Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. GOLDMAN CUTS MICRON TO NEUTRAL: Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney downgraded Micron Technology (MU) to Neutral from Buy and lowered his price target for the shares to $50 from $68. The analyst, who is not making a call on the upcoming fiscal Q4 results on September 20, sees weaker fundamentals for DRAM and NAND in calendar Q4 and the first half of 2019. Delaney expects Micron's gross margin to decline sequentially from Q4 of 2018 through mid-2019, and he notes that the stock is historically well correlated with the company's gross margin. His view of margin declines is due to lower memory average selling prices, both from more "challenging" DRAM conditions and also NAND oversupply. Micron is down 5.8% in late morning trading. GOLDMAN CUTS LAM RESEARCH TO NEUTRAL: Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari downgraded Lam Research (LRCX) to Neutral and lowered his price target for the shares to $180 from $224. The analyst also lowered his coverage view on the Semiconductor Capital Equipment space to Neutral from Attractive. Hari reduced his 2018/2019 memory capex expectations following "early signs of excess supply" in DRAM combined with further weakness in NAND pricing. STIFEL CUTS NXP SEMI, OTHER SEMI COS: Stifel analyst Tore Svanberg downgraded NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) to Sell from Hold, arguing that multiple recent industry data points seem to suggest the analog and mixed-signal semiconductor markets are peaking. He is particularly concerned, given the peaking industry condition, that rising interest rates raise the risk for debt-heavy firms, he added. Svanberg cut his price target on NXP shares to $84 from $99. Svanberg also downgraded Macom (MTSI) to Sell, and Power Integrations (POWI) and Maxim Integrated (MXIM) to Hold. ANALYSTS NEGATIVE ON SNAP: BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield downgraded Snap (SNAP) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $5, saying his previous assumption that "communications apps were sticky and would protect engagement" was incorrect. The analyst notes that while he waited for "management to figure out monetization", the stock has lost over half of its value. Greenfield believes that the pain is likely not over, stating that he is now "tired" of the company's excuses for missing numbers and adding that the anticipated product innovation ability of CEO Spiegel has been disappointing. Additionally, Citi analyst Mark May lowered his price target for Snap to $8 after removing his takeover premium assumption. The analyst had assumed a 50% probability of a takeout at a 35% premium to his fundamental value of $8 per share. However, he now sees less likelihood of a near-term takeover due to Snap's recent operational challenges. The analyst kept a Sell rating on the shares.
