| Tuesday | ||||
Catch up on today's… Catch up on today's top five analyst upgrades with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Westpac (WBK) upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman Sachs with analyst Andrew Lyons saying the company look well placed to deal with the end of the deferral period and is trading nearly two-third standard deviations cheap versus peers. 2. Crocs (CROX) upgraded to Buy from Hold at Loop Capital with analyst Laura Champine citing her industry checks showing strong e-commerce trends and stores reopening with positive comps, even though Champine warns that her model assumes that most stores will remain open against the risk of a second pandemic wave closing the economy again. 3. PPG (PPG) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital with analyst John McNulty saying recent time with management and data tied to the company's end markets indicate the potential for PPG's earnings to recover over the second half of 2020, and 2021/22 should come in above expectations. 4. Armstrong World (AWI) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Exane BNP Paribas. 5. Toll Brothers (TOL) and Ares Commercial (ACRE) were upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe Bruyette. This list is just a portion of The Fly's full analyst coverage. To see The Fly's full Street Research coverage, click here. | ||||
| Monday | ||||
Keefe Bruyette analyst… Keefe Bruyette analyst Jade Rahmani upgraded Toll Brothers to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $40, up from $39. The stock is "undervalued" relative to peers and likely to outperform in coming months, Rahmani tells investors in a research note. The analyst views the current valuation as attractive and expects Toll's business to benefit from increased demand for newer, suburban homes, "stronger resilience" in the affluent segment, and a potential increase in preference for larger, amenitized homes. | ||||
Keefe Bruyette analyst… Keefe Bruyette analyst Jade Rahmani upgraded Toll Brothers to Outperform from Market Perform with a $40 price target. The stock's relative underperformance is overdone, says the analyst, who favors Toll's "suburban affluent" exposure. | ||||
| Over a week ago | ||||
Shares of home-builder… Shares of home-builder stocks are under pressure on Thursday after peer KB Home (KBH) reported quarterly earnings and guidance that disappointed investors. The home-builder group, which has been a darling of Wall Street investors over the past year, is showing some strain amid a recent rebound in COVID-19 cases. KB DISAPPOINTS: On Wednesday evening, KB Home reported Q2 EPS ahead of analyst expectations on revenue that was slightly less than anticipated. For the current quarter, the home builder forecast housing revenue of $820M-$880M, lower than the consensus estimate of $1.06B. COVID RESURGENCE: KB noted that it expects employment, consumer confidence and other fundamental housing factors to also improve. "However, the speed, trajectory and strength of any such recovery remains highly uncertain, and it could be slowed or reversed by a number of factors, including a possible widespread resurgence in COVID-19 infections in the second half of 2020 without the availability of generally effective therapeutics or a vaccine for the disease," the home-builder added in a statement. ANALYST DOWNGRADES: On June 9, RBC Capital analyst Mike Dahl downgraded KB Home to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $34, up from $26. Also in early June, JPMorgan analyst Michael Rehaut downgraded KB Home to Underweight from Neutral with a $32 price target. PRICE ACTION: Shares of KB Home ended the session down 12% to $29.83 per share. OTHER HOME-BUILDERS: Most of KB Homes' peers, including Hovnanian (HOV), PulteGroup (PHM), Toll Brothers (TOL), and D.R. Horton (DHI), were also lower, although Lennar (LEN) was up over 1%. | ||||
Citi analyst Anthony… Citi analyst Anthony Pettinari raised the firm's price target on Toll Brothers to $34 from $33 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The analyst raised targets and estimates for the homebuilders following "positive" trends in May and June. Several leading indicators show activity is re-accelerating at various stages of the home buying process, from online searches to real estate showings to mortgage applications, Pettinari tells investors in a research note. | ||||
Evercore ISI analyst… Evercore ISI analyst Stephen Kim upgraded Toll Brothers to Outperform from In Line with a $39 price target. |
| Over a month ago | ||||
Keefe Bruyette analyst… Keefe Bruyette analyst Jade Rahmani raised the firm's price target on Toll Brothers to $36 from $27 and keeps a Market Perform rating on the shares. The analyst raised 2020 estimates by 47% and 2021 estimates by 11% following the company's Q2 results on higher homebuilding deliveries. | ||||
RBC Capital analyst… RBC Capital analyst Michael Dahl raised the firm's price target on Toll Brothers to $37 from $31 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares after its Q2 earnings beat this week. The stock offers "strong relative value" even if the home construction recovery is slower as investor sentiment has remained "overly negative" on the company's high end and coastal market positioning, the analyst tells investors in a research note. | ||||