Stocks were mixed on Thursday with earnings season in full swing. The Dow was indicated to open lower but the S&P 500 was trying to bounce after three days of losses after hitting all-time highs. Many investors and traders are now 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 Wall Street analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades 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 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 24, 2024.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) closed down 2.4% at $98.00 on Wednesday and was indicated down another 1.2% at $96.85 on Thursday. RW Baird reiterated its Outperform rating and raised its price target to $110 from $88 in its call.

The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) closed down 1.7% at $157.06 after earnings and was indicated down another 3.8% at $151.25 after Boeing’s union workers rejected the pay raise package and prolonged their strike. Boeing was maintained as Outperform but its price target was cut to $200 from $240 at RW Baird.

ICON Public Limited Company (NASDAQ: ICLR) was last seen down over 16% at $235.00 after earnings showed significant customer issues. ICON was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at RW Baird.

Impinj, Inc. (NASDAQ: PI) initially looked higher after earnings but its stock was down almost 5% at $211.35 on Thursday morning. Impinj was reiterated with a Buy rating and its price target was raised to $245 from $195 at Needham.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) saw some profit taking after earnings and after a $232.75 close its shares were indicated down 4.5% at $222.20 on Thursday morning. Evercore ISI reiterated its Outperform rating and $240 target, and Melius reiterated its Buy rating and $255 price target.

Molina Healthcare, inc. (NYSE: MOH) as last seen trading up 10.5% at $304.00 after earnings. RW Baird maintained its Outperform rating but cut its price target to $331 from $405 in the call.

NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and its price target was lowered to $22 from $25 at JPMorgan. NextEra Energy Partners closed down 16% at $21.01 on Wednesday after an unexpected earnings loss but was indicated up about 2.5% at $21.55 on Thursday. Its 52-week range is $20.82 to $35.15.

Sempra (NYSE: SRE) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $98 price target at Jefferies. Sempra closed up 1.1% at $85.96 on Wednesday.

Verizon Communications, Inc. (NYSE: VZ) closed up 3.3% at $42.86 on Wednesday after earnings. KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded Verizon to Sector Weight from Overweight.