Stocks were marginally higher on Thursday after Wednesday’s rate hike by the Federal Reserve. The odds are still very high for another interest rate hike as soon at the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Many investors have seen lower upside from buying on market pullbacks than in prior years. Now the investing community has to consider how they want to have their investments positioned for the rest of 2018 and as 2019 approaches.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, but 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 are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, September 27, 2018.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $30 price target at Northland Securities. AMD closed down 1.17% at $32.19 a share, and it still has a consensus target price closer to $25 as it has risen so much in 2018. More details of the AMD call are available.

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALDX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $28 at Janney, based on positive Phase 2b dry rye disease data. The stock closed up almost 35% at $13.35 on Wednesday and about 40-times normal trading volume. Now two analysts see 100%+ upside in Aldeyra even after the huge move and considering a secondary offering.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $2,525 from $2,020 at Stifel. Amazon closed at $1,974.85 on Wednesday, and it has a consensus target price of roughly $2,124.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was started as Overweight and assigned a $272 price target at JPMorgan. It closed down 0.8% at $220.42 on Wednesday and was indicated up more than 1% on Thursday. The Apple consensus target price is $233.56.

Applied Optoelectronics Inc. (NASDAQ: AAOI) was down 6.6% at $31.34 on Wednesday and was down another 10% on Thursday. Loop Capital downgraded it to Sell from Hold and slashed the price target to $20 from $45.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) was down 0.5% at $18.81 ahead of earnings, and a revenue and store sales miss and lower guidance took shares down another 17% to $15.60 on Thursday. That will be a new 52-week low of $16.52. Most analysts have been cautious for some time now, but many target price cuts have been seen:

• Deutsche Bank to $14 from $17
• Citigroup to $13 from $16
• JPMorgan to $14 from $16
• KeyBanc to $15 from $16
• Telsey to $16 from $20

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Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) was started as Overweight and assigned a target price of $245 (versus a $202.43 close) at Cantor Fitzgerald.

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $82 from $76 at Deutsche Bank. Shares closed down 1.4% at $72.45 on Wednesday, with a consensus target price of $83.80.

Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) was maintained as Overweight but the target price was cut to $250 from $260 (versus a $213.76 close) at JPMorgan. Morgan Stanley maintained it as Overweight and cut its price target to $251 from $258.

Euronav N.V. (NYSE: EURN) was started as Buy and assigned a $12 price target at BTIG. The stock was down 2.7% at $8.60 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $7.50 to $10.10.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) was maintained as Equal Weight but the target price was cut to $27 from $28 (versus a $29.39 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was started as Outperform and assigned a $238 price target (versus a $222.26 close) at BMO Capital Markets. The consensus target price is almost $231.

Nordic American Tanker Ltd. (NYSE: NAT) was started as Neutral at BTIG.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $189 from $172 (versus a $158.33 close) at Jefferies. Salesforce’s consensus target price is now closer to $167.

Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE: STNG) was started as Buy and assigned a $3 price target at BTIG. Shares closed down 7% at $1.95 on Wednesday and were indicated up 4% at $2.03 on Thursday. The consensus analyst target was $4.05 ahead of this call.

PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) was started as Outperform and assigned a $112 price target (versus an $89.85 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started as Market Perform and assigned a $96 price target (versus a $94.65) at BMO Capital Markets. Square had a consensus target price of $75.19.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was started as Sector Weight at KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was started as Outperform and assigned a $187 price target (versus a $149.27 close) at BMO Capital Markets. The consensus target price was $160.39.

Worldpay Inc. (NYSE: WP) was started as Outperform and assigned a $129 price target (versus a $99.43 close) at BMO Capital Markets.

Xilinx Inc. (NASDAQ: XLNX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $100 price target (versus a $78.31) at Needham.

Canaccord Genuity sees beverages being the top play in cannabis.

Wednesday’s top analyst calls were in Cheniere Energy, Comcast, ConcoPhillips, DowDuPont, Ford, JPMorgan, Nike, Schlumberger, Seagate Technology and many more.

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