Stocks took a breather on Thursday on a slower news day after gains seen this week. The market indexes have hit all-time highs as trade fears ease and as earnings season was very strong. Investors have by and large seen lower rewards for buying the dips in 2018 than in prior years. Investors also are trying to decide how they want their investments positioned for the rest of 2018.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to uncover 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 on Thursday, August 30, 2018.

Adverum Biotechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ADVM) was started as Buy and assigned an $11 price target (versus a $6.13 prior close) at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.

Akoustis Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKTS) was started as Outperform and assigned a $10 price target (versus a $7.70 close) at Oppenheimer.

Altra Industrial Motion Corp. (NASDAQ: AIMC) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $49 (versus a $38.00 close) at KeyBanc Capital Markets. The stock was last seen up 3% at $39.15, and the consensus target price was $53.00.

Genesco Inc. (NYSE: GCO) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $54 price target (versus a $46.35 close) at Pivotal Research.

Glaukos Corp. (NYSE: GKOS) saw its shares surge by 40% to $62.86 on Wednesday. Berenberg initiated coverage with a Hold rating and with a $57 price target. BMO Capital Markets maintained its Market Perform rating but raised its target price to $59 from $44.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK) was downgraded by a European firm called Liberium, with its rating dropping to Hold from Buy.

Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) was maintained as Buy but the price target was raised to $190 from $180 (versus a $160.30 close) at UBS.

Itau CorpBanca (NYSE: ITCB), a Chilean bank that also operates in Colombia and Panama, was raised to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup. Its American depositary shares closed at $14.70 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $10.28 to $16.34.

ITT Inc. (NYSE: ITT) was maintained as Sell but the target price was raised to $60 from $57 at UBS.

Johnson Controls International PLC (NYSE: JCI) was maintained as Buy but the price target was lowered to $44 from $46 (versus a $38.42 close) at UBS.

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) was maintained as Neutral but the price target was raised to $220 from $215 (versus a $210.46 close) at UBS. 3M has a consensus target price of $210 and a 52-week range of $190.57 to $259.77.

MongoDB Inc. (NASDAQ: MDB) was maintained as Equal Weight but the price target was raised all the way to $66 from $41 (versus a $71.91 close) at Morgan Stanley.

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Nutanix Inc. (NASDAQ: NTNX) was raised to Neutral from Underweight with a $54 price target (versus a $51.13 close) at JPMorgan.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started as Buy and assigned a $104 price target (versus a $92.85 close) at Berenberg. PayPal has a 52-week range of $60.58 to $92.94, and its consensus target price was $96.38.

Pivotal Software Inc. (NYSE: PVTL) was maintained as Overweight and the target price was raised to $32 from $26 (versus a $27.44 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Rockwell Automation Inc. (NYSE: ROK) was maintained as Buy but the price target was lowered to $205 from $210 (versus a $178.55 close) at UBS.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was up 1.2% at $154.80 ahead of earnings and was last seen down 2.75% at $150.60 despite beating earnings expectations. Many analysts have raised their upside price targets with positive ratings, and these are some of the target price changes:

• Canaccord Genuity: to $165 from $150
• Cowen: to $170 from $165
• Jefferies: to $172 from $168
• JMP Securities: to $178 from $163
• KeyBanc Capital Markets: to $180 from $147
• Robert W. Baird: to $170 from $160
• UBS: to $180 from $168
• Wedbush Securities: to $170 from $160

Tandem Diabetes Care Inc. (NASDAQ: TNDM) was started as Buy and assigned a $50 price target (versus a $40.93 close) at Berenberg. Shares were last seen up 2% at $41.78, and the consensus target price was $35.13 ahead of this call.

Tocagen Inc. (NASDAQ: TOCA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $30 price target (versus an $8.39 close) at a firm called Chardan.

Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: RARE) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $90 from $80 (versus an $83.90 close, after a 6.7% gain) at Wedbush.

Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ: VOD) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch. The American depositary shares closed at $22.98 on Wednesday, and their 52-week range is $22.47 to $32.75.

None of the Greek banks are listed on any U.S. primary exchanges, but HSBC has raised its ratings on the Greek banking sector to Buy from Hold. These included National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Bank and Eurobank. The firm also maintained its Buy rating on Alpha Bank. HSBC cited improved asset quality being on track and said that recent nonperforming loan sales have been accretive capital.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations included AMD, Alphabet, Amazon, Best Buy, Dollar General, Ferrari, Goldcorp, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Square, Tilray and many more companies.

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