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Stocks were indicated higher on Wednesday after two days of weaker opening indications. Still, the ultimate 155-point rally in the Dow Jones industrial average to 24,065 on Tuesday now made for more than a 1,400-point recovery since the lows seen on the second trading day of 2019. Investors have noticed that the longstanding prior trend of buying the dips generally has been followed by less upside or additional losses. This and the added volatility at the end of 2018 have made some investors less comfortable about how to position their assets for 2019 and beyond.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day of the week. Our goal is to find new ideas for investors and traders alike. Some of these analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while others 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 Wednesday, January 16, 2019.

Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) was started as Underweight and assigned a $29 price target (versus a $31.75 prior close) at Barclays. The stock has a 52-week range of $24.56 to $50.03 and a consensus target price of $39.17.

Callon Petroleum Co. (NYSE: CPE) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays.

Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE: XEC) was started as Equal Weight with an $81 price target (versus a $73.32 close) at Barclays.

Caesars Entertainment Corp. (NASDAQ: CZR) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $9 price objective (versus an $8.75 close) at Merrill Lynch.

Columbia Sportswear Co. (NASDAQ: COLM) was reiterated as Outperform with a $104 price target (versus an $82.73 close) at Wedbush Securities. The firm noted that several drivers are poised to deliver upside and that the stock remains attractive heading into earnings in early February.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) was started with an Equal Weight rating and a $49 price target at Morgan Stanley, just a day after UBS started Dell as Neutral.

Devon Energy Corp. (NYSE: DVN) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight and its target price was lowered to $33 from $42 (versus a $26.40 close) at Barclays. The consensus target price is $38.06, and the 52-week trading range is $20.37 to $46.54.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $15 target price (versus a $14.44 prior close) at Morgan Stanley.

Incyte Corp. (NASDAQ: INCY) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with an $82 price target (versus a $78.76 close, after a 7.1% gain) at UBS. The stock was indicated down over 1% on Wednesday, and its consensus target price was $83.56. The 52-week trading range is $57.00 to $96.44.

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) was downgraded to Underweight from Equal Weight with a $58 target price (versus a $62.46 close, after a 2% gain) at Morgan Stanley. The shares had a consensus target price of $84.75, and they were indicated down about 3% on Wednesday after the call.

Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) was last seen down almost 9% at $43.00 after reporting disappointing holiday sales at its key stores. Goldman Sachs downgraded it to Neutral from Buy. Telsey Advisory Group lowered its rating to Market Perform from Outperform, and Atlantic Equities lowered its rating to Neutral from Overweight. The old consensus analyst target was $59.00, but Nordstrom had a 52-week trading range of $43.70 to $67.75 coming into Wednesday’s newer lows.

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