Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
EVERCORE SAYS BUY UBER AND LYFT: Evercore ISI analyst Benjamin Black initiated coverage of both Lyft (LYFT) and Uber Technologies (UBER) with Outperform ratings. The analyst put a $74 price target on Lyft and a $60 price target on Uber. The stocks closed today up 34c to $58.41 and down 35c to $42.17, respectively. The ride-hailing space has "powerful" near-term catalysts, which could drive a re-rating of both stocks, Black tells investors in a research note. The pricing environment is "quietly improving," incentives are maturing, and both Uber and Lyft can hit profitability sooner than consensus expectations, says Black.
BARCLAYS MORE CAUTIOUS ON RAILS, DOWNGRADES UNION PACIFIC: Barclays analyst Brandon Oglenski downgraded Union Pacific (UNP) to Equal Weight from Overweight and lowered his price target for the shares to $170 from $190. The analyst also cut his Transportation sector view to Neutral saying he sees "real fundamental challenges set against high market expectations." Railroad equities are not properly discounting recent headwinds from softer demand and "lower supply chain urgency" across North America, Oglenski tells investors in a research note. Further, he sees increasing risk that tariff driven inflation could "damp consumer consumption" later this year, at least in the U.S. As a result, Oglenski suggests investors take some Transportation exposure off the table. He keeps Equal Weight ratings on Canadian National (CNI), Kansas City Southern (KSU) and Norfolk Southern (NSC) as well as Overweight ratings on Canadian Pacific (CP) and CSX (CSX).
RAYMOND JAMES SHAKES UP HEALTHCARE REIT RATINGS: Raymond James analyst Jonathan Hughes downgraded Welltower (WELL) to Market Perform from Outperform citing relative valuation. The analyst, who also upgraded HCP (HCP) to Outperform this morning, says the reversal is driven by HCP's more attractive valuation, smaller size that makes external growth more impactful, and greater visibility from development contributions and accelerating same-store NOI growth. Hughes tells investors that while Welltower is arguably best-positioned among all healthcare REITs to capitalize on the"Silver Tsunami" of aging demographics and generate strong earnings, NAV, and dividend growth for shareholders, he thinks a more prudent approach to the stock is now appropriate.
DISNEY DTC FORECAST, PRICE TARGET RAISED AT MORGAN STANLEY: Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne raised his subscriber growth forecast for Disney+, Disney's (DIS) upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming service, stating that he expects Disney+ to be trending towards 13M subs a year from now. Combined with Hulu and ESPN+, the company will have an OTT subscriber base of over 50M by the end of FY20 and he now forecast over 130M global OTT subscribers by FY24, Swinburne tells investors. A higher expected revenue scale for its DTC offerings, combined with an expectation for DTC profitability in FY24, leads the analyst to forecast over $11 of adjusted EPS in FY24 for Disney and prompted him to raise his price target on the stock to $160 from $135. Swinburne keeps an Overweight rating on Disney shares.
GE COULD HIT $16 PER SHARE: General Electric (GE) shares are likely to "materially outperform" the market over the next 12 months, during which time the stock could rise to $14-$16 or more, William Blair analyst Nicholas Heymann told investors after visiting the company's headquarters. The stock closed yesterday up 16c to $10.28. CEO Larry Culp has recently spent a disproportionate amount of his time transforming how GE Power is fundamentally managed, not just operationally right-sized and restructured, adds the analyst. Heymann believes that as confidence grows in Power's turnaround and GE's financial leverage declines further, confidence in the company's outlook is likely to rise. So far in 2019, GE has reported 4 GW of large gas turbine orders and "far less-adverse-than-feared" free cash flow use in Q1, according to the analyst. While likely to report more negative free cash flow use in 2019 than 2018, GE now expects Power to be profitable this year, he points out. Heymann keeps an Outperform rating on General Electric.
Uber
+1.08 (+2.56%)
Lyft
+1.735 (+2.97%)
Union Pacific
-1.95 (-1.14%)
Canadian National
+0.1 (+0.11%)
KSU
+
Norfolk Southern
+0.53 (+0.27%)
Canadian Pacific Kansas City
-0.15 (-0.06%)
CSX
-0.05 (-0.06%)
HashiCorp
+0.18 (+0.57%)
Welltower
-0.03 (-0.04%)
General Electric
+0.18 (+1.75%)
Disney
+3.25 (+2.40%)