Stocks were indicated to open marginally higher on Monday, but futures were not indicating any solid directional open. Earnings season is now close to 90% of the way to its end, and over 70% of the companies exceeded expectations. Still, the stock market volatility in 2018 has created less rewarding trades by buying the dips than had been so reliable in prior years. Many investors also are trying to decide how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections and with international trade concerns.

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 of the analyst reports cover stocks to buy and some reports 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 are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, August 20, 2018.

Achieve Life Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHV) was started as Buy and assigned a $12 price target at Ladenburg, representing more than 300% upside from the $2.80 close, if the call pans out. Its shares were indicated up 7% at $3.00 on Monday.

America’s Car-Mart Inc. (NASDAQ: CRMT) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Janney, and the fair value estimate was raised to $96 from $61. The firm noted that the fundamental trends appear to be sustainable and that it has a different cyclical pattern than other auto lenders.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was down 7.7% at $43.77 on Friday after the prior day’s earnings report. Nomura maintained its Buy rating but lowered its price target to $60 from $65. Citigroup maintained its Buy rating but cut its target to $68 from $73.

Baker Hughes, a G.E. Company (NYSE: BHGE) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $42 from $36 at B. Riley/FBR.

Berry Petroleum Corp. (NASDAQ: BRY) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $17 price target (versus a $12.85 prior close) at UBS.

Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE) has seen its quiet period come to an end and the analysts are initiating coverage after it closed down 4% at $22.20 on Friday. Morgan Stanley started it as Overweight with a $30 price target. Merrill Lynch started it with an Underperform rating and a $19 price target, while Credit Suisse started Bloom Energy as Neutral with a $24 target. Oppenheimer started it as Perform, and Robert W. Baird started coverage as Neutral. Cowen started it as Market Perform with a $24 target.

Carbonite Inc. (NASDAQ: CARB) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $44 price target (versus a $39.40 close) at Stifel. The 52-week trading range is $18.55 to $41.25.

Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) was downgraded to Negative from Neutral with a $171 price target (versus a $203.93 close) at Susquehanna. Constellation was indicated down 2% at $199.80 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $195.96 to $236.62. This was a $221 stock before its multibillion investment into Canopy Growth last week.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was up 2.3% at $140.59 on Friday despite an earnings report that was lackluster. Stifel maintained its Buy rating and lowered its price target to $190 from $193.

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Focus Financial Partners Inc. (NASDAQ: FOCS) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $42 price target (versus a $38.50 close) at Goldman Sachs. Merrill Lynch started Focus Financial with a Neutral rating and assigned a $42 price target, and Raymond James started the stock at Outperform.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) was reiterated as Buy and the American depositary share price target was raised to $47 from $45 at Argus.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) saw its shares gutted last week and the analyst downgrade brigade came out fiercely. Now Citigroup has been maintained J.C. Penney as Sell and slashed its price target to $0.50 from $2.00.

Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform with a $4.25 price target (versus a $2.89 close) at RBC Capital Markets. The stock was up 2.8% on Friday, and it has a 52-week range of $2.78 to $4.91. The prior consensus target price was $4.75.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $35 from $32 (versus a $31.35 close) at Argus. The shares were indicated up 1% at $31.70 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $19.69 to $31.71. Its consensus target price is $30.45.

Liquidia Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LQDA) was started as Buy with a $30 target at Needham, and Cowen started it as Outperform with a $14.90 price target.

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWSA) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight and the price target was cut to $12.50 from $17.00 (versus a $13.90 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $93 from $72 at Piper Jaffray. Nike also was upgraded to Positive from Neutral and the price target lifted to $93 from $78 at Susquehanna.

Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. (NYSE: PK) was downgraded to In-Line with a $33 price target (versus a $32.90 close) at Evercore ISI.

Tenable Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: TENB) has seen its quiet period come to an end and analysts are starting coverage after its $31.33 close on Friday. Morgan Stanley started it as Equal Weight with a $31 price target. Deutsche Bank assigned a Buy rating with $40 price target. Stifel started Tenable with a Buy rating and gave it a $43 target price, and BTIG started it as Buy with a $41 price target. Tenable was started as Neutral with a $36 target at JPMorgan.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was trading lower after JPMorgan lowered its price target back down to $195 from $308 as its interpretation of more recent events implies that funding was not secured for a go-private transaction. Tesla shares closed down almost 9% at $305.50 on Friday, and shares were indicated down 6% at $286.00 on Monday.

YogaWorks Inc. (NASDAQ: YOGA) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen. The shares closed down 1.6% at $1.18 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $1.08 to $4.50.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included DSW, Dean Foods, Fluor, JD.com, Nvidia, Viper Energy, Walmart and many more.

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