Stocks were effectively at all-time highs at the end of 2016. Even with the final week of the year being choppy, the first trading day of 2017 was indicated higher after overseas markets rallied. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was indicated up 130 points and the S&P 500 indicated up 16 points on Tuesday. Investors are now looking for value and growth opportunities in a bull market that is almost eight years old.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy. Other analyst calls cover stocks to sell or avoid.

24/7 Wall St. has released some of the largest analyst calls of the day in major stocks. These calls for January 3, 2017, were in Abercrombie & Fitch, Sarepta Therapeutics, Walt Disney, Xerox, Vodafone and Verizon Communications.

Athene Holding Ltd. (NYSE: ATH) was started with a Buy rating and price target of $53 at Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch started it with a Buy rating and a $56 price objective. It was started as Outperform with a $54 price target at RBC Capital Markets, and Wells Fargo started it as Outperform. The stock was started as Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette & Woods and started as Hold at Deutsche Bank.

Barracuda Networks Inc. (NYSE: CUDA) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at JMP Securities.

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CytomX Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTMX) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, after closing at $10.99 last Friday.

DSW Inc. (NYSE: DSW) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $25 from $28 at Jefferies.

Euronav N.V. (NYSE: EURN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $10 price target (versus a $7.95 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Energizer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ENR) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $52 price target (versus a $44.61 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Greenbrier Companies Inc. (NYSE: GBX) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $27 price target (versus a $41.55 close) at Longbow Research.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (NYSE: IHG) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays. Price target data was not seen.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $48 from $60 (versus a $42.98 close) at Piper Jaffray.

PACCAR Inc. (NASDAQ: PCAR) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $77 from $58 (versus a $63.90 close) at Evercore ISI.

Patterson Companies Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCO) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $47 price target (versus a $41.03 close) at Robert W. Baird.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SALT) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $7.25 price target (versus a $5.05 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Steven Madden Ltd. (NASDAQ: SHOO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $37 from $40 at Jefferies.

Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer.

Ventas Inc. (NYSE: VTR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies, given exposure to issues around health care REITs, rising rates, senior housing and post-acute care.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight with a $56 price target (versus $a 53.35 close) at Piper Jaffray.

As this is the first week of 2017, we wanted to take a look back at 2016 for a reference. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed out the year 2016 at 19,762.60 on December 30. This was still shy of the 20,000 mark, but it ended 2016 with a gain of 13.4% from the 17,425.03 close on the last trading day of 2015. We do still have a case that can be made for up to Dow 22,000 late in 2017.

The S&P 500 closed the year at 2,238.83, up 9.5% from the 2,043.94 close of 2015. The Nasdaq closed at 5,383.12 for a gain of just 7.5% from the 5,007.41 close at the end of 2015.

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