The S&P 500 had been setting new all-time highs, but Thursday saw a massive selling wave on profit-taking and on stretched valuation in the market’s darlings. Friday’s unemployment falling to 8.4% and payrolls rising by almost 1.4 million has kept the selling pressure mostly at bay as of the early trading indications. Many investors missed the record-breaking recovery rally as the recession forced many out of the market, and those all-time highs remain puzzling to much of Main Street. Investors have also been looking for new ideas for how to be positioned in the second half of 2020 and ahead of the election.

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

As an important and ongoing reminder, no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock. Consensus analyst target data is from Refinitiv.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations from Friday, September 4, 2020.

Akebia Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AKBA) was maintained with a Buy rating at Mizuho, but the firm slashed its target price down to $6 from $17, and BTIG maintained its Buy rating but slashed its target to $6 from $26 in the call. H.C. Wainwright also maintained its Buy rating but cut its target to $10 from $17. These were after Akebia reported clinical data from its Phase 3 clinical trials of vadadustat in the non-dialysis population failed to meet a primary safety endpoint. Akebia closed down 73% at $2.65 on Thursday, but the positive ratings had the shares up almost 4% at $2.75 on Friday morning.

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was reiterated as Buy and its target was raised to $390 from $350 at Mizuho after giving strong guidance with earnings. Rosenblatt reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $430 from $370, and UBS reiterated its Buy rating and raised its target to $425 from $335.

DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) was reiterated as Outperform and its target was raised to $270 from $240 at Wedbush Securities. DocuSign closed at $242.01 ahead of earnings but was indicated down over 5.5% at $228.50 after the report. Deutsche Bank downgraded DocuSign to Hold from Buy with a $225 target price in its valuation downgrade.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) saw its shares fall over 5% to $377.87 on Thursday and the stock was indicated down another 2.5% at $368.50 on Friday. Lululemon was reiterated as Buy and its target price was raised to $430 from $345 at Needham. Citigroup downgraded Lululemon to Neutral from Buy but raised its target price to $400 from $340 in that call.

Momo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOMO) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $17 target price at Morgan Stanley, and Credit Suisse downgraded it to Neutral from Outperform with a $16 target price. Momo was down over 15% at $16.78 during Thursday’s sell-off and it was indicated down another 1.5% at $16.55 on Friday.

NextEra Energy Inc. (NYSE: NEE) fell 2.6% to $280.59 in Thursday’s sell-off as the highest valued utility in America. NextEra was started as Overweight and was assigned a $330 price target at Atlantic Equities, versus a $284.87 consensus analyst price target and just under the street-high $335 analyst target.

Overstock.com Inc. (NASDAQ: OSTK) was started with a Neutral rating and was assigned a $78 price objective (versus $73.34 prior close) at BofA Securities. Overstock closed down 10.2% on Thursday during the big sell-off of the high flyer stocks, and its stock was indicated down 4.7% at $69.90 on Friday morning.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was reiterated as Neutral with a $1,050 price target at Mizuho. The firm called it a strong beneficiary of e-commerce trends and it sees the underlying fundamentals positively, but noted that the upside is already reflected in its valuations.

Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities, in a valuation downgrade. Wayfair closed down over 8% at $275.70 on Thursday and was indicated down almost 4% more at $265.00 on Friday morning.

Whiting Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: WLL) was reinstated as Equal Weight with a $25 price target at Wells Fargo in the post-bankruptcy shares. Whiting closed up 21% at $23.67 on Thursday and analysts are reinstating ratings and target prices on the new shares.

Zacks has its top analyst calls out for Friday. Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) was named as the bull of the day, with the research firm noting that record low mortgage rates are spurring strong new home sales. Kirby Corp. (NYSE: KEX) was named as the Bear of the Day as its going to be a tough year for companies with customers in the oil industry.

Goldman Sachs sees strong upside for four key airline stocks as 2021 approaches.

This Honus Wagner record-breaking price for a weak 1/10 grade must represent a serious upgrade of baseball cards.

Thursday’s top analyst calls included AGCO, Ambarella, Bank of America, Beyond Meat, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Costco, CrowdStrike, eGain, JPMorgan, MongoDB, SmartSheet and Whiting Petroleum.

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