Stocks were indicated to open higher on Monday. Despite the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs a week ago, trading has been very mixed during a very strong earnings season. Investors have seen less reward in 2018 after buying every market dip than had been seen in the past few years. Now investors are deciding how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections and during international trade concerns.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the daily 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 from Monday, August 27, 2018.

AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight but the price target was cut to $5.50 from $6.00 (versus a $4.29 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. The shares were indicated up over 2% at $4.38 on Monday.

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (NYSE: AEO) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with a $29 price target (versus a $28.42 close) at Wedbush Securities.

Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $24 price target (versus a $30.35 close) at Credit Suisse. The shares had closed up 5.5% on Friday, but they were indicated to open down about 4% at $29.60 on Monday.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral and the price target was cut to $445 from $450 (versus a $520.71 close) at Wedbush. The firm noted that its quarter-to-date checks suggest risk to the current third-quarter consensus same-store sales growth and margin expectations.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $60 target price (versus a $54.76 close) at Stephens. The stock has a 52-week range of $43.25 to $56.14 and a consensus target price of $56.77.

Cushman & Wakefield PLC (NYSE: CWK) has seen its quiet period come to an end. Shares closed up 0.6% at $17.65 on Friday, and the indications were up about 1% on Monday. Barclays started it as Overweight with a $21 target, and Morgan Stanley also started it as Overweight, with a $21 target. JMP Securities started it as Outperform with a $20.50 target, and Credit Suisse started coverage as Outperform with a $21 target. Citigroup started Cushman & Wakefield as Neutral with a $19.50 target.

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Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) was reiterated as Outperform with a $63 target price (versus a $48.32 close) at Wedbush. The firm thinks accumulating shares is the right move after the shares pulled back despite the company’s overall positive results.

Hibbett Sports Inc. (NASDAQ: HIBB) was down 30% at $20.52 on Friday after poor earnings, in a 52-week range of $11.05 to $29.60. Canaccord Genuity downgraded it to Hold from Buy and cut the price target to $21 from $31.

Kala Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: KALA) was reiterated as Outperform with a $51 price target (versus a $12.83 close) at Wedbush after the FDA approved its Inveltys for post-surgery eye pain. The firm did still note that it expects a financing event in 2018 or 2019 to raise additional capital to fund the company beyond its launch and beyond the 12-months of capital it currently has.

Limelight Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) was started with a Buy rating and a $6 price target (versus a $4.38 close) at Craig-Hallum. The 52-week trading range is $3.46 to $6.05, and the consensus target price was $6.30.

Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: PRTK) was started as Neutral and assigned a $13 price objective (versus a $10.30 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: RIGL) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $8.50 price target (versus a $2.81 close) at Citigroup. The stock was indicated up 10% at $3.10 on the call, in a 52-week range of $2.28 to $4.71.

Sierra Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ: SRRA) was reiterated as Outperform with a $6 price target (versus a $1.78 close) at Wedbush. The firm sees the acquisition of momelotinib as an attractive opportunity to develop a well-understood Phase 3 asset with clear utility in a setting with unmet need, and it also called the recent sell-off in shares an attractive buying opportunity.

Sonos Inc. (NASDAQ: SONO) has seen its quiet period come to an end, and shares were down almost 3% at $20.21 on Friday. Stifel started it as Hold with a $20 price target, and Morgan Stanley started coverage as Equal Weight and also with a $20 target. Jefferies also started Sonos as Hold, but with a $23 price target. Raymond James started it as Outperform, but no price target information was seen. Goldman Sachs started it as Buy and assigned a $25 target price.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $52 from $50 (versus a $44.75 close) at Morgan Stanley. Steel Dynamics shares were indicated up over 2% at $45.80 on Monday.

United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) saw a two-notch downgraded to Underweight from Overweight with a $30 target price (versus a $30.95 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in Alibaba, Altria, Autodesk, Hormel, HP, Netflix, Tandem Diabetes, Turtle Beach and many more.

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