Stocks were marginally higher on Wednesday after the prior day’s sell-off. Investors keep signaling that they will buy weakness as they hunt for value and bargains. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week for new trading and investing ideas. Some analyst calls are on stocks to buy, while other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations.

ADT Corp. (NYSE: ADT) was started as Outperform with a $46 price target (versus a $30.54 prior close) at Credit Suisse. ADT has a consensus analyst price target of $43.11 and a 52-week trading range of $29.61 to $42.88.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, so there is now no price target. CarMax closed at $59.72, has a consensus analyst price target of $74.93 and has a 52-week range of $43.27 to $75.40.

Cogent Communications Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: CCOI) was maintained as Buy with a $42 price target (versus a $26.93 close) at Canaccord Genuity. The call is after weakness from its chief revenue officer (VP of global sales) is leaving the company. Cogent has a consensus price target of $35.07 and a 52-week range of $26.08 to $40.48.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Bernstein, and the price target was raised to $29 from $25 (versus a $28.67 close). The firm said that an inventory build-up was being worked off. Intel has a consensus price target of $33.48 and a 52-week trading range of $24.87 to $37.90.

Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) was started as Neutral with a $105 price target (versus an $86.50 close) at Goldman Sachs. Monsanto has a consensus price target of $122.89 and a 52-week range of $85.56 to $126.00.

Noble Corp. PLC (NYSE: NE) was maintained as Buy at Argus, but the firm lowered its price target to $20 from $23 (versus an $11.25 close). Noble has a consensus price target of $14.98 and a 52-week range of $10.52 to $23.66.

Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $132 from $114 at Bernstein. Raytheon closed at $103.65 and has a consensus price target of $119.00 and a 52-week range of $92.96 to $113.36.

ALSO READ: 3 Defensive Energy Stocks to Buy Now as Sector Struggles Continue

Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations on Monday were seen in the following:

Biomed Realty Trust (NYSE: BMR) was raised to Buy from Hold at Canaccord Genuity, and the price target was raised to $23 from $21 (versus a $19.18 close). There are also reports that it is interested in selling itself, sending shares up 6% to $20.40.

Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL) was maintained as Buy at Stifel, and the price target was raised to $61 from $60 (versus a $49.79 close). Carnival has a consensus price target of $59.19 and a 52-week range of $33.11 to $54.05.

Daktronics Inc. (NASDAQ: DAKT) was raised to Buy from Hold at Needham, and the $10 price target was maintained after an $8.24 closing price. Daktronics has a $14.00 consensus price target and a 52-week range of $8.13 to $13.90.

Finish Line Inc. (NASDAQ: FINL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $30 from $28 (versus a $24.66 close) at FBR Capital Markets. The consensus analyst price target is $28.95 and the 52-week range is $22.40 to $29.92.

ALSO READ: 7 Dividend Hikes and Stock Buybacks Too Big to Ignore

Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HRC) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed at $56.78 and have a consensus price target of $63.00 and a 52-week range of $39.58 to $58.73.

Sharps Compliance Corp. (NASDAQ: SMED) was reiterated as Buy at Stifel, and the firm raised its price target to $11 from $8 (versus an $8.82 close).

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) was maintained as Buy at Canaccord Genuity, but the firm lowered its price target to $75 from $83 (versus a $57.63 close) after attending its user conference the prior week. Splunk has a consensus price target of $79.97 and a 52-week range of $49.61 to $76.85.

Two key stocks overseas were seen with multiple analyst calls as well:

• Volkswagen was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan, while Deutsche Bank downgraded the rating to Hold from Buy.
• Glencore was defended at Bernstein, saying the sell-off is overdone, while Investec raised its rating to Hold from Sell and while Citi maintained its Buy rating.

In case you missed Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they were in shares of Apple, DuPont, Frontier Communications, Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Red Hat and over a dozen more companies.

ALSO READ: 9 Analyst Stock Picks Under $10 With Huge Upside Calls

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