Target upgraded, Beyond Meat downgraded: Wall Street's top analyst calls
The most talked about and market moving research calls around Wall Street are now in one place. Here are today's research calls that investors need to know, as compiled by The Fly.
Top 5 Upgrades:
BofA upgraded Target (TGT) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $135, up from $120. The stock's risk/reward is improved following the recent pullback, the firm tells investors in a research note.
Barclays upgraded First Solar (FSLR) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $224, down from $230. In an environment where there is uncertainty around the trajectory of utility-scale growth, First Solar's contracted backlog, domestic content advantages and current valuation "offers an attractive entry point," the firm argues.
Truist upgraded Exxon Mobil (XOM) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $131, up from $100, citing longer term benefits from the company's acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD).
BTIG upgraded Warby Parker (WRBY) to Buy from Neutral with a $17 price target. The firm's survey work shows "significant untapped opportunity" for Warby Parker.
Bernstein upgraded Clorox (CLX) to Market Perform from Underperform with an unchanged price target of $120. The firm thinks the risk/reward for the group looks less negative than it has over most of the past few years. Bernstein also upgraded Kimberly-Clark (KMB) to Market Perform from Underperform with a price target of $118, down from $125.
Top 5 Downgrades:
Mizuho downgraded Beyond Meat (BYND) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $5, down from $12, citing category pressure, cash burn and risk to estimates.
Goldman Sachs downgraded Jack Henry (JKHY) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $140, down from $165, implying 6% downside. The downgrade is predicated on higher costs related the company's ongoing transition to the cloud combined with headwinds from recent tax changes, both of which will weigh on free cash flow conversion for the next several years.
RBC Capital downgraded ResMed (RMD) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $202, down from $273. RBC cites minimal earnings growth expected over the next few years, financials that are likely to disappoint consensus numbers and GLP-1 fears that are unlikely to be countered in the short term for the downgrade.
Exane BNP Paribas downgraded Carvana (CVNA) to Neutral from Outperform with a $37 price target, citing reduced confidence in unit growth.
JPMorgan downgraded Welltower (WELL) to Neutral from Overweight with an unchanged price target of $90. The downgrade reflects a "stock call" given Welltower's valuation premium.
Top 5 Initiations:
BofA initiated coverage of Snowflake (SNOW) with a Neutral rating and $195 price target. While BofA feels Snowflake is well-positioned to capture further share of the $132B data management market, Snowflake's pay-as-you-go and consumption pricing model is facing headwinds that are still weighing on growth in the company's core data warehouse business.
Seaport Research initiated coverage of Shopify (SHOP) with a Buy rating and $64 price target. The firm also started Bill (BILL) with a Buy rating and $144 price target, Flywire (FLYW) with a Buy rating and $40 target, Global Payments (GPN) with a Buy and $140 target, and Mastercard (MA) with a Buy and $465 target. Additionally, Seaport initiated Block (SQ), FIS (FIS), Fiserv (FI), PayPal (PYPL) and Visa (V), all with Neutral ratings and no price targets.
BofA initiated coverage of MongoDB (MDB) with a Buy rating and $450 price target. The firm sees MongoDB being positioned to capture share from market leaders, such as Amazon's (AMZN) Dynamo DB and Microsoft's (MSFT) MSSQL and Cosmos DB.
UBS initiated coverage of Monday.com (MNDY) with a Neutral rating and $175 price target. The shares seem cheap on revenue, but not necessarily on free cash flow when embedding prudence for competitive risks, the firm tells investors in a research note.
UBS initiated coverage of Genuine Parts (GPC) with a Neutral rating and $160 price target. The firm believes Genuine Parts has strong positioning in each of its primary business segments, but thinks the stock probably maintains its recent level for the near-term.
