Stocks were looking for direction on Wednesday with a fairly light day on economic data. Investors have had less faith and have seen lower rewards from buying the dips than in prior years. Many of those same investors have also been concerned about how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections, into international trade concerns and also for the longer term, into 2019 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is 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 commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets 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 Wednesday, July 18, 2018.

Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) was raised to Hold from Underperform but the price target was cut to $1.50 from $2.00 (versus a $1.44 prior close) at Jefferies. Avon products shares were indicated up over 2% at $1.47 on Wednesday morning. For a reference on how weak this stock has been, note that Avon’s 52-week trading range is $1.43 to $3.80, and that 52-week low is from this week.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE: BWA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the target price was trimmed to $56 from $57 at Wells Fargo.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $220 from $300 at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed up 2.5% at $208.31 on Tuesday but were indicated down 0.7% at $206.90 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $197.46 to $285.68.

CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James. The stock closed up 1.5% at $86.18 on Tuesday, and it has a 52-week range of $58.57 to $86.56.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CF) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform and the price target was raised to $42 from $38 at RBC Capital Markets.

Columbia Sportswear Co. (NASDAQ: COLM) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform but the target was lifted to $84 from $81 (versus a $93.76 close) at FBR.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was up 0.7% at $64.44 ahead of earnings, but the shares were indicated up almost 4% at $67.00 on Wednesday morning. CSX has seen multiple analysts raise their target prices: Stifel to $78 from $74, RBC to $75 from $71, BMO to $72 from $67, Credit Suisse to $78 from $76 and Raymond James to $75 from $70.

Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird.

Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James. After closing up 2.3% at $6.24, the stock was indicated up 4.3% at $6.51 a share on Wednesday morning.

First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target was cut to $19 from $23 (after closing down 4% at $17.18) at UBS. Raymond James also downgraded it to Outperform from Strong Buy.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $335 from $304 at Oppenheimer. Keefe Bruyette & Woods took the other side, maintaining its Market Perform rating but lowering its target price to $255 from $260.

Huntsman Corp. (NYSE: HUN) was started as Outperform and assigned a $37 price target (versus a $30.59 close) at RBC Capital Markets. Shares of the chemicals company closed up almost 5% at $30.59 on Tuesday and have a 52-week range of $24.51 to $36.06.

Ingredion Inc. (NASDAQ: INGR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform and the price target was cut to $105 from $130 at Credit Suisse. Shares closed down 0.8% at $97.25 on Tuesday and were indicated down almost 1% more at $96.40 on Wednesday morning.

Iron Mountain Inc. (NYSE: IRM) was started as Equal Weight and assigned a $39 price target at Barclays.

MPLX L.P. (NYSE: MPLX) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $38 price target (after closing down 0.5% at $33.60) at Jefferies. MPLX has a yield-equivalent of 7% or so.

ONEOK Inc. (NYSE: OKE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was maintained as Equal Weight but the target was cut to $57 from $60 at Barclays. Starbucks closed up 0.6% at $51.28 on Tuesday and was indicated down 0.5% at $51.00 on Wednesday. Starbucks also had a consensus target price of $59.74, and its 52-week range is $47.37 to $61.94.

Sunoco L.P. (NYSE: SUN) was raised to Hold from Underperform at Jefferies.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) was downgraded to Neutral but the price target was raised to $42 from $36 at Macquarie. Twitter’s 52-week range is $15.67 to $47.79, and its consensus target price was $33.69 ahead of the call.

Under Armour Inc. (NYSE: UAA) was maintained as Neutral but the price target was raised to $22 from $18 at Citigroup. Under Armour was indicated up 1.8% at $21.90 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $11.40 to $24.69. The consensus target price was listed as $17.00 ahead of this call.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) was started as Outperform and assigned a $102 price target (versus an $88.51 close) at RBC Capital Markets.

Windstream Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: WIN) was down 3% at $4.22 on Tuesday but shares were indicated down 13% at $3.65 after being downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup. The previous 52-week range was $4.16 to $20.20.

Tuesday’s top analyst calls included Applied Materials, BioCryst, Costco, Generac, Goodyear, Intel, Microsoft, Netflix and many more.

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