Stocks were indicated to open higher yet again on Monday, with the Dow and S&P 500 challenging all-time highs. The bull market is now well over eight years old, but the one theme that persists is that investors keep finding new reasons to buy the major indexes and their favorite stocks after each and every single sell-off. Investors are also searching for new investing and trading ideas.

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

Additional color and commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst calls. Consensus analyst price target data are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Monday, July 31, 2017.

American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $57 price target (versus a $50.49 prior close) at Cowen. American Airlines was indicated up 1.2% at $51.10, and it has a 52-week trading range of $33.00 to $54.48. Its consensus analyst target price is $58.06.

Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) was raised to Buy from Hold with target of $160 at Argus. The upgrade reflects the strong second-quarter sales of Pomalyst and Otezla, which are providing Celgene with additional growth drivers and reducing its reliance on Revlimid. The firm also expects new indications for Pomalyst, Otezla and for Revlimid, which could all be additional revenue and growth drivers. The stock has a 52-week range of $96.93 to $139.00 and consensus target price of $146.55.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $65 price target (versus a $67.43 close) at BMO Capital Markets. Citigroup was actually indicated higher by 0.6% with the markets up on Monday, and the call was signaling a valuation call. Another supporting call for Citi was Barron’s, noting over the weekend that Citi shares might be able to rise another 50%. Citigroup has a 52-week range of $42.50 to $68.91 and a consensus price target of $71.62.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was downgraded to Sell from Hold with a $140 price target (versus a $172.45 close) at Pivotal Research. Facebook has a 52-week range of $113.55 to $175.49 and a consensus price target of $187.59, but many analysts have been raising their targets in a much different view than this call from Pivotal.

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $9 price target (versus a $17.34 close) at Barclays. Hertz was down 6% at $16.30 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $8.52 to $52.27. The prior consensus target price was $17.00.

Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT) was raised to Hold from Sell with a $65 price target (versus a $62.46 close) at Berenberg. Hilton has a 52-week range of $44.73 to $67.79 and a consensus price target of $69.10.

ULTA Beauty Inc. (NASDAQ: ULTA) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform with a $270 price target (versus a $248.60 close) at Oppenheimer. Ulta has a 52-week range of $225.13 to $314.86 and a consensus analyst target of $324.45.

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Other key analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations were seen as follows:

AxoGen Inc. (NASDAQ: AXGN) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $22 target price (versus a $15.10 close) at Leerink.

Cision Ltd. (NYSE: CISN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $16 target price (versus a $10.75 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $45 from $53 (versus a $48.69 close) at Jefferies. The firm believes that the Kate acquisition is factored in now in an Amazon-centric world.

Covanta Holding Corp. (NYSE: CVA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $17 price target (versus a $14.40 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Cytokinetics Inc. (NASDAQ: CYTK) was started as Overweight and was given a $24 price target (versus a $14.20 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Echo Global Logistics Inc. (NASDAQ: ECHO) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $14 from $23 at Credit Suisse. The firm said it was capitulating on its growth thesis and lowered earnings estimates. Echo Logistics shares were down 20% at $13.85 as of Friday, and the new 52-week range is $13.70 to $28.90.

Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) closed down almost 6% at $2.26 on Friday and was indicated down another 4% at $2.17 on Monday. It was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at Scoitia. Credit Suisse also downgraded Eldorado Gold to Underperform from Neutral and the target price was cut to $2.40 from $3.25.

MicroStrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $140 price target (versus a $139.99 close) at First Analysis.

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was reiterated as Hold but the price target was cut to $34 from $38 at Jefferies. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating, but noted that the company is beginning its comeback.

Rockwell Collins Inc. (NYSE: COL) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $115 price target (versus a $113.73 close) at Cowen.

Virtus Investment Partners Inc. (NASDAQ: VRTS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $147 from $141 at Credit Suisse.

Visteon Corp. (NYSE: VC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $140 price target (versus a $111.44 close) at Wells Fargo.

Weyerhaeuser Co. (NYSE: WY) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs. The stock closed down 3.8% at $32.94 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $28.58 to $35.50 and with a consensus target price of $36.58.

Jefferies noted in its Equity Strategy call on Monday: Sean Darby upped the firm’s S&P 500 target to 2500. The Russell 2000 is trading above the firm’s 1410 mark, and the firm is not moving up its target because is thinks the market is ripe for pullback. The firm pointed out that the Russell 2000 is trading at 20.2 times with only 85 stocks “cheap.”

Credit Suisse’s U.S. Equity Strategy team issued a note showing that the firm remains neutral on small cap versus large cap over the short term (three-month view) but is biased toward small over large on a longer six to 12 month basis, noting that the firm continue to prefer small caps in the longer term. Credit Suisse also thinks it is possible that given better performance track records in the first half of 2017, investors could look to lock in profits on winners from the first half and explore opportunities in areas of the market that have lagged. Credit Suisse’s view on earnings season in the United States is that the net sales surprises for S&P 500 companies are so far the highest on record and earnings beats are the fourth best in the past six years.

Friday’s top analyst calls included Amazon, ConocoPhillips, Deutsche Bank, First Solar, Intel, Mattel and Starbucks.

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