Stocks tried to stabilize on Monday, and Tuesday’s early indications were for Dow and S&P 500 futures to be up almost 1%. Last week’s sell-off may have been the worst opening week for stocks in living memory, but investors have bought every market pullback for over four years now — and the Dow and S&P 500 were both already challenging the formal 10% correction mark.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. The aim is to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. Some of the daily analyst reports cover stocks to buy, and other reports cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are this Tuesday’s top analyst calls.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $130 price objective (versus a $98.53 prior close) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The firm said that its checks in China show that iPhone demand is strong and that Apple is poised to gain its market share. Apple’s consensus analyst price target has drifted lower to under $143. and it has a 52-week trading range of $92.00 to $134.54.

BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight at Barclays. Jefferies maintained BHP as Buy but it lowered its U.S. equivalent target to $24 from $35 (versus a $21.40 close). BHP has a 52-week range of $21.08 to $52.98.

CA Inc. (NASDAQ: CA) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $33 price target (versus a $26.20 close) at Barclays. The consensus price target is $29.59. and the 52-week range is $25.16 to $33.42.

CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $60 price target (versus a $46.99 close) at Oppenheimer. The consensus price target is $65.27. The 52-week range is $46.18 to $75.40.

Dean Foods Co. (NYSE: DF) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight at Stephens. Shares closed most recently at $17.44. The stock has a consensus target of $20.10 and a 52-week range of $14.56 to $19.74.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was slashed to $5.00 from $17.00 at Jefferies. Shares fell 20% to $4.31 on Monday and were indicated up about 2% at $4.41 early Tuesday. The 52-week range is now $4.23 to $23.97.

Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM) was raised to Buy from Hold with a $24 price target (versus a $17.01 close) at Jefferies. Its consensus analyst target price is $23.18, and it has a 52-week range of $15.39 to $27.90.

Shire PLC (NASDAQ: SHPG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse. Shire closed down 8.9% at $169.37 but was last indicated up over 5% to $178.75. Shire has a consensus price target of $268.67 and a 52-week range of $166.66 to $270.63.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform with a $60 price target (versus a $50.09 close) at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Goldman Sachs just raised Wells Fargo to Buy on Monday.

Other key analysts upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Tuesday were in the following:
AvalonBay Communities Inc. (NYSE: AVB) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Cowen.

DHT Holdings Inc. (NYSE: DHT) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight and the price target was cut to $9 from $11 (versus a $6.65 close) at JPMorgan.

Digital Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: DLR) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $88.00 from $76.00 at Jefferies.

Evercore Partners Inc. (NYSE: EVR) was already rated as Buy but was added to the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.

HCP Inc. (NYSE: HCP) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold and the price target was cut to $30 from $39 at Jefferies.

Mueller Water Products Inc. (NYSE: MWA) was started as Buy with a $10 fair value estimate (versus an $8.00 close) at Janney Capital Markets.

NGL Energy Partners L.P. (NYSE: NGL) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (NYSE: PXD) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets.

Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. (NYSE: BIN) was downgraded to In-Line from Outperform at Imperial Capital.

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. (NYSE: PB) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a price objective of $44 at Merrill Lynch. While this is a bank, the downgrade is tied to a fallout from its oil business and regional exposure.

Sangamo BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) was reiterated as Buy with a $15.00 fair value estimate (versus a $6.42 close) at Janney Capital Markets.

Synergy Resources Corp. (NYSEMKT: SYRG) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Stephens.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: AMTD) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Citigroup.

Teekay Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: TNK) was downgraded to Underweight from Overweight and the price target was cut to $7 from $10 (versus a $5.29 close) at JPMorgan.

Western Gas Partners L.P. (NYSE: WES) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price objective was slashed to $47 from $74 at Merrill Lynch.

If you missed Monday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades, they included Banco Santander, Box, General Motors, Illumina, JPMorgan, Noble and over a dozen more companies.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.