24/7 Wall St.

Stocks were indicated to open lower on Monday after weekend news that sounds like a China trade deal is not on the way very soon. Investors have been forced to see numerous waves of selling in 2018, and there has also been lower upside after buying immediately after the big market selloffs versus prior years. Now is the time for investors to start considering how they want their investments and assets positioned for 2019.

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

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

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Monday, November 19, 2018.

Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE: ALK) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $81 price target (versus $67.99 close) at Credit Suisse. The firm also named Alaska Air as its top pick in the airline sector.

American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) was started as Neutral and was assigned a $41 price target (versus $36.75 close) at Credit Suisse.

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE: AMH) was downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James.

AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Investec.

BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at CIBC World Markets, after news that it is acquiring Cylance to get deeper into cybersecurity . BlackBerry was up 1.2% at $8.97 on Friday and was indicated up 2% at $9.15 on Monday, and it has a 52-week range of $8.63 to $14.55.

Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE: BIG) was raised to Overweight from Neutral and the price target was raised to $53 from $43 (versus $41.53 close) at Piper Jaffray.

The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE: SCHW) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE: DAL) was started as Outperform and was assigned a $71 price target (versus $55.90 close) at Credit Suisse.

Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup.

Edison International (NYSE: EIX) was raised to Buy from Neutral but the price target was lowered down to $59 from $72 (versus $54.45 close) at Citigroup.

Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE: HP) was raised to Neutral from Underperform and the price target was raised to $65 from $63 at Credit Suisse, with the firm seeing the company’s demand and profitability all moving in the right direction.

Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ICPT) was raised to Outperform from Perform with a $140 price target (versus $102.70 close) at Oppenheimer.

JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ: JBLU) was started as Underperform and was assigned a $16 price target (versus $18.03 close) at Credit Suisse.

Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE: MNK) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $40 from $34 (versus $30.86 close) at Canaccord Genuity.

Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs, but the company was also added to the prized Conviction Buy list.

PG&E Corporation (NYSE: PCG) was raised to Buy from Neutral but the target price was cut to $40 from $48 at Citigroup. PG&E shares were up 37% at $24.40 on Friday after news that regulators did not want PG&E to go bankrupt even if it did have a role in the record wild fires in California.

PJY Partners Inc. (NYSE: PJT) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price objective was raised to $55 from $53 at BofA Merrill Lynch.

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.

The Progressive Corporation (NYSE: PGR) was raised to Neutral from Underperform at Buckingham Research.

ProPetro Holding Corp. (NYSE: PUMP) was started with a Buy rating with a $25 price target (versus $18.88 close) at Citigroup.

Puma Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBYI) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

RingCentral, Inc. (NYSE: RNG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral with a $100 price target (versus $76.40 close) at Robert W. Baird. RingCentral had a consensus analyst target price of $95.60 and it has a 52-week range of $43.85 to $98.15.

Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI) was downgraded to Underweight from Overweight at Barclays.

Roche Holding A (RHHBY) was maintained as Buy but was removed from the prized Conviction Buy list at Goldman Sachs.

Select Energy Services, Inc. (NYSE: WTTR) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $15 price target (versus $9.84 close) at Citigroup.

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) was started as Neutral and was assigned a $54 price target (versus $52.58 close) at Credit Suisse.

Spirit Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: SAVE) was started as Neutral and was assigned a $59 price target (versus $52.44 close) at Credit Suisse.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (NASDAQ: AMTD) was raised to Buy from Neutral at UBS.

Yeti Holdings Inc. (NYSE: YETI) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $22 price target (versus $17.02 close) at BofA Merrill Lynch.

Canaccord Genuity added many biotech catalysts to watch for the rest of 2018.

Friday’s top analyst calls were in shares of Goldcorp, Home Depot, J.C. Penney, NVIDIA, PG&E, Qualcomm, Target, Taiwan Semi, Weatherford, Yamana Gold and many more companies.