Stocks were looking for direction on Wednesday with a fairly light day on economic data. Investors have had less faith and have seen lower rewards from buying the dips than in prior years. Many of those same investors have also been concerned about how they want their investments positioned ahead of the midterm elections, into international trade concerns and also for the longer term, into 2019 and beyond.

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

Additional commentary has been added on most of the daily analyst reports, along with trading history. The consensus analyst price targets and other valuation metrics are from the Thomson Reuters sell-side research service.

These were the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and other research calls from Wednesday, July 18, 2018.

Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) was raised to Hold from Underperform but the price target was cut to $1.50 from $2.00 (versus a $1.44 prior close) at Jefferies. Avon products shares were indicated up over 2% at $1.47 on Wednesday morning. For a reference on how weak this stock has been, note that Avon’s 52-week trading range is $1.43 to $3.80, and that 52-week low is from this week.

Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) was raised to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets.

BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE: BWA) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and the target price was trimmed to $56 from $57 at Wells Fargo.

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the price target was cut to $220 from $300 at Goldman Sachs. Shares closed up 2.5% at $208.31 on Tuesday but were indicated down 0.7% at $206.90 on Wednesday. The 52-week range is $197.46 to $285.68.

CDW Corp. (NASDAQ: CDW) was raised to Market Perform from Underperform at Raymond James. The stock closed up 1.5% at $86.18 on Tuesday, and it has a 52-week range of $58.57 to $86.56.

CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CF) was raised to Sector Perform from Underperform and the price target was raised to $42 from $38 at RBC Capital Markets.

Columbia Sportswear Co. (NASDAQ: COLM) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform but the target was lifted to $84 from $81 (versus a $93.76 close) at FBR.

CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) was up 0.7% at $64.44 ahead of earnings, but the shares were indicated up almost 4% at $67.00 on Wednesday morning. CSX has seen multiple analysts raise their target prices: Stifel to $78 from $74, RBC to $75 from $71, BMO to $72 from $67, Credit Suisse to $78 from $76 and Raymond James to $75 from $70.

Extra Space Storage Inc. (NYSE: EXR) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Robert W. Baird.

Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE: FPI) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James. After closing up 2.3% at $6.24, the stock was indicated up 4.3% at $6.51 a share on Wednesday morning.

First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy and the target was cut to $19 from $23 (after closing down 4% at $17.18) at UBS. Raymond James also downgraded it to Outperform from Strong Buy.

Follow @Jonogg on Twitter to receive the daily analyst calls and other market research calls directly on your feed.