Stocks were mixed and looking for direction on Thursday despite news of President Trump’s impeachment. Stocks hit all-time highs again this week. Investors rightfully have moved away from those imminent recession calls in favor of growth and risk again, as they are seeing higher forecasts for 2020. That said, many pressing issues, risks and potential pitfalls remain, as the bull market has raged on for longer than a decade. Investors need to be considering what changes they should be making for their portfolios and assets heading into 2020.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for traders and long-term investors alike. Some of the daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy, while some calls cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

We have provided these calls in a quick-hit summary for easy reading, and additional comments and trading data have been added on some calls. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Refinitiv sell-side research service.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for Thursday, December 19, 2019.

Aimmune Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AIMT) was started with a Neutral rating and a $33 target price (versus a $31.31 prior close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that while semiconductor cycles can be brutal, investors who kept their eyes on the AI prize knew where to invest. Shares most recently closed at $60.38 apiece, with a consensus price target of $67.39.

Arvinas Inc. (NASDAQ: ARVN) was started with a Buy rating and a $50 target price (versus a $40.84 close) at H.C. Wainwright.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $22 from $21 at Merrill Lynch. Barrick is among the top gold stocks that still may offer upside to average market gains in 2020, based on prior research. Shares closed up 3.1% at $17.93 on Wednesday and were indicated up marginally on Thursday, with a consensus target price of $20.45.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) was reiterated with a Buy rating and the target price was raised to $100 from $90 (versus an $87.01 close) at Loop Capital.

Blackstone Group Inc. (NYSE: BX) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was raised to $64 from $60 (versus a $54.62 close) at Wells Fargo.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $53 price target at Barclays, and Jim Cramer also talked up its prospects for moving to a services model with 5G and Internet of Things upside on top of security. Cisco closed up 0.4% at $46.64 on Wednesday and was indicated up 1% at $47.12 on Thursday. Its consensus target price was $52.16 ahead of the call, and it has a 52-week trading range of $40.25 to $58.26.

Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Epizyme Inc. (NASDAQ: EPZM) was up 10% at $20.09 on Wednesday after an FDA Advisory Committee reviewed the accelerated regulatory filing of tazemetostat as a treatment in epithelioid sarcoma and the ODAC panel voted in a unanimous 11-to-0 vote that the demonstrated benefit outweighs the risks of the drug in the proposed indication. Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating and $24 target price after the news.

Domino’s Pizza Inc. (NYSE: DPZ) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $333 from $287 at Morgan Stanley in an industry review in which most companies were maintained as Neutral. Shares previously closed at $284.32, and the consensus target price was $290.91.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the target price was raised to $173 from $140 (versus a $143.19 close) at Barclays. It previously had a $152.17 consensus target price.

KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR) was reiterated as Overweight and its target was raised to $36 from $33 (versus a $29.34 close) at Wells Fargo.

McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $230 from $214 at Morgan Stanley in an industry review in which most companies were maintained as Neutral. McDonald’s closed at $195.63, and its consensus target price was $222.53. The 52-week trading range is $169.04 to $221.93.

Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) was up less than 0.1% at $53.04 ahead of earnings but was indicated up over 4% at $55.31 after the report. Micron saw two big target price upgrades ahead of the report, but more have been seen afterward. Wells Fargo reiterated it as Overweight and raised its price target to $70 from $60. Mizuho reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $61 from $53. Citigroup maintained its Sell rating on Micron, but the firm raised its target from $35 to $38. KeyBanc Capital Markets reiterated it as Overweight and raised its target to $63 from $59.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) was reiterated as Neutral at UBS, but the firm lowered its target price to $40 from $58. The stock closed at $38.76 ahead of this call, and it has a 52-week range of $37.25 to $68.83. The consensus target price was $50.36.

RealReal Inc. (NASDAQ: REAL) was started with a Buy rating and a $23 price target at Needham. The stock closed up 1.55% at $17.70 ahead of the call, was indicated up another 0.5% at $17.80 ahead of Thursday’s opening bell and had a $27.50 consensus target price.

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) was reiterated as Outperform with a $180 target price (versus a $148.10 close) at Wedbush. The firm also added Splunk to its Best Ideas List. Wedbush expects imminent announcements of major enhancements to its cloud offering in time to drive year-end deals.

YPF S.A. (NYSE: YPF) was downgraded to Neutral from overweight at JPMorgan, and its target price was lowered to $11.50 from $14.00. Shares closed up almost 4% at $10.70 ahead of the call.

While this is not an equity call, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) has seen its woes get bad enough that Moody’s lowered its corporate credit rating by one notch as the 737 Max grounding persists. The credit ratings agency also cited a long-term risk to the company’s reputation as it suspends its 737 Max production.

Five gold stocks are set to deliver upside performance on top of the stock market in 2020.

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Goldman Sachs has three top health care picks to outperform in 2020.

Credit Suisse sees five utilities outperforming in 2020.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Activision Blizzard, Datadog, Delta Air Lines, Eli Lilly, FedEx, Halliburton, Kinder Morgan, Skechers, Teladoc, Waste Management and many more.

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