Stocks have seen a recovery for much of the week, but major equity indexes were all marginally lower on Thursday morning. The trend of endless buying the dips has not worked well lately, and many investors are wondering whether the best has been seen for 2018.  Now all investors have to consider how they want their investments positioned for the longer term.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Additional color and commentary have been added on most of the daily analyst reports. The consensus analyst price targets mentioned and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Thursday, May 17, 2018.

American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $65 price target (versus a $53.71 prior close) at UBS. AIG has a 52-week trading range of $49.57 to $67.30 and a consensus analyst price target of $63.50.

Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) was started as Overweight and assigned a $77 price target (versus a $70.74 close) at Piper Jaffray. The 52-week range is $56.54 to $72.58, and the consensus price target is $77.21.

Canadian National Railway Co. (NYSE: CNI) was raised to Buy from Underperform with a $93 price objective (versus an $83.18 close) at Merrill Lynch in a less common two-notch analyst upgrade.

Celanese Corp. (NYSE: CE) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $130 price target (versus a $111.10 close) at UBS. The shares were up 2.6% on Wednesday and were basically flat on Thursday. Celanese has a consensus price target of $123.90.

Cenovus Energy Inc. (NYSE: CVE) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets. It was up almost 1% on Wednesday at $52.56 and was indicated up another 1.5% at $53.35 on Thursday. Cenovus has a consensus target price of $58.20 and has a 52-week range of $37.02 to $62.24.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was down 0.7% ahead of earnings, and it was last seen down almost 4% at $53.40, in a 52-week range of $30.36 to $46.37. Credit Suisse maintained its Neutral rating and $41 price target on Cisco, which had a $49.71 consensus target price.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $33 price target (versus a $31.27 close) at Citigroup.

Eiger BioPharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: EIGR) has been quite volatile over the past year and some analysts have made very aggressive price targets. The latest was Wedbush Securities, raising its $36 price target (more than 200% above the $11.85 close after an 8.2% gain on Wednesday) up to an even more aggressive $56 target. The consensus target was $24.17 ahead of this call, and the 52-week range is $6.10 to $16.20.

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Energy Transfer Equity L.P. (NYSE: ETE) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $20 price objective (versus a $16.69 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Eni S.p.A. (NYSE: E) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.

Gramercy Property Trust (NYSE: GPT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann.

Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) was reiterated as Underperform with a $21 price target (versus a $26.86 close) at Credit Suisse. It has a 52-week range of $23.61 to $30.44 and a consensus price target of $26.50.

Just Energy Group Inc. (NYSE: JE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Canaccord Genuity. The 52-week range is $3.86 to $5.91, and shares were indicated down almost 1% at $3.95.

ManTech International Corp. (NASDAQ: MANT) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $58 price target (versus a $52.56 close) at Wells Fargo.

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was reaffirmed as Buy with a $51 price target (versus a $42.17 close) at Argus.

NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $26 price target (versus a $24.40 close) at JPMorgan.

Pentair PLC (NYSE: PNR) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $133 from $108 (versus a $118.16 close) at Argus. The independent research firm said that the recent earnings improvement was based on gains in all segments. Phillips 66 has a 52-week range of $75.85 to $119.16 and a consensus price target of $113.75.

Progressive Corp. (NYSE: PGR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $66 price target (versus a $61.61 close) at Keefe Bruyette Woods.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $140 price target (versus a $114.99 close) at Morgan Stanley. Valero has a 52-week range of $60.69 to $116.43 and consensus price target of $111.50.

Vici Properties Inc. (NYSE: VICI) was started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.

Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) was reiterated as Buy with a $19 target price (versus a $16.34 close) at Argus.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls included 3M, Advanced Micro Devices, CenturyLink, Chipotle Mexican Grill, F5 Networks, Raymond James, Symantec and many more.

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