Street research reports. These analyst calls can be a reliable source for finding some of those new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed.

Short-term traders get a glimpse of immediate price reactions to news and to the analyst calls. Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings with targets looking a year out.

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 25, 2024.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was maintained as Outperform but the price target was cut to $185 from $210 at Oppenheimer. Alphabet closed up 0.27% at $162.29 on Tuesday and its shares were flat on Wednesday morning.

Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE: APO) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $139 target price (versus $125.13 prior close) at Wolfe Research.

Archrock, Inc. (NYSE: AROC) was started as Outperform with a $24 target price (versus $21.01 prior close) at Evercore.

Aviat Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNW) was named as the Bear of the Day at Zacks Investment Research.

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNS) was initiated with an Underperform rating and a $225 price target (versus $273.32 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

CleanSpark, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLSK) was started with an Outperform rating and was assigned a $20 target price (versus $9.63 prior close) at Macquarie. Its 52-week range is $3.38 to $24.72.

DoorDash, Inc. (NASDAQ: DASH) was raised to Overweight from Equal-Weight with a $177 target price (versus $141.68 prior close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

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Duolingo Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL) was reiterated as Buy and its price target was raised to $310 from $245 (versus $269.79 close) at Needham & Co. Duolingo was also reiterated Market Outperform and its price target was raised to $275 from $260 at JMP Securities.

Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $150 price target (versus $147.92 prior close) at TD Cowen.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) was maintained with a Neutral rating but its price target was cut to $27 from $35 at R.W. Baird.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and its price target was cut to $12 from $16 (versus $10.87 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. Ford shares were indicated down 1.8% at $10.67 on Wednesday morning.

General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal-Weight and its price target was cut to $42 from $47 (versus $48.07 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. GM’s stock was indicated down 3.3% at $46.50 on Wednesday morning.

Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN) was maintained as Buy but its target was cut to $122 from $125 at TD Cowen. Global Payments was also downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair. BTIG downgraded GPM to Neutral from Buy. KeyBanc Capital Markets maintained its Overweight rating but cut its target to $135 from $145.

KLA Corp. (NASDAQ: KLAC) was started as Perform with a $750 price target (versus $770.34 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

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Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was reiterated as Market Outperform and its price target was raised to $210 from $170 (versus $184.23 close) at JMP Securities.

Okta, Inc. (NASDAQ: OKTA) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks Investment Research, noting that the street still has it in the shade while growth estimates remain. Okta closed down 0.46% at $75.83 on Tuesday and was indicated down 1.9% at $74.35 on Wednesday morning.

Portland General Electric Company (NYSE: POR) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $54 target price (versus $47.39 prior close) at Evercore ISI.

SLM Corporation (NYSE: SLM) was started as Buy with a $27 price objective (versus $21.53 prior close) at BofA Securities.

Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and its price target was lowered down to $95 from $103 at TD Cowen.

Ultra Clean Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: UCTT) was started with an Outperform rating with a $70 price target (versus $34.25 prior close) at Oppenheimer.

Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Evercore ISI.

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Apple, Baidu, BioNTech, Exxon Mobil, GEV, Lowe’s, Salesforce, SunRun and many more stocks.