Stocks are now down almost 2% from their highs of December, and major market indexes were directionless on Tuesday morning. Despite a bull market nearing eight years old, investors are still willing to buy the pullbacks and look for opportunity. There is still a path to DJIA 21,422 in late 2017 or early 2018.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week. The goal in this effort is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of these analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, while other calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

In most of the following analyst calls, we have included some color where appropriate, and Thomson Reuters was used for consensus analyst price target data.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Tuesday, January 24, 2017:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $117 price target (versus a $120.08 prior closing price) at Barclays. The firm’s analysis was one of Apple having few catalysts and being dead money in 2017.

Apple has a 52-week range of $89.47 to $120.81 and a consensus analyst target price of $133.45. Apple shares were indicated down about 0.5% on Tuesday morning.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was reiterated as Buy with a $185 price target at Argus. The firm is refreshing its earnings view based on Boeing’s commercial aircraft backlog of more than 5,600 aircraft orders representing about seven years of production. They expect this to be the top driver for Boeing shares and believe that it’s clear skies ahead after management recently gave a 30% hike to the dividend.

Boeing shares were indicated up at $158.50 early on Tuesday. Analysts have a consensus target price of $161.70, with a 52-week range of $102.10 to $160.30.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was reiterated as Buy, but the price objective was raised to $54 from $45 (versus a $45.99 prior close) at Merrill Lynch. The firm feels that CSX could lead to sizable value if its board chooses the right path.

CSX has a 52-week range of $21.64 to $46.07 and a consensus analyst price target of $40.46.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was started with a Sell rating and assigned a $90 price target (versus a $107.12 close) at Berenberg. Deere has a 52-week range of $71.64 to $107.30 and a consensus analyst price target of $102.65.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel. Humana closed up 2.2% at $205.02 the prior day, with a 52-week range of $150.00 to $217.80 and a consensus analyst price target of $222.46.

You can follow @Jonogg on Twitter if you would analyst calls and research summaries posted directly to your own feed.

Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following companies:

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Cowen.

Shares of Potash Corp. closed at $18.89 the prior day, in a 52-week range of $14.75 to $19.88 and with a consensus analyst target price of $17.64.

Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Macquarie.

Suncor closed down 1.4% at $31.28 the prior day, versus a consensus analyst price target of $36.75 and a 52-week range of $20.35 to $33.79.

Alliant Energy Corp. (NYSE: LNT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $37 price target (versus a $37.03 close) at Macquarie.

Almost Family Inc. (NASDAQ: AFAM) was started as Neutral with a $49 price objective at Merrill Lynch. This was versus a closing price of $46.75, and shares were indicated down closer to $46.50 early on Tuesday.

On Almost Family, Merrill Lynch noted that the home health industry volumes are aided by the shift to new payment models. They further see potential upside from the CYH joint venture, and noted that tailwinds are offset by potential Medicare reimbursement headwinds and labor cost pressures.

Amicus Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $10 from $7 at Robert W. Baird.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE: CVE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Macquarie.

DineEquity Inc. (NYSE: DIN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Instinet.

KB Home (NYSE: KBH) was downgraded to Underperform from Market Perform at Raymond James.

MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Tableau Software Inc. (NYSE: DATA) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup.

Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Ally Financial, IBM, MetLife, Qualcomm, Verizon, Williams Companies, Incyte and over a dozen more.

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One issue which was seen on Tuesday was the Merrill Lynch Equity Client Flow Trends. Despite the markets listing sideways, they saw the biggest US equity inflows in a year. Three issues they noted verbatim were as follows:

• BofAML clients bought US stocks for the 11th consecutive week. Inflows last week were the largest in a year.
• Private clients’ inflows last week were the second-largest in our data history, as they bought both single stocks and ETFs.
• Mid cap stocks saw record inflows last week, with net buying by all three client groups.

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