Stocks were looking for direction on Wednesday, but this after the major indexes have all hit fresh all-time highs. The one trend that has dominated this bull market is that investors keep finding new reasons to buy stocks after every sell-off. Those same investors are looking for new investing and trading ideas to generate gains and income.

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 of the top analyst reports cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary has been added on some of these daily analyst calls. The 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 Wednesday, September 20, 2017.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $360 price target (versus a $317.93 prior close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Shares were indicated down 0.6% at $316.15 on Wednesday, and the consensus price target is $331.99. Biogen shares have traded in a range of $244.28 to $330.00 in the past 52 weeks.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $143 price target (versus a $120.21 close) at Buckingham Research. It has a 52-week range of $73.74 to $122.79 and a $125.59 consensus target price.

Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) was started as Overweight and assigned a $32 price target at Barclays. It has a 52-week range of $21.02 to $30.74 and a consensus target price of $26.16.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $165 price target (versus a $145.34 close) at Argus. The 52-week range is $103.22 to $146.04, and the consensus price target is $135.53.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $130 price target (versus a $135.22 close) at Goldman Sachs. Shares were indicated down 1.7% at $133.00 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $109.32 to $137.08. The consensus target price is $136.89.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan, but the firm raised its price target to $201 from $185. The recent rally is said to ignore channel disruptions and risks stemming from declines in auto, China and electronics. 3M was indicated to open down 1.2% at $211.00 on Wednesday, and it has a 52-week range of $163.85 to $214.65 and a consensus target price of $205.45.

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

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $79 price target (versus a $64.31 close) at Buckingham Research.

AutoZone Inc. (NYSE: AZO) was maintained as Sector Perform and the price target was cut to $571 from $577 at RBC Capital Markets. Jefferies maintained its Hold rating and $615 price target. AutoZone shares closed down 5% at $535.19 on Monday after an earnings beat was viewed with caution.

Epizyme Inc. (NASDAQ: EPZM) was started as Buy with a $23 price target (versus a $19.25 close) at Jefferies.

Hibbett Sports Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) was raised to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ICPT) was reiterated as Buy with a $275 price target (versus $a 96.20 close) at Jefferies. The firm sees a recent pullback having created a buying opportunity as the street’s reaction was overblown and is likely to subside going into big NASH data coming in the months ahead. A similar call was made by RBC last week.

International Game Technology PLC (NYSE: IGT) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $30 price objective (versus a $22.45 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Wedbush Securities, noting that a flat yield curve could pressure margins through 2018.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO) was started as Buy with a $120 price target (versus a $102.38 close) at Buckingham Research.

TransDigm Group Inc. (NYSE: TDG) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was cut to $280 from $322 (versus a $265.20 close) at Jefferies. The firm believes that TransDigm is now at the completion of one its significant capital deployment cycles.

JPMorgan made several other industrial calls outside of 3M: Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE: IR) cut to Neutral from Overweight, Roper Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ROP) raised to Overweight from Neutral and Dover Corp. (NYSE: DOV) raised to Overweight from Neutral.

Barclays started other apparel makers with new ratings: Ralph Lauren Corp. (NYSE: RL) at Underweight with an $84 target; Michael Kors Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: KORS) at Equal Weight and $44 target; Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE: HBI) at Overweight with a $31 target; Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) at Equal Weight with a $45 target; G-III Apparel Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: GIII) at Underweight with a $28 target; L Brands Inc. (NYSE: LB) at Equal Weight with a $41 target; and PVH Corp. (NYSE: PVH) at Overweight with a $147 target.

Raymond James has made three airline calls on Wednesday: American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) raised Outperform, Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) raised to Outperform and United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) downgraded to Market Perform.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls included Apple, Chesapeake Energy, DowDuPont, Equifax, Gap, Nike, Tesla, Under Armour and many more companies.

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