24/7 Wall St.

Stocks were simply looking for direction on Wednesday after solid gains on Tuesday. Investors keep proving that they will still buy stocks after any real weakness. Investors also have continued to demonstrate that they are looking for new ideas to generate income or gains ahead.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some analyst research reports cover stocks to buy, and some reports feature stocks to sell or avoid.

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

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) was transferred in coverage and reinitiated as Underperform at Merrill Lynch. The firm also set its new price objective at $14 (versus a $16 prior objective and a $16.24 prior close). The shares have a 52-week trading range of $16.09 to $32.83 and a consensus analyst price target of $20.44.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral with a $700 price target (versus a $811.95 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm is concerned about an increasing use of ad blockers, payment platforms and mobile search monetization. The stock was up 1% at $810.73 on Tuesday but indicated down 0.7% at $805.00 early Wednesday.

Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) was downgraded to Hold from Buy and the price target was lowered to $201 from $219 (versus a $190.83 close) at Deutsche Bank. Shares were up 1% at $190.83 on Tuesday but indicated down 2% at $186.98 on Wednesday.

Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) was raised to Outperform from Neutral and the price target was raised to $70 from $63 (versus a $58.21 close) at Credit Suisse. The 52-week range is $54.37 to $94.12, and the consensus price target is $60.20.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Brean Capital. Credit Suisse sees a reason for more caution and lowered its price target to $60 from $63. Merrill Lynch maintained its Neutral rating with a $55 price objective, looking for limited upside. Nike was up 1.7% at $55.34 ahead of earnings, but it was indicated down 2.3% at $54.08 on Wednesday morning.

Workday Inc. (NYSE: WDAY) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $82 from $69 at Wedbush Securities. The firm sees investor satisfaction with inline results. The stock closed up 1.6% at $89.79 on Tuesday and was indicated up 0.2% at $89.99 on Wednesday.

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Other key analyst upgrades and downgrades were seen as follows:

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHKP) was started as Overweight and was assigned a $95 price target (versus a $76.30 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Hi-Crush Partners L.P. (NYSE: HCLP) was raised to Neutral from Sell and the price target was raised to $15 from $9.00 (versus a $14.46 close) at UBS.

Kraft Heinz Co. (NASDAQ: KHC) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $96 from $91 (versus an $89.23 close) at Argus.

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse, favoring Dillard’s (see above) as the shift to execution phase could lead to underperformance.

PennyMac Financial Services Inc. (NYSE: PFSI) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch.

Shopify Inc. (NYSE: SHOP) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $47 price target (versus a $43.87 close) at Morgan Stanley.

Signature Bank (NASDAQ: SBNY) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight but the price target was cut to $139 from $150 (versus a $115.96 close) at Barclays.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) was reiterated as Outperform at Wedbush Securities, but the firm lowered its price target to $65 from $70, based on 31 times its lowered 2017 EPS target.

Taubman Centers Inc. (NYSE: TCO) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $87 from $79 (versus a $75.50 close) at Goldman Sachs.

Tempur Sealy International Inc. (NYSE: TPX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Longbow Research.

Merrill Lynch has four top tech dividend picks for the fourth quarter.

Analysts have six biotech picks for 50% to 150% upside.

Tuesday’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in CBOE, Comcast, GW Pharmaceuticals, Hormel Foods, Vonage, Wells Fargo and a dozen more.