Stocks were looking for direction on Monday ahead of this week’s earnings deluge. With an election coming up and with what is still a very deep recession, investors need to be considering how they want their assets positioned for the second half of 2020 and as 2021 comes into focus.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week in an effort to find new ideas for long-term investors and short-term traders alike. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

Remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision. Consensus analyst target prices are from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst calls we have seen on Monday, July 20, 2020.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was reiterated as Equal Weight but its price target was raised to $55 from $50 at Barclays.

Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) was reiterated as Outperform and its price target was raised to $290 from $252 at Credit Suisse. Shares closed up over 1% at $258.46 ahead of the call, and the consensus target price was $256.08.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with an $18 target price (versus a $13.29 prior close) at Raymond James.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was reiterated as Equal Weight but its price target was raised to $27 from $25 at Barclays.

Calix Inc. (NYSE: CALX) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that this cloud name has some thunder coming from solid beats and rising estimates. Shares most recently closed at $15.72 and have a consensus price target of $15.25.

Concho Resources Inc. (NYSE: CXO) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform with a $70 price target (versus a $50.44 close) at Raymond James.

Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $107 from $70 at Barclays.

Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ: DBX) was raised to Buy from Hold and its price target was raised to $28 from $22 (versus a $20.83 close) at Jefferies.

EOG Resources Inc. (NYSE: EOG) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $59 from $58 (versus a $47.16 close) at Barclays.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Gilead Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) was raised to Neutral from Underweight and its price target was raised to $75 from $64 (versus a $77.51 close) at Credit Suisse. It had an $80.96 consensus target price and a $60.89 to $85.97 trading range over the past 52 weeks.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $164 target price (versus a $149.35 close) at Independent Research.

Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX) was reiterated as Overweight and its target was raised to $350 from $315 (versus a $346.27 close) at Barclays.

Laredo Petroleum Inc. (NYSE: LPI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with an $18 target price (versus a $13.79 close) at Raymond James.

LivePerson Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $49 from $31 (versus a $38.19 close) at Barclays. It was up almost 2% premarket on Monday, and it had a $42.62 consensus target price.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $40 from $35 (versus a $36.52 close) at Barclays. It had a $35.91 consensus target price.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $234 from $205 (versus a $202.88 close) at Barclays. Microsoft’s consensus target price was $212.03.

Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and its target price was raised to $89 from $60 (versus a $94.85 close) at JPMorgan. Shares closed up almost 16% at $94.85 on Friday but were indicated down almost 4% at $91.50 on Monday.

Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was maintained as Equal Weight but its target price was raised to $61 from $58 (versus a $62.92 close) at Barclays.

New Relic Inc. (NYSE: NEWR) was maintained as Underweight but its target price was raised to $56 from $42 (versus a $65.28 close) at Barclays.

Noble Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NBL) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $13 from $11 (versus a $9.65 close) at Barclays.

Parsley Energy Inc. (NYSE: PE) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform and its target price was raised to $16 from $12 (versus a $10.51 close) at Raymond James.

Phillips 66 Partners L.P. (NYSE: PSXP) was raised to Buy from Hold and its target price was cut to $36 from $43 (versus a $30.51 close) at Jefferies.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) was raised to Strong Buy from Outperform and its target price was raised to $130 from $105 (versus a $96.52 close) at Raymond James. It had a $117.08 consensus target price.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was started as Overweight with a $92 target price (versus a $74.16 close) at Wells Fargo. Starbucks had a $79.88 consensus target price, and its 52-week trading range is $50.02 to $99.72.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) was raised to Buy from Hold but its target price was lowered to $62 from $65 (versus a $55.47 close) at Jefferies. It had a $73.17 consensus target price.

Weibo Corp. (NASDAQ: WB) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm said that this stock has the lowest Zacks rank thanks to lower earnings estimate revisions. Shares last closed at $35.36 and have a consensus price target of $42.08.

Zynex Inc. (NASDAQ: ZYXI) was started with an Overweight rating and a $30 target price (versus a $21.42 close) at Piper Sandler.

Friday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Advanced Micro Devices, Cloudflare, Dell Technologies, Lending Tree, Netflix, Tractor Supply, Twilio, Under Armour and more.

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