Stocks were indicated up on Thursday ahead of Friday’s key unemployment and payrolls report, but the ADP payrolls report may have soured expectations. With the Dow now down about 500 points from the April 20 peak, investors have to decide whether they will keep buying the dips or start thinking about lightening up. Is “Sell in May and go away!” going to prevail with the S&P 500 valued at over 17.6 times forward earnings? This remains to be seen, but investors are still looking for safe havens and opportunities.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week in an effort to find new investing and trading ideas. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others cover stocks to sell or avoid.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday morning:

Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $39 price target (versus a $46.59 prior close) at Morgan Stanley. Oppenheimer has a Perform rating and asked if the optimism is overdone. The consensus analyst price target is $49.16. The 52-week trading range is $33.42 to $56.94.

Randgold Resources Ltd. (NASDAQ: GOLD) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Citigroup. The stock closed down 10.8% at $85.29 on Wednesday after earnings (with production down 11%). It has a consensus price target of $96.35 and a 52-week range of $54.88 to $101.60.

Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup. The stock closed down 2.47% at $50.22 in Wednesday’s trading in New York. The 52-week range is $35.80 to $64.36.

Sysco Corp. (NYSE: SYY) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $56 from $50 (versus a $48.52 close) at Argus. Credit Suisse maintained its Outperform rating and raised its target to $55 from $52. The consensus price target is $47.60, and the 52-week range is $35.45 to $48.99.

Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was down 4.2% at $222.56 going into earnings, but it was last seen indicated up 4% at $231.52 after the earnings reaction due to a forecast of higher and faster deliveries. Tesla was maintained as Outperform with a $385 price target, versus a prior $340 target, at Oppenheimer.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen in the following:
Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) was downgraded to Market Perform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.

Affiliated Managers Group Inc. (NYSE: AMG) was reiterated as Outperform at Credit Suisse with a $246 price target (versus a $162.45 close). They called the stock too cheap on earnings with an attractive M&A pipeline.

Aircastle Ltd. (NYSE: AYR) was downgraded to Hold from Buy with a $19 price target (versus a $21.07 close) at Deutsche Bank.

Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: ABX) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $21 from $18 at Argus.

Bruker Corp. (NASDAQ: BRKR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BTIG. Janney maintained its Neutral rating and raised its fair value from $26 to $28.

Catalent Inc. (NYSE: CTLT) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at William Blair.

China Lodging Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: HTHT) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $39 price target (versus a $35.67 close) at Goldman Sachs.

GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $28 price target (versus a $26.29 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LITE) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $28 price target (versus a $25.00 close) at JPMorgan.

Magellan Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: MMP) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel.

Marketo Inc. (NASDAQ: MKTO) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price objective was raised to $26 from $20 (versus a $21.06 close) at Merrill Lynch. The firm expects acceleration from here and said it is trading at about half of comparable takeout prices.

Masimo Corp. (NASDAQ: MASI) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $52 price target (versus a $42.44 close) at Piper Jaffray.

ONEOK Partners L.P. (NYSE: OKS) was raised to Neutral from Underperform with a $40 price target (versus a $37.35 close) at Credit Suisse.

Papa Murphy’s Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird. Jefferies downgraded it to Hold from Buy with a $10 price target.

Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: PKOH) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform with a $33 price target (versus a $25.55 close) at FBR Capital Markets.

Roadrunner Transportation Systems Inc. (NYSE: RRTS) was downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc Capital Markets. BB&T downgraded it to Underweight from Hold.

Scorpio Bulkers Inc. (NYSE: SALT) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $3.50 price target (versus a $3.86 close) at UBS.

Theravance Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: TBPH) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch, noting that the upside is already priced into the shares even though a PDUFA for a label update for Vibativ likely will be positive.

Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades included Anadarko Petroleum, Dollar General, Encana, FedEx, Teva Pharmaceutical, UBS and more than a dozen others.

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