Wednesday has one thing in common with Monday and Tuesday of this week, and that is that the major stock indexes are looking for direction with the market still close to all-time highs. That bull market is now nearing nine years old, and the trend that keeps winning is that investors manage to find new reasons to buy stocks after every sell-off. Investors are also looking for new investing and trading ideas to generate gains and income ahead.

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

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

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Wednesday, November 7, 2017.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) was started as Neutral and assigned a $116 price target (versus a $107.42 prior close) at Goldman Sachs. After the troubles that Equifax has had with its breach, maybe this is viewed as a win that it wasn’t a “Sell” rating. The stock has a 52-week trading range of $89.59 to $147.02 and a consensus analyst price target of $123.23.

Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE: MNK) was maintained as Buy, but the price target was slashed to $30 from $60, at Jefferies. The prior close was $20.11, and the firm awaits more clarity about Acthar. Stifel maintained its Buy rating but cut its target to $50 from $70. Barclays downgraded it to Equal Weight from Overweight, and Wells Fargo downgraded it to Market Perform from Outperform. Shares were down 35% at $20.11 on Tuesday and down 1.1% at $19.87 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $19.00 to $68.12.

Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $9 price target (versus a $6.19 close) at Jefferies, noting that the call reflects gradual free cash flow optimism and upside potential. Nabors has a 52-week range of $5.32 to $18.40 and a consensus price target of $8.96.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was up in prior days on the Broadcom buyout offer, and shares closed up 2.5% at $64.10 on Tuesday and was indicated up 0.8% more at $64.62 on Wednesday. Raymond James raised Qualcomm to Outperform from Market Perform. It has a 52-week range of $48.92 to $70.24 and a consensus price target of $59.25.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $120 from $110 at Stifel. Shares were up almost 0.8% at $102.72 on Tuesday and were indicated up 0.8% more at $103.50 on Wednesday after the Google cloud deal. The 52-week range is $66.43 to $105.00, and the consensus target price is $108.51.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was last seen down 12% at $13.30, after having been down as much as 20% before the news that China’s Tencent was buying a passive 10% stake in Snap. Multiple downgrades have been seen based on poor business metrics. Canaccord Genuity maintained a Neutral rating and has a $9 target. Stifel cut its rating to Hold, RBC cut its rating to Sector Perform, and UBS cut its rating to Sell from Neutral. Snap has a 52-week range of $11.28 to $29.44.

Note that there were 11 key Sell ratings issued on Monday and Tuesday.

Other key analyst calls from Wednesday are shown below:

Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $165 price target (versus a $143.50 close) at Pivotal Research.

Acorda Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ACOR) was started as Buy with a $35 price target (versus a $27.50 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Amplify Snack Brands Inc. (NASDAQ: BETR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

The Andersons Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDE) was down 6.5% at $34.30 after earnings on Tuesday, and shares were indicated another 1% lower on Wednesday. The stock was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $30 price target at Buckingham Research.

Assembly Biosciences Inc. (NYSE: ASMB) was started as Buy and assigned a $50 price target (versus a $32.42 close) at Jefferies. Assembly was said to be a best-in-class hepatitis-B drug player with clear M&A potential.

Chubb Ltd. (NYSE: CB) was Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Cornerstone OnDemand Inc. (NASDAQ: CSOD) was raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.

e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (NYSE: ELF) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray.

Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $146 price target (versus a $117.75 close) at Goldman Sachs.

IHS Markit Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFO) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $55 price target (versus a $43.43 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Omeros Corp. (NASDAQ: OMER) was started as Buy and assigned a $30 price target (versus a $14.08 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

OneMain Holdings Inc. (NYSE: OMF) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $30 price target (versus a $27.81 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $15 price target (versus a $17.07 close) Morgan Stanley. The 52-week range is $16.36 to $30.17. The consensus target price is $20.90.

Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SUPN) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $47 price target (versus a $36.40 close) at Stifel.

Synaptics Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNA) was maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $59 from $68 (versus a $36.22 close) at Stifel. Synaptics was down 1% on Tuesday, and its post-earnings reaction had shares up 11.5% at $40.40 on Wednesday.

Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was started as Neutral at Goldman Sachs.

Virtu Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: VIRT) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.

In addition, Jefferies has four oil and gas stocks it wants investors to own for higher energy prices in 2018.

Five companies may be huge winners from tax reform and tax cuts.

Credit Suisse has issued its preliminary eight new number-one list picks for 2018.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls included Altice USA, CVS Health, Exxon, Lowe’s, T-Mobile, Sprint, Under Armour and over a dozen more.

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

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