Tesla downgraded, Disney upgraded: 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:
Barclays upgraded Disney (DIS) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $135, up from $95. The recent "narrative reset" is likely to be followed by positive estimate revisions, which is still early in the cycle and should further support the stock's valuation, the firm tells investors in a research note.
Evercore ISI upgraded Foot Locker (FL) to Outperform from In Line with a price target of $32, up from $28. The firm cites meetings with Foot Locker's management team last week, its own channel checks from across the U.S. and Europe athletic specialty channel, and comments from the brands, especially Nike (NKE), that suggest there will be "the most significant investment behind the specialty athletic retail channel that we've seen in years."
Argus upgraded Labcorp (LH) to Buy from Hold with a $250 price target. The firm cites the company's expectations for stronger top-line growth in 2024 and margin expansion, driven by demand for Base Business testing and for central lab services to support biopharma clinical trials.
Wells Fargo upgraded GoodRx (GDRX) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $10, up from $7.50. The firm believes the company's 2024 guidance has good visibility with upside potential to both estimates and valuation multiples.
Wells Fargo upgraded Masimo (MASI) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $160, up from $117. The firm views the company's announcement that it is exploring strategic options to separate its consumer business as a positive catalyst for the shares.
Top 5 Downgrades:
Mizuho downgraded Tesla (TSLA) to Neutral from Buy with a $195 price target. The firm remains constructive on the broader electric vehicle landscape with the long-term trend to electrification, but says near-term electric vehicle demand and tightening liquidity are creating challenges into 2025. Mizuho also downgraded Rivian (RIVN) and Nio (NIO) to Neutral from Buy, citing slowing demand and increasing inventory.
Raymond James downgraded Dave & Buster's (PLAY) to Market Perform from Outperform ahead of the Q4 earnings release on April 2. The firm sees a more balanced risk/reward following the stock's string recent gains as industry comps remain sluggish entering an important phase for the story.
Raymond James double downgraded Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG) to Market Perform from Strong Buy without a price target. The firm believes the shares at trading at fair value and cites valuation for the downgrade.
Truist downgraded Kinder Morgan (KMI) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $20, down from $22. The company's leading natural gas operations historically have caused the stock to trade at a premium but peers have done a good job of closing the gap, resulting in what could be a lesser premium going forward, the firm tells investors in a research note.
BofA downgraded BigCommerce (BIGC) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $7.50, down from $11. The firm sees few catalysts to drive shares higher over the medium term.
Top 5 Initiations:
JPMorgan initiated coverage of Supermicro (SMCI) with an Overweight rating and $1,150 price target. Supermicro is the leading company in the AI compute market, which is "burgeoning with demand" stemming from training AI models, retrieval-augmented generation and eventually AI inferencing workloads, the firm tells investors in a research note.
Northland initiated coverage of Astera Labs (ALAB) with an Outperform rating and $85 price target. AI is pushing the limits of processing, memory, and bandwidth and Astera address one of these three vectors that drive compute performance, bandwidth, with a software-defined IC architecture that addresses traditional connectivity solutions' limitations, the firm tells investors.
Phillip Securities initiated coverage of Wells Fargo (WFC) with an Accumulate rating and $60.83 price target. Peak interest rates will boost the bank's funding costs, as loan and security repricing is set to overtake deposit repricing, the firm tells investors in a research note. Phillip Securities also started coverage of JPMorgan (JPM) with a Buy rating and Bank of America (BAC) with an Accumulate.
Evercore ISI initiated coverage of Motorola Solutions (MSI) with an Outperform rating and $400 price target. Motorola Solutions is well-positioned to sustain high single digit top-line growth and mid-teens EPS growth over the next several years and "do so with limited volatility and high consistency," the firm tells investors.
RBC Capital initiated coverage of Kinetik Holdings (KNTK) with an Outperform rating and $40 price target. The firm expects the company to continue to gain share given its high-quality assets and pipeline connectivity.
