Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
CITI UPGRADES SQUARE TO BUY: Citi analyst Peter Christiansen upgraded Square (SQ) to Buy from Neutral and raised his price target for the shares to $90 from $67. In addition to "robust" user acquisition spending, Square's planned ~35% headquarter expansion signals confidence in continued platform growth, Christiansen said. Further, he believes upcoming Q3 commentary on the overall health of the ecosystem, visibility into fiscal 2019, and progress on the CFO search "will be positive towards restoring momentum in the stock." The analyst added that he has no reason to believe Square's CFO departure relates to a negative change in the company's forward prospects. After a deeper look into Square's investment spending/payback model, Christiansen lifted his 2019 adjusted revenue estimate by 8%, or 9 points above consensus expectations for 42% growth. In late morning trading, Square was higher by 2.5%.
BARCLAYS CUTS NEW YORK TIMES TO UNDERWEIGHT: Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar downgraded New York Times (NYT) to Underweight from Equal Weight and lowered his price target for the shares to $18 from $20. The stock is up 50% this year, right between Amazon's (AMZN) 40% rally and Netflix's (NFLX) 64%, Venkateshwar noted. New York Times investors appear to have transitioned to a valuation framework based on digital net adds rather than earnings, added the analyst. However, he believes this valuation transition "is too premature and could force suboptimal choices on management." Venkateshwar said the valuation is "ahead of the story." In late morning trading, New York Times shares were down almost 5%.
JPMORGAN CUTS AMAG TO UNDERWEIGHT: JPMorgan analyst Jessica Fye downgraded Amag Pharmaceuticals (AMAG) to Underweight from Neutral and lowered her price target for the shares to $18 from $20. The analyst sees "uncertainties across multiple product lines" that she believes will lead the stock to underperform following Amag's Q3 results and preliminary negative 2019 profit view. Supply issues add a wrinkle in the Makena outlook, Fye believes. The analyst admitted, however, that the company's ultimate 2019 financial results "may not be quite as bad as feared" and that the stock is "fairly washed out." Nonetheless, Fye views Amag as a "show me" story with 2019 set up as an investment year.
LONGBOW UPGRADES SHAKE SHACK TO BUY: Longbow analyst Alton Stump upgraded Shake Shack (SHAK) to Buy from Neutral, stating that while the sharp negative reaction to Shake Shack's comp miss in Q3 was not surprising, he sees nothing wrong fundamentally with the business model that led to the "modest" sequential deceleration in comps last quarter. Stump, who is confident Shake Shack's same-store sales profile can return to at least low-single digit growth over the next year, set a $60 price target on the shares. In late morning trading, Shake Shack shares were higher by over 2.5%.
BOFA UPGRADES MYLAN TO BUY: BofA Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Gerberry upgraded Mylan (MYL) to Buy from Neutral, stating that its Q3 report provided encouraging updates regarding several of its business segments. He believes concerns around its broader portfolio look overdone as industry-level generic pricing is showing signs of stabilizing while the company also provided encouraging new product updates. Gerberry added that he views the 20% stock pullback as an attractive opportunity, but trimmed his price target on Mylan shares to $42 from $44 to reflect rebasing of EpiPen and generic Copaxone. In late morning trading, Mylan was trading higher by over 14%.
Block
+1.91 (+2.55%)
New York Times
-1.5 (-5.36%)
Amazon.com
+20.47 (+1.26%)
Netflix
-3.85 (-1.22%)
Amag Pharmaceuticals
-0.22 (-1.20%)
Shake Shack
+1.52 (+3.20%)
Symbol now VTRS
+4.24 (+13.52%)