Planet Fitness upgrade, Lyft downgrade and Farfetch initiation among today's top calls on Wall Street Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to learn which companies the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.
Research analysts at Wall Street's largest banks issue recommendations on whether a stock should be bought, held, or sold. The Fly's team of financial market experts scours hundreds of research notes daily to uncover the best trading ideas. Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
Top 5 Upgrades:
- Raymond James analyst Joseph Altobello double upgraded Planet Fitness (PLNT) to Strong Buy from Market Perform with a $70 price target. Altobello's bullish stance on the shares reflects the company's "highly resilient" business model and value gym positioning, ample store growth opportunity, and an attractive valuation, the analyst told investors in a research note.
- BofA analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith upgraded Ameresco (AMRC) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $73, down from $74, arguing that the company's earnings momentum is "underappreciated."
- Loop Capital analyst Fahad Najam upgraded Adtran (ADTN) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $26, up from $21. The 30% decline in the stock price since Labor Day has presented a "compelling" entry point as Adtran is a "very well managed company" that is serving a "very attractive" end market, the analyst told investors in a research note.
- Needham analyst Ryan MacDonald upgraded Chegg (CHGG) to Buy from Hold with a $28 price target. Based on his analysis of Chegg's third quarter and full year 2022 guidance assumptions, as well as his own forecast for Fall 2022 enrollment outlook, MacDonald believes that the company is positioned well to report upside to "conservative" expectations.
- Berenberg analyst James Targett upgraded Unilever (UL) to Buy from Hold with a price target of 4,800 GBp, up from 4,000. The company is positioned for organic growth at the upper end of its 3%-5% mid-term guidance, Targett argued.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- UBS analyst Lloyd Walmsley downgraded Lyft (LYFT) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $16, down from $50. According to UBS data from drivers who "multi-app," Uber (UBER) has much greater share of the market, its onboarding process is faster, and drivers have more earnings opportunities, the analyst noted, adding that Lyft's Driver app usage has leveled off at a much lower levels versus Uber's app.
- KeyBanc analyst Matthew Mishan downgraded Sotera Health (SHC) to Sector Weight from Overweight without a price target. The unfavorable verdict in the company's first personal injury lawsuit in Illinois "makes it too difficult to put a reasonable range on an overall liability without it being just a guess," Mishan told investors in a research note.
- Jefferies analyst Edward Mundy downgraded AB InBev (BUD) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $54, down from $68. The analyst notes that while beer stocks look cheap, are resilient in an economic slowdown and less well-owned than other staples, AB InBev is "not as cheap as it looks."
- SMBC Nikko analyst Andrew Bauch downgraded Paymentus (PAY) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $13, down from $23. The biggest development in the "underwhelming" second quarter print was the delay of two large client go-lives planned for the third quarter, being ultimately pushed to "some point in 2023," Bauch told investors in a research note. The analyst also downgraded dLocal (DLO) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $22, down from $28.
- UBS analyst Colin Bristow downgraded Immunovant (IMVT) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $5, down from $7. The analyst sees no major clinical catalysts or updaters until the second half of 2023.
Top 5 Initiations:
- Citi analyst Guido Lucarelli initiated coverage of Farfetch (FTCH) with a Sell rating and $6 price target. The analyst argued that while Farfetch has "best-in-class technology," it is difficult to see a clear path to profitability.
- Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal initiated coverage of Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX) with an Equal Weight rating and $110 price target. The analyst sees a "good amount of growth ahead" for Ingrezza, which he says could potentially more than double to $3.2B peak risk-adjusted sales, but believes the current stock price adequately accounts for this growth.
- Credit Suisse analyst Andrew Kligerman initiated coverage of Willis Towers Watson (WTW) with an Outperform rating and $288 price target. The analyst thinks shares are undervalued, considering where they trade compared to brokerage peers and consulting peers.
- Wells Fargo analyst Mohit Bansal initiated coverage of Cerevel Therapeutics (CERE) with an Overweight rating and $38 price target. Noting that Cerevel is neuro-focused, with multiple assets in mid- to late-stage development, each of which could have blockbuster potential, the analyst highlights that most of the focus is on emraclidine in schizophrenia, due to Karuna Therapeutics' (KRTX) recent success.
- ThinkEquity analyst Ashok Kumar initiated coverage of Society Pass (SOPA) with a Buy rating and $6 price target. The analyst believes the company has built a "sophisticated" technology platform in four years and on-boarded over 3.3M registered consumers.
Symbols:
SHC BUD PLNT AMRC ADTN CHGG UL LYFT PAY UBER DLO IMVT FTCH NBIX - $103.63 /
+0.025 (+0.02%)
WTW - $202.08 /
+1.755 (+0.88%)
CERE SOPA Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street