Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
FREEPORT MCMORAN UPGRADED TO OVERWEIGHT AT MORGAN STANLEY: Morgan Stanley analyst Piyush Sood upgraded Freeport McMoRan (FCX) to Overweight from Equal Weight, noting that his firm's Metals & Mining team expects copper market tightness to emerge beginning in Q2, given falling global production, low visible inventories and improved demand from China. Freeport's earnings sensitivity to copper is still the highest among its peers, said Sood, who sees the stock emerging as "the go-to large-cap stock for exposure to a copper price rally." Concerns about Freeport's ability to ramp production from 2019-21 are overblown, added the analyst, who lowered his price target on the shares to $14 from $16, citing a lower multiple to reflect the overall compression in multiples across equities and management's newly disclosed expectations around costs. In late morning trading, shares of Freeport McMoRan are higher by over 5% to $12.08.
DEERE CUT TO NEUTRAL ON VALUATION AT BOFA: BofA/Merrill downgraded Deere (DE) to Neutral from Buy with a $170 price target. Analyst Ross Gilardi said he views the risk/reward as more balanced heading into Friday's Q1 report, following recent share outperformance. Shares of Deere are trading 1.6% lower to $162.53 in late morning trading.
CLEARWAY ENERGY CUT TO SELL AT GUGGENHEIM: Guggenheim analyst Shahriar Pourreza downgraded Clearway Energy (CWEN) to Sell from Neutral and lowered his price target to $11 from $17. The analyst expects the company to announce a dividend cut in the next few days after his discussions with key stakeholders and the management, adding that "at a minimum", the company's cash may be "locked up at the project level for a pronounced period of time". Pourreza also lowered his forecast for Clearway Energy 2019 EBITDA to $818.6M from $1.07B. In late morning trading, shares of Clearway Energy are lower by over 4.5% to $14.01.
GERON STARTED WITH A BUY RATING AT BTIG: BTIG analyst Thomas Shrader initiated Geron (GERN) with a Buy rating and a price target of $4.00. The analyst said the stock has been "left for dead" even though the study of "Imetelstat - a telomerase inhibitor active in the treatment of highly transfusion-dependent MDS and r/r myelofibrosis" showed clear indications of efficacy. Shrader noted the company will take over the development of Imetelstat with pivotal trials starting this year and may attract "investor interest as corroborative pivotal readouts approach."
MYOVANT UPGRADED TO OVERWEIGHT AT BARCLAYS: Barclays analyst Geoffrey Meacham upgraded Myovant Sciences (MYOV) to Overweight from Equal Weight and raised his price target for the shares to $25 from $22. The analyst said his firm's women's health survey suggests a "robust potential market" for new treatment options for endometriosis and uterine fibroids. Respondents to the survey reported positive experiences with Orilissa and noted increasing patient interest in new therapies, Meacham wrote in a research note. He believes Myovant will benefit from these market dynamics.
Freeport-McMoRan
+0.65 (+5.66%)
Deere
-2.61 (-1.58%)
Clearway Energy
-0.57 (-3.89%)
Geron
+0.095 (+7.28%)
Myovant Sciences
+1.4 (+7.29%)