Stocks were looking for direction on this quadruple witching Friday. For many investors who missed out on the recovery from late in March through September, now is the time to be 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 with a goal of finding new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid.

Remember that 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 18, 2020.

Abeona Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ABEO) was started as Buy and a $5 price target (versus a $1.96 prior close) at B. Riley FBR. Shares were trading above $2 on Friday morning, and the market cap is only $166 million.

AES Corp. (NYSE: AES) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $23 from $19 at Morgan Stanley. Shares closed up 2% at $18.43 on Thursday, with a $19.44 consensus target price.

Ambarella Inc. (NASDAQ: AMBA) was started with a Buy rating and a $67 price target (versus a $52.19 prior close) at Berenberg. The stock was down 1.75% on Thursday and had a $62.92 consensus price target.

American Electric Power Co. Inc. (NYSE: AEP) was reiterated as Overweight and the price target was trimmed to $98 from $100 at Morgan Stanley.

Beyond Meat Inc. (NASDAQ: BYND) was downgraded to Underweight from Neutral at JPMorgan, with the firm citing that the stock was too rich with rival Impossible Foods taking some of its market share at grocery stores and restaurants.

Bloom Energy Corp. (NYSE: BE) was reiterated as Overweight and its target price was raised to $23 from $21 (versus a $14.55 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.

Dave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ: PLAY) was down 26% at $14.12 on Thursday and was indicated up over 8% on Friday on a report that it has suggested it may face bankruptcy if lenders did not reach a deal with the company. Stifel raised it to Buy from Hold with a $20 price target, and Raymond James raised its rating to Outperform from Market Perform with a $20 target. Truist Securities also reiterated its Buy rating and $22 price target after calling the news an overreaction.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $295 from $285 (versus a $254.82 prior close, after a 3.3% drop) at Morgan Stanley. Facebook had a $287.22 prior consensus target price, and its recent high was $304.67 a share.

Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) was raised to Buy from Hold at Argus, with the independent research firm seeing customers starting to return to its stores.

Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG) was reiterated as Outperform with a $36 price target (versus a $25.77 prior close) at Wedbush Securities.

Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, with the firm pointing out that the market has not accounted for a slower growth after the COVID-19 boost.

Limelight Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: LLNW) was started as Buy and a $9 price target (versus a $5.85 prior close) at Truist.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, with the firm pointing out that the market has not accounted for a slower growth after the COVID-19 boost.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was reiterated as Outperform and its target price was raised to $121 from $115 at Raymond James. Needham reiterated it as Buy and raised its target price target to $132 from $113.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was reiterated as Outperform but its target price was lowered to $69 from $75 at Raymond James.

Strategic Education Inc. (NASDAQ: STRA) was started with a Hold and a $105 price target (versus a $93.80 prior close) at Truist. The stock is still down from a 52-week high of $187.98 per share, and its consensus target price was $165.33.

SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR) was raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc. (NYSE: SKT) was named as the Zacks Bear of the Day stock. The firm asks whether there is any recovery for the mall operators. Shares last closed at $6.49 and have a consensus price target of just $5.10.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was reiterated as Overweight and its price target was raised to $515 from $480 at Piper Sandler, with the upgrade actually coming from Tesla’s energy business rather than just its electric vehicle sales. Wedbush maintained its Neutral rating but still raised its target price to $475 from $380. Tesla closed down 4.1% at $423.43 a share on Thursday, and it had a $307.06 consensus target price ahead of the call.

Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) was maintained as Outperform and its price target was lowered to $60 from $63 (versus a $49.00 close) at Raymond James.

Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) was named as the Bull of the Day at Zacks, which said that the home it the hottest spot in retail. Shares most recently closed at $89.62, with a consensus price target of $94.50.

BofA Securities has five picks from the energy and financial sectors that are contrarian bets but have very solid upside potential to the firm’s price objectives into 2021.

There are also six industrial companies that offer value and solid upside into 2021.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Boston Scientific, CVS Health, FMC, Lennar, NovoCure, Penn National Gaming, Ruth’s Hospitality, Stitch Fix and Veeco Instruments.

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