Stocks are looking for direction on Wednesday with mixed indexes, but that is after another massive rally on Tuesday that took the DJIA back over 17,000 again. Earnings season is in full force, and investors keep proving that they will buy dips or oversold or overlooked stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of Wall Street analyst research reports each morning of the week for new ideas. Some of these analyst research calls cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell.

These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) saw its quiet period come to an end and the analyst floodgates have opened wide. We already showed how the analysts rated it ahead of the quiet period expiration. Goldman Sachs was at a Neutral rating, but the rest of the analysts looked very positive with Buy and Outperform ratings from Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Nomura, Wells Fargo, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and a half dozen others. Shares were indicated up only 0.5% at $10.16, as the news may have been anticipated.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a new street-high price target (by far) of $193 at Nomura.

Aspen Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: AZPN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity, and the price target was cut to $42 from $52.

Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) found one more firm that had yet to throw in the towel. Brean Capital downgraded Cliffs to Sell from Hold with an $8 target (versus a $11.29 close).

Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Wells Fargo.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Janney Capital Markets. Canaccord Genuity reiterated its Buy rating, calling it a solid quarter.

PG&E Corp. (NYSE: PCG) was raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank, while Wells Fargo raised the rating to Outperform. Shares were indicated up 3%.

Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) shares were down over 8% on Tuesday after the board ousted its CEO. Now shares are down 5% more as downgrades have been seen by Barclays, Merrill Lynch and Jefferies — all downgrades effectively to Neutral or Hold from Buy.

ValueVision Media Inc. (NASDAQ: VVTV) was started with a Buy rating at Topeka Capital Markets.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) was started as Hold at Evercore and started at Nomura as a Buy with a $57 price target.

ALSO READ: The 10 Safest High-Yield Dividends

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.