Stocks were indicated to open lower on Thursday and longer-term Treasury yields were again creeping higher. The impact of Hurricane Milton may have been less costly than originally expected, but futures were indicated to open lower as the annualized 2.4% CPI report shows inflation is still a tad hotter than expectations. Earnings season is also about to kick off. Many investors and traders are looking for new ideas to be positioned for the coming months and into 2025. That is where the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be come into play.

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.

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

Tactical Bulls always reminds investors and its readers that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy or sell, or hold or short sell, is up to each investor and the decision should be made with a financial advisor.

These are some of the top analyst upgrades and downgrades seen on Thursday, October 10, 2024.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was raised to Overweight from Neutral but its price target was trimmed down to $89 from $93 (versus $75.60 prior close) at JPMorgan.

Arcadium Lithium plc (NYSE: ALTM) closed up 31% at $5.55 on Wednesday as Rio Tinto is paying $6.7 billion in cash to acquire the vertically integrated lithium producer. Arcadium Lithium was downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC with no price target worth noting now that this deal is set in motion.

Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and its price objective was raised to $90 from $63 (versus $82.96 prior close at BofA Securities, noting a more balanced risk/reward with tailwinds helping its flagship Chili’s look strong.

Builders FirstSource, Inc. (NYSE: BLDR) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $225 price target (versus $194.40 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and its price target was raised to $82 from $63 (versus $65.97 prior close) at Barclays. CVS has been trading higher on word that the company is under a strategic review of its operations.

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EVgo, Inc. (NASDAQ: EVGO) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $8 from $4 at UBS. EVgo shares closed up 5.8% at $7.06 on Wednesday and the stock was indicated up another 4% at $7.37 on Thursday morning. Its shares are up about 80% in recent days on news of a $1.1 billion DOE loan guarantee.

GSK pl (NYE: GSK) was up almost 6% on Wednesday’s Zantac heartburn litigation settlement and is indicated up another 1% on Thursday. Citi and Jefferies have both reiterated Buy ratings in UK price terms, with Jefferies calling it just about the best-case scenario at a cost of $2.2 billion versus closer to $7 billion expected.

LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and its price target as raised to $15 from $11.50 at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Lending Club shares closed up almost 4% at $11.88 on Wednesday and were indicated up another 2.5% at $12.15 on Thursday morning.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) was maintained with a Buy rating but its price target was cut to $500 from $515 (versus $417.46 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target as raised to $820 from $780 (versus $727.43 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. The firm cited a long revenue growth path, above consensus expectations, a deeper competitive moat and strong engagement metrics.

NIKE, Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $97 from $83 (versus $82.45 prior close) at Truist Securities, with the report addressing that shareholders are finally accepting (and pricing in) the reality that its turnaround under Elliott Hill as CEO will take time to accomplish.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Overweight with a $150 price target (versus $132.65 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. The firm noted after CEO meetings that it is still very early in the long AI investment cycle and that its new Blackwell systems offer substantially more computation than others.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform but its price target was raised to $80 from $75 at Bernstein. PayPal closed up 0.8% at $81.65 ahead of this call.

SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc. (NYSE: SITE) was started with a Neutral rating and was given a $158 price target (versus $143.29 prior close) at Goldman Sachs.

Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) was reiterated as Equal-Weight with a $182 price target (versus $170.40 prior close) at Morgan Stanley, but the firm did note that it is becoming more constructive on Vail’s stock as sentiment is washed out and they believe downside risk may be limited from here.

As news of Hurricane Milton is adding on the woes of Hurricane Helene, please be sure to understand what insurance you have and what IS and IS NOT covered in your policies. Sadly, much of the flood insurance is going to be worthless and will still be followed with great financial damage on top of the physical damage.