24/7 Wall St.

Stocks are trying to rally again on Wednesday after challenging a new high on the S&P 500. Meanwhile, many investors still want to protect themselves against the next major sell-off but they also want upside from the market. 24/7 Wall St. looks over dozens of Wall Street analyst research reports each morning for new ideas. Some are stocks to buy and some are stocks to sell. These are this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall Street research firms.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) was started as Outperform at Keefe Bruyette Woods.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy with a $610 price target at Argus on the new CFO news.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) was reiterated as Neutral, but the earnings estimates were cut, due to lower capital markets trading activity, at Credit Suisse.

Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Lamar Advertising Co. (NASDAQ: LAMR) was downgraded to Neutral and removed from the prized Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) was raised to Neutral from Sell at MKM Partners.

Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.

Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SWHC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Cowen and Co.

Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at B. Riley.

TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at J.P. Morgan.