Stocks were indicated marginally higher on Friday, but the direction of the day seems far from set in stone. The trend of endlessly buying the dips has not worked as well as it has in prior years. Now is a time when all investors should be considering 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 Friday, May 18, 2018.

Adverum Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) was started as Overweight and assigned a $60 price target at Piper Jaffray. This is only a $373 million market cap stock, but it still represents right at 100% in implied upside from the $6.00 prior close (after a 2.4% drop), and the analyst’s target compares with a consensus target price of $10.00.

Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AIMT) was started as Overweight and assigned a $60 price target at Piper Jaffray. That call actually represents almost 100% upside from the $30.01 close, compared to a consensus target price of $60. Aimmune has been volatile over the past year, as its 52-week trading range is $15.97 to $42.00.

Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: ALPN) was started as Outperform with a $13 target price (versus an $8.12 close) at Wedbush Securities. Alpine is seen as leveraging a directed evolution approach to create multi-functional protein-based therapeutics that it believes could potentially modulate the immune synapse more effectively than conventional immunotherapeutics for the treatment of cancer and autoimmune/inflammatory diseases.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: APC) was started as Hold at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Bemis Co. (NYSE: BMS) was started as Hold at Jefferies.

Berry Global Group Inc. (NYSE: BERY) was started as Buy and assigned a $67 price target (versus a $47.53 close) at Jefferies. The consensus target is $67.85, and the 52-week range is $47.30 to $61.71.

Brixmor Property Group Inc. (NYSE: BRX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $17.50 price target (versus a $14.26 close) at Goldman Sachs. The 52-week range is $13.74 to $20.59, and the consensus target price is $18.20.

Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $26 price target (versus a $27.33 close, after a 5% gain) at Jefferies. Carrizo has a 52-week range of $11.10 to $128.05 and a consensus target price of $26.18.

Coupa Software Inc. (NASDAQ: COUP) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $51 price target (versus a $51.48 close) at Barclays.

Companhia de Saneamento Basico (NYSE: SBS), or Sabesp, for water and waste management in Sao Paolo (Brazil), was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.

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Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: EEP) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $10 price target at UBS. It closed at $10.29 on Thursday, after a 2.1% rise.

Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: FPRX) was started as Neutral with a $17 price target (versus an $18.56 close) at Wedbush. Although the analyst sees limited downside at these levels, it also believes the stock as fully valued at present levels.

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $205 price target (versus a $191.20 close) at UBS. Despite the rating, this is actually above the prior consensus price target of $196.09.

Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $42 price target (versus a $36.25 close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Noble Energy has a 52-week range of $22.99 to $36.53 and a consensus target price of $40.74.

PayPal Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $90 price target (versus a $79.19 close) at UBS. Just a day earlier and before a small acquisition, its target had been raised to $100 in a call from Instinet.

Planet Fitness Inc. (NYSE: PLNT) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform with a $40 price target (versus a $40.90 close) at Imperial Capital.

Sealed Air Corp. (NYSE: SEE) was started as Buy and assigned a $53 price target (versus a $43.57 close) at Jefferies.

Skyworks Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: SWKS) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James. Shares closed up 0.9% at $99.71 on Thursday but were indicated down almost 1.5% at $98.25 on Friday. Skyworks has a consensus target price is $114.63, and its 52-week range of $86.13 to $117.65.

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) was started as Strong Buy with a $190 price target (versus a $158.76 close, after a 1.6% drop) at Raymond James. Spotify has a post-IPO trading range of $135.51 to $171.23 and a consensus target price of $155.48.

Telecom Italia SpA (NYSE: TI) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Berenberg.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $141 price target (versus a $129.95 close) at UBS. Despite the Neutral rating, this is a tad higher than the $140.15 consensus price target.

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Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included AIG, Baxter, Cisco, Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Energy Transfer Equity, Juniper Networks, National Oilwell Varco, Phillips 66, Valero Energy and many more.

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