24/7 Wall St.

Stocks were indicated lower, with Dow futures down almost 100 points, early on Friday. Before panicking, think about how many days the markets have risen to higher and higher all-time highs. The Dow is now close to 21,000, and the bull market is within days of being eight years old. Investors have bought after every single sell-off for about five years now, and they are looking for new ideas and overlooked opportunities.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Some color has been added on many of the following calls, and the consensus analyst price targets referenced are from Thomson Reuters. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Friday, February 24, 2017:

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was reiterated as Underperform but the price target was cut to $60 from $66 (versus a 3.5% drop to a $52.98 close) at Merrill Lynch. The firm’s call is on a confirmed pivot to gas diluting its growth with capital spending focused in the Permian. Apache has a 52-week trading range of $36.26 to $69.00 and a consensus analyst price target of $65.47.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) traded down almost 3% to $5.75 on Thursday, and on Friday it was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS. Chesapeake has a 52-week range of $2.53 to $8.20 and a consensus price target of $7.61.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was downgraded to Sell from Hold at Berenberg, although the firm raised its price target to $190 from $140 in the call. What matters here, despite the call having so low a target (Thursday’s close was $251.19) is that Berenberg had the lowest price target on all of Wall Street. Goldman Sachs has a 52-week range of $138.20 to $252.65, and its consensus price target is $247.88.

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse, and the firm raised its target to $140 from $109 (versus a $120.70 close). The take is that a slow start to tax season is not enough to get in the way of a solid story with growth coming from small businesses and expanded partnerships with financial institutions.

Yum China Holdings Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $31.50 price target (versus a $26.77 closing price) at Deutsche Bank.

Follow @Jonogg on Twitter to get analyst calls and research summaries posted directly to your feed.

One analyst sees four oil takeover targets now that the prices have stabilized.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Air Transport Services Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ATSG) was started with an In-Line rating and was assigned an $18 price target (versus a $17.35 close) at Imperial Capital.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was reiterated as Buy with a $207 price objective (versus a $184.64 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Energen Corp. (NYSE: EGN) was Raised to Buy from Hold at Argus.

Fresenius Medical Care A.G. (NYSE: FMS) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Societe Generale.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) was downgraded to Hold from Buy but the prior $36.60 price target was raised to $38 at Jefferies.

Helmerich & Payne Inc. (NYSE: HP) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $79 price objective at Merrill Lynch.

Jack in the Box Inc. (NASDAQ: JACK) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform and the price target was cut to $100 from $125 at Cowen.

Kforce Inc. (NASDAQ: KFRC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Methanex Corp. (NASDAQ: MEOH) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the price target was raised to $60 from $53 at Raymond James.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings (NYSE: SC) was reiterated as Buy after the analyst day, and the price target was raised to $18 from $15 (versus a $14.45 close), at Jefferies. The firm sees its credit stabilization as a focus with capital returns on the horizon.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. (NYSE: THC) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $22 from $13 (versus a $20.79 close) at Mizuho.

Terex Corp. (NYSE: TEX) was reinstated as Outperform with a $38 price target (versus a $29.91 close) at Credit Suisse.

Wayfair Inc. (NYSE: W) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James. Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating but lowered the price target to $38 from $40. Wayfair closed down 6.5% at $38.58 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $27.60 to $49.34, and it has a consensus target price of $41.27.

Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $15 price target (versus $13.44 close) at JPMorgan.

This is for those of you who love buying gold and also for those who hate gold as an investment: Gold is at a critical chart point and it soon could see a huge move in either direction.

Thursday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Home Depot, IBM, Mobileye, Monsanto, NVIDIA, ONEOK, Square, Unilever and many more.