Stocks have risen into year-end and exceeded almost all targets from a year ago, but the last trading day of the year is looking directionless after year-end profit-taking was seen on Monday. This is the time on the calendar of that seasonal “Santa Claus Rally” the media refers to, but most investors are still trying to figure how they want to be positioned for a volatile 2020 election year. Many positives are being seen in the market around trade and rekindled growth opportunities, and many risks and pressing issues remain that have many investors worried.

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.

As most of the large firms tend to make very few bold analyst calls during the last 10 calendar days of the year, and as many traders and investors tend to go silent at year-end, we have grouped the analyst calls to include any analyst calls in recent days as well as for Tuesday. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations for the final trading days of 2019.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) was reiterated as Outperform and the price target was raised to $69 from $67 at Credit Suisse on Tuesday. Activision previously closed down 0.5% at $58.88 a share and had a consensus target price of $60.63. Its “Warcraft III: Reforged” launch was pushed out in December to January 28, 2020, so the uptick will now be in 2020 rather than 2019, while it boosted its late-2019 contribution from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.”

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) was reiterated as Buy with a $2,250 price target at Argus on Tuesday. While the call is the same as before, strong year-end data from its own sales and record-breaking numbers from third-party sellers have come at a time when relative underperformance in its shares during 2019 had pushed its valuations to more attractive ranges. The independent research firm believes that Amazon deserves long-term accumulation by most equity investors due to its strength in the cloud and in leveraging retail-consumer efforts.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has been reiterated as Outperform at Wedbush Securities in recent days, and the firm’s recently upgraded target price of $350 is now the highest on Wall Street. Apple’s close on Monday was up another 0.6% at $291.52, and its consensus target price was $266.22 on last look.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was named as the Bear of the Day at Zacks. The firm’s “strong sell” implication is after a tough 2019, and it seems that its complications continue to progress rather than improve in the wake of its 737 Max disasters. Adverse developments have continued to push down this stock, and while there may be a positive long-term view, the firm feels Boeing’s stock has continued room to move lower.

Boston Scientific Corp. (NYSE: BSX) was reiterated as Outperform and the target was raised to $52 from $47 at Cowen on Monday, and its shares closed down 0.5% at $44.99 on the same day. It has a $49.19 consensus target price.

Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) was reiterated as Buy at Argus on Monday, and the firm raised its target price to $165 from $145 in the call. Shares closed down almost 0.2% at $131.30 on Monday, and the consensus target price was $130.69.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) was started as Buy at Nomura/Instinet on Monday with a $20 target price. Shares closed up 0.86% at $15.23 on Monday after the call, and the 52-week range is $10.74 to $22.17. The consensus target price was last seen at $19.29.

Hain Celestial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HAIN) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $30 from $25 (versus a $23.53 prior close) at Jefferies. It had a consensus target price of $24.50 ahead of this call.

Insmed Inc. (NASDAQ: INSM) was reiterated as Outperform with a $40 target price at Credit Suisse on Tuesday. Shares previously closed at $23.43, and the consensus target price was $42.56.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was reiterated as Outperform with a $300 target price at Credit Suisse on Tuesday, with the firm outlining the projected impact and road after the IRS published its agreement with Free File being largely within MITRE recommendations published in October. Intuit previously closed at $262.84, and its consensus target price was $280.56.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was maintained as Outperform with a $163 target price at Credit Suisse on Tuesday morning. The stock previously closed at $145.75, and its consensus target price was $154.24. The call came with a two-cent expected drop to earnings per share due to a slight negative tracking of overall pharmaceutical sales trailing its estimates.

Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) was reiterated as Outperform with a $70 target price at Wedbush on Monday. The stock closed down 0.5% at $55.74 after the call, but the firm is positive for 2020 and expects order growth and revenues to exceed expectations while it trades at less than nine times expected earnings and is slightly undervalued against peers at current levels. The 52-week range is $38.43 to $62.63, and the consensus target price is $65.93.

Maxar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MAXR) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James, but this was after Maxar rallied 15.4% to $16.49 after announcing the sale of its space robotics company MDA for close to $765 million. Maxar is worth roughly $985 million, and its 52-week trading range is $3.83 to $17.59.

New Residential Investment Corp. (NYSE: NRZ) was started with a Buy rating and an $18 target price at Argus on Tuesday morning. The firm sees the mortgage-REIT capturing a larger portion of the mortgage process as it diversifies into other mortgage-related operating businesses. While the $18 target compares with a $16.03 prior close, New Residential has a $2.00 per share dividend that comes with a yield of about 12% for total return investors to consider.

Nio Ltd. (NYSE: NIO) was up 53% at $3.72 on Monday after its operating losses shrank much more than expected for the Chinese electric-car maker. Piper Jaffray has now maintained its Neutral rating but raised its target price to $4.15 from $2.20 in a call on Tuesday. The firm cited general optimism, higher deliveries and aggressive cost cuts all contributing to the prior day’s gains. Shares were indicated up 12% at $4.22 on Tuesday morning.

Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) was reiterated as Buy and the target price was raised to $275 from $240 (a new street-high call) at Benchmark. The firm is calling for a return to stronger revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year 2021 after a challenging fiscal year 2020, based on reaccelerated data center spending and an improving market for GPUs. The prior analyst target high was $273, and the consensus was effectively just under $235.00, compared with a $232.32 close on Monday.

Rubicon Project Inc. (NYSE: RUBI) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks. The firm sees the Rubicon/Telaria merger positioning the combined company at the top of the supply-side advertising platform market as one of the leading advertising exchanges has rekindled its growth after a couple of transitional years.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was down 3.6% at $414.70 on Monday after Cowen warned that 2019 deliveries are likely to miss expectations and that 2020 deliveries could handily disappoint. Cowen has remained quite negative here with its Underweight rating on Tesla, but the firm had raised its target to $210 from $190.

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