Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
CITI CUTS MICRON TO SELL: Citi analyst Christopher Danely downgraded Micron Technology (MU) to Sell from Neutral following Wednesday night's fiscal Q2 results. Micron is trying its best, but "you can't swim against a tsunami," Danely said in a research note. The company believes the memory market will improve in the second half of 2019, the analyst pointed out. But based on his channel checks and supply/demand model, Danely believes memory average selling prices could bottom in the second half of the year, not the first half. The analyst expects Micron earnings per share to bottom at 21c in calendar Q4 of 2019, and its book value to trough at $30 in calendar Q2 of this year.
NEEDHAM UPGRADES APPLE TO STRONG BUY: Needham analyst Laura Martin upgraded Apple (AAPL) to Strong Buy from Buy and raised her price target on the stock to $225 from $180, stating that Apple has five types of "network effects," including the strongest type, namely hardware-based direct network effects. Her view is these strong network effects make Apple's ecosystem the "most likely to prevail in a direct competition between FAANG ecosystems." On Monday, Apple is expected to announce a new content service that, if adopted by users, should lower churn and push up the lifetime value of the 900M users in Apple's ecosystem, Martin said.
GOLDMAN BOOSTS QORVO TO BUY: Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari upgraded Qorvo (QRVO) to Buy from Neutral and raised his price target for the shares to $79 from $66. The analyst said he's beginning to see early signs of smartphone unit stabilization with channel checks indicating near-term upside in China will offset "marginal weakness" at Apple. Further, recent checks at the Mobile World Congress suggest that 5G base station deployments are being pulled in and that strength is sustainable through 2020/2021, Hari told investors in a research note. He thinks Qorvo has a margin expansion opportunity and that the stocks' current valuation multiples under-appreciate the company's top- and bottom-line growth potential. The analyst views Qorvo's current valuation as "compelling."
RAYMOND JAMES UPGRADES DIPLOMAT TO OUTPERFORM: Raymond James upgraded Diplomat Pharmacy (DPLO) to Outperform from Market Perform with an $8 price target. Analyst John Ransom said the 56% decline in shares since the February earnings delay provides a valuation that could be attractive to a strategic buyer. Ransom sees a number of potential buyers including United Health (UNH), Cigna (CI), CVS Health (CVS), Anthem (ANTM), and Centene (CNC) that would "covet" Diplomat's infusion franchise, leveraging a larger purchasing scale into lower COGS, and integrating its now tiny PBM and/or folding its large mail order business into an existing platform. The analyst thinks poor execution in the PBM segment and margin pressures in the specialty mail segment will motivate the board to assess strategic options.
BIOGEN DOWNGRADED BY AT LEAST EIGHT FIRMS FOLLOWING DRUG FAILURE: Biogen was downgraded this morning to Neutral-equivalent ratings at BofA Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BTIG, Mizuho, Wells Fargo, William Blair and Atlantic Equities after the company announced the decision to discontinue the global Phase 3 trials, ENGAGE and EMERGE, designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of aducanumab in patients with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease and mild Alzheimer's disease dementia.
Goldman Sachs analyst Terence Flynn downgraded Biogen to Neutral from Buy and cut his price target for the shares to $286 from $419. Flynn now sees "puts and takes" with respect to the path forward for Biogen. While the company has a mid-stage central nervous system pipeline, the recently instituted inter partes review challenge of Tecfidera is likely to represent a more significant nearer term overhang, Flynn noted. In addition, the analyst expects the pipeline setback with aducabumab to increase the focus on Biogen to continue to be active on the acquisition and business development front. While the company has announced a number of early and mid-stage deals, today's development could cause it to also evaluate later-stage assets, said Flynn.
UnitedHealth
+0.28 (+0.11%)
Diplomat Pharmacy
+0.26 (+4.43%)
Qorvo
+3.91 (+5.65%)
Apple
+6.19 (+3.29%)
Micron
+3.59 (+8.96%)
Cigna
+0.46 (+0.27%)
CVS Health
+0.56 (+1.00%)
Ticker changed to ELV
-0.935 (-0.31%)
Centene
-0.37 (-0.63%)
Biogen
-93.08 (-29.04%)