Stocks were indicated to open stronger on Thursday after a mixed index showing on Wednesday. The major U.S. equity indexes remain near all-time highs, while most international markets are not. One issue that stands out is that investors have seen less upside from buying on market pullbacks than in prior years. Investors also need to consider how they want to have their investments positioned for the rest of 2018.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some analyst reports cover stocks to buy, but 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 are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Thursday, September 13, 2018.

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: ALDX) was started as Buy and assigned a $21 fair value estimate (versus an $8.00 prior close) at Janney. The firm likes its novel platform targeting inflammation with multiple upcoming catalysts, noting that Aldeyra is developing novel therapies to treat immune-mediated diseases and that its lead platform is designed to sequester reactive aldehyde species.

American Superconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: AMSC) was started with a Buy rating and assigned an $11 price target (versus a $6.00 close) at Craig-Hallum. Shares have traded in a 52-week range of $3.06 to $8.03, and they previously had an $8.17 consensus target price.

Aquestive Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: AQST) was started with an Outperform rating and assigned a $33 target price (versus an $18.23 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm considers Aquestive to be an opportunity to invest in proprietary PharmFilm technology that is being leveraged to develop a pipeline of 10 drugs and candidates and as an oral alternative in patients having difficulty swallowing pills or only having invasive options like injections.

Cara Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CARA) was started as Buy and assigned a $30 target price (versus a $20.86 close) at Jefferies.

Cerner Corp. (NASDAQ: CERN) was started with an Equal Weight rating at Barclays.

Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNCE) was started as Neutral with a $17 fair value estimate (versus a $14.07 close) at Janney.

CytomX Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTMX) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $32 price target (versus an $18.98 close, after a 5% drop) at H.C. Wainwright. The 52-week range is $16.26 to $35.00, and the previous consensus target price was $39.33.

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: DRNA) was started with a Buy rating and assigned a $27 price target (versus a $15.43 close, after a 4.4% drop) at Citigroup. It was last seen up over 2% at $15.80 on Thursday.

Four Seasons Education Inc. (NYSE: FEDU) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $4 price target (versus a $4.30 close) at Citigroup.

Galapagos N.V. (NASDAQ: GLPG) was started with an Overweight rating at JPMorgan.

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