Stocks were looking for direction on Monday as the weekend offered little news about trade wars and tariffs beyond what was known last week. The investing community has had less success and has seen lower rewards from buying the dips in 2018 than in prior years. Many of those same investors also have been concerned about how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections, into international trade concerns and also for 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 Monday, July 23, 2018.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was maintained as Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets ahead of earnings, but the firm raised its target price to $184 from $171. Apple has a 52-week trading range of $147.30 to $194.20 and a consensus target price of $202.08.

Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $396 from $335 (versus a $358.71 prior close) at Canaccord Genuity. Biogen had a consensus target price of $367.08.

BJ’s Wholesale Club Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BJ) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $30 target at JPMorgan. Citigroup started it as Buy and assigned a $30 price target, while Morgan Stanley started it as Equal Weight with a $28 target and Jefferies started it as Buy with a $31 target. Shares closed up 0.8% at $25.91 on Friday.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) was started as Buy and was assigned a $14 price objective at Merrill Lynch. Its shares closed at $11.70, and the consensus target price is $15.83.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $85 from $82 at RBC Capital Markets. ConocoPhillips closed at $70.01 on Friday, and the consensus analyst target is $78.23.

Delphi Technologies PLC (NYSE: DLPH) was raised to Outperform from Perform and assigned a $53 price target at Oppenheimer. The stock closed at $44.82 on Friday and has a consensus target price of $58.31.

EverQuote Inc. (NASDAQ: EVER) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $21 price target at JPMorgan. Canaccord Genuity started the shares with a Buy rating and assigned a $23 target price. The stock closed up 1.7% at $17.87 on Friday ahead of the calls.

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GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $84 from $77 (versus a $78.45 close) at Barclays.

Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $176 from $172 (versus a $153.13 close) at Barclays.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $128 from $116 (versus a $106.27 close, after a 1.8% rise after earnings) at Argus. Microsoft had a consensus target price of $113.47.

Regenxbio Inc. (NASDAQ: RGNX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy but the price objective was raised to $80 from $64 (versus a $76.60 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $82 from $80 (versus a $66.09 close) at Credit Suisse.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was reiterated as Equal Weight at Barclays, but the firm raised its target price to $155 from $125 (versus a $171.75 close).

Sonoco Products Co. (NYSE: SON) was reiterated as Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $58 from $55 at Barclays.

Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) was started as Buy and assigned a $230 price target at BTIG. The firm noted that Spotify has not provided a better entry point and the platform is too large and powerful to ignore. The shares closed at $182.79 on Friday.

VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $104 from $89 at Barclays. Stifel reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $105 from $100.

Wix.com Inc. (NASDAQ: WIX) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $115 from $87 (versus a $104.35 close) at Barclays. Its consensus analyst target was $100.33 before this call.

Zendesk Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) was reiterated as Buy and the price objective was raised to $68 from $64 (versus a $60.58 close) at Merrill Lynch. Its consensus target price is $62.32.

Friday’s top analyst calls were in American Electric Power, Facebook, Microsoft, PayPal, Philip Morris, Spotify, Under Armour and many more.

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