Stocks were mixed on Monday. With some government offices and many schools closed for Columbus Day, and with China’s continued stimulus being given a commitment without details on the financial figures, many sectors were looking rather mixed. And earnings season is kicking off with the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs.

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 come into play. Tactical Bulls searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street as one of the tools for new ideas.

Long-term investors get a picture of new buy, sell and hold ratings with targets looking a year out in those reports. 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.

As so many earnings and pre-earnings adjustments are being seen, the analyst reports for Monday, October 14, 2024 have been kept to the key impact calls. These are those top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Monday.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) has a lot riding on its coming obesity drug. Truist Securities downgraded Amgen to Hold from Buy while modestly lifting its price target up to $333 from $320 based on the notion that the obesity drug market is becoming crowded with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk already/currently dominating — with the concern that if safety data is negative for its monthly injection (rather than weekly with current leaders) then Amgen’s stock could fall 10% to 20%.

The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) was holding its own less than 1% lower despite the company preannouncing a multi-billion loss, a plane discontinuation plan and layoffs all while its workers are on strike wanting more than the company is willing to give for the time being. JPMorgan maintained its Overweight rating but cut its price target down to $195 from $235 based on the projected length of a recovery time frame. BofA Securities made no change to its $170 price objective and Neutral rating, but its keynote view is that the pre-release was mostly worse than you thought and that its turnaround has a long road ahead. CFRA reiterated its Sell rating and cut its target to $131 from $151 after widening its EPS loss target for 2024 and lowering earnings estimates for 2025/26 and noting that its cash position is a concern and that its cash flow was negative. Wells Fargo remains among the most negative in the coverage universe after the pre-announcement, reiterating its Underweight rating and cutting its target to $2109 from only $110.

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) was another drag on the Dow on Monday after falling 2% to $394 in early trading. Morgan Stanley is now negative on the stock after downgrading its rating to Underweight from Equal-Weight and cutting its price target to $332 from $349 in the call. JPMorgan is on the other side of the fence here, reiterating its Overweight rating and raising its price target to $500 from $435.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) shares rose 4.4% to $222.29 on Friday after earnings. Oppenheimer maintained its Outperform rating but trimmed its target to $232 from $234. RBC reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $230 from $211. Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $230 from $217. Barclays reiterated its Overweight rating and handily raised its target to $257 from $217. BofA Securities reiterated its Buy rating and raised its price objective to $240

MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) has now rallied about 20% from its lows just last week up to $217.00. Barclays reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its $173 price target up to $225 based on the strength and recovery in its ever-expanding crypto portfolio. Barclays had just raised its target to $173 from $146 as recently as September 23 after MicroStrategy’s announcement that its 252,220 Bitcoins held for investment were at an average cost of $39,266.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) has most analysts maintaining their positive ratings and upside price targets rather than boosting those targets over the last month. Melius was among those on Monday by reiterating its Buy rating — but also saying the firm’s $165 price target is still conservative as NVIDIA should maintain its competitive advantage over AI-chip rivals and that it can monetize its opportunities better over the long-term.

PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was reiterated as Outperform and was given what appears to be a new street-high target that was raised to $100 from $90 at Mizuho. The firm noted that market share concerns look overblown as total branded payment volume has grown by 6% as it appears to be commanding a larger share of online sales. Goldman Sachs maintained its Neutral rating but still raised its target to $79 from $69 and PayPal’s consensus analyst target was shown to be $83.16 on FinViz. PayPal’s stock was up about 0.5% at $80.95 in mid-morning trading.

Walmart, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has already been among the most upgraded stocks for targets and ratings. KeyBanc Capital Markets has now reiterated its Overweight rating and raised its target to $$86 from $82 in the call; and Oppenheimer reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $90 from $81.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) shares rose 5.6% to $60.99 on Friday after earnings on hopes that it is exiting its problem years. Piper Sandler maintained its Neutral rating but raised its target to $62 from $60. Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its target to $71 from $68. RBC reiterated its $61 target, and BofA reiterated its $75 price objective. Wells Fargo’s stock was trading up another 2% at $62.25 on Monday.

Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP) lost yet another bullish analyst as Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating to Neutral from Buy and cut its target price down to $38 from $46. The call follows an even worse Underperform and target cut at BofA in recent weeks, with no solid upgrades from large Wall Street firms in months. Yelp shares were down only 0.2% at $34.20 on Monday morning, with a consensus analyst price target shown as $38.50 by FinViz.

Tactical Bulls also screened for its list of top performing stocks which were also getting the most analyst upgrades ahead of earnings season. One interesting take is that this list of most upgraded stocks ahead of earnings had virtually no overlap with the most attractive Dow stocks ahead of July’s earnings season.