The futures traded slightly higher on Wednesday morning, after investors witnessed another wild roller-coaster trading day on Tuesday with some big swings in the indexes. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high, and we saw some big moves in some of the top momentum stocks, both up and down. Despite the COVID-19 relief bill passing despite some reservations, and fears of a mutation of the virus being tamped down, volume will slow today and tomorrow as we approach the Christmas break. Investors should be reviewing portfolios and adjusting positioning for 2021.

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 seen on Wednesday, December 23, 2020.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was resumed in coverage at Goldman Sachs with a Buy rating and a $2,250 price target. The Wall Street consensus target for the internet and digital behemoth is $1,911.79. The final trade on Tuesday came in at $1,720.22.

Cogent Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: COGT) was started with an Overweight rating and a $22 price target at Piper Sandler. The consensus target is $19.75, and Tuesday’s closing price for the shares was reported at $12.20.

Evelo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: EVLO) was started with a Market Outperform rating and a $27 price target at JMP Securities. The consensus target is $9.67. The last trade on Tuesday came in at $11.20.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) was resumed in coverage at Goldman Sachs, which has a $330 price target. The social media giant has a consensus target of $321.15. The shares were last seen trading at $267.09.

FuboTV Inc. (NYSE: FUBO) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets. The firm did increase its price target to $60. The consensus target is much lower at $38.57. The shares have been on a wild ride, closing Tuesday at $62, up a stunning 25% on the day, but they were down almost 8% in Wednesday’s premarket.

Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: HARP) was resumed in coverage at H.C. Wainwright with a Buy rating and a $31 price objective. The consensus target is $31.22. The final print on Tuesday came in at $17.22, up a strong 16% on the day.

Innovative Industrial Properties Inc. (NYSE: IIPR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Ladenburg Thalmann. The shares have traded in a 52-week range of $40.21 to $198.15 and have a $180.80 consensus price target. With Tuesday’s $197.64 close, this looks like a valuation call.

IAC/Interactive Corp. (NYSE: IAC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Market, though the analyst raised the price objective to $175. The consensus target is $180.60, and shares closed Tuesday at $183.73.

IQIYI Inc. (NYSE: IQ) was started with a Buy at CMB International. The 52-week trading range for the shares is $14.51 to $28.03, and the consensus price target is $24.86. The stock was last seen trading at $16.97.

Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC) was started at Stifel with a Buy rating and a $13.25 price target. No consensus target was available. The shares closed Tuesday at $11.35, after a massive 21% gain on the day. The stock was up an additional 9% in premarket action.

Luminar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: LAZR) was started at Baird with a Neutral rating and a $30 price target. A consensus target was not available. The last trade on Tuesday came in at $37.37, up over 6% on the day.

PagerDuty Inc. (NYSE: PD) saw its target price raised to $57 from $46 at Monness, Crespi & Hardt. That compares with a consensus target of $40. The shares closed at $46.66 on Tuesday.

Paysign Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYS) was downgraded from Buy to Hold with a $5 price target at Canaccord Genuity. That compares to the $6.33 consensus and Tuesday’s closing price of $4.91.

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) was started at Baird with a Buy rating and a $200 price target. The consensus target is $164.22. Tuesday’s last print was reported at $146.34.

Qualys Inc. (NASDAQ: QLYS) was downgraded from Outperform to Perform with a $125 price target at Northland Capital. The consensus target is $110.50. The shares closed Tuesday at $125.48, which is just shy of a 52 week high, so this is another likely valuation call.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) was started at MKM Partners with a Buy rating and a $57 price target. The consensus target for the integrated energy giant is $42.80. The last trade on Tuesday came in at $33.49.

Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) was started with a Neutral rating and a $245 price target at Baird. That compares to the $203.59 consensus target and Tuesday’s $241.58 close.

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE: TME) saw its target price raised to $21 from $17 at Needham, where the stock is the firm’s top pick for 2021. The analysts feel the company is leading the secular shifts in China’s online music industry from a pay-to-download model to a pay-to-stream model, similar to Spotify. The consensus price target is $18.47, and Tuesday’s close was at $18.88.

For investors looking to add stocks for a diversified portfolio, 11 top picks for 2021 from BofA Securities provide the ideal list to work from.

Tuesday’s top early analyst upgrades and downgrades included Chubb, Hyatt Hotels, Intuit, MercadoLibre, Pioneer Natural Resources, Skyworks, T-Mobile, Teladoc Health and ZoomInfo Technologies. The day’s later analyst calls focused on Biogen, Lockheed Martin, Peloton Interactive, Square and others.

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