Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. BARCLAYS BOOSTS ACTIVISION TO OVERWEIGHT: Barclays analyst Ryan Gee upgraded Activision Blizzard (ATVI) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised his price target for the shares to $86 from $79. The analyst said his positive view is based on upside potential for Call of Duty digital revenue in 2019 from battle royale, as well as optimism for incremental product announcements at BlizzCon "fueling positive revisions" to consensus 2019 earnings estimates. Activision is one of the premier content creators across the entire media landscape and is well positioned to capitalize on secular themes in console/mobile online gaming, Gee added. In late morning trading, Activision Blizzard shares were lower by over 4%. EVERCORE UPGRADES MCDONALD'S TO OUTPERFORM: Evercore ISI analyst Matt McGinley upgraded McDonald's (MCD) to Outperform from In Line given lowered expectations on comp, a pullback in valuation relative to last year, and due to the more defensive nature of the business model. For the industry, the analyst believes that economies of scale are of increasing importance amid labor inflation, remodel investment, and a higher promotional cadence. This will require greater sophistication to plan, execute, and evolve, and as a result, he expects to see more M&A and marginal capacity exit. LOOP CUTS TAPESTRY TO HOLD: Loop Capital analyst Laura Champine downgraded Tapestry (TPR), the company formerly known as Coach, to Hold from Buy and lowered her price target for the shares to $45 from $59. Tapestry's overall competitive positioning is less attractive into the holiday season, Champine believes. The analyst still expects the long-term cost synergies from the Kate Spade acquisition to be substantial, but she's concerned that "less-compelling fashion could yield disappointing holiday results." In late morning trading, Tapestry shares were lower by 2.3%. WEDBUSH UPGRADES LULULEMON TO OUTPERFORM: Wedbush analyst Jen Redding upgraded Lululemon (LULU) to Outperform from Neutral, with a $176 price target. The analyst said she has long viewed Lululemon as an "impressive" growth story, with a best-in-class retail leadership team at the helm, and continues to see the company's cutting-edge data analytics and technology platforms on the forefront of wins in the years to come. Redding also sees fundamentals as compelling, including a strong e-commerce segment with meaningful growth ahead, and promising international expansion opportunities. Insights across her suite of proprietary Wedbush Data Analytics Models give her confidence in her above consensus quarterly forecast. Redding attributes the recent pullback in share price as owing to a selloff in the market.
