Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
TAPESTRY CUT TO NEUTRAL EQUIVALENTS AT MANY FIRMS: Tapestry (TPR) was downgraded to Perform from Outperform at Oppenheimer, to Neutral from Buy at MKM Partners, to Neutral from Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs, to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Jaffray, and to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Goldman Sachs analyst Alexandra Walvis downgraded Tapestry to Neutral and removed the shares from her firm's Conviction List following the company's Q4 results. The Kate Spade business has remained under pressure despite a design and operational overhaul and the company's pivot to earnings growth is unlikely to materialize in fiscal 2020, Walvis noted. Further, she believes Tapestry is unlikely to achieve "proof of the power of its multibrand platform for some time." Walvis lowered her price target for the shares to $24 from $43.
Oppenheimer analyst Brian Nagel downgraded Tapestry to Perform from Outperform following the company's quarterly results, saying he believes the company's issues will take longer than initially expected to correct. Valuation might help to support shares but is unlikely to prove a catalyst, Nagel added.
WILLIAM BLAIR DEFENDS GE AFTER WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT: William Blair analyst Nicholas Heymann does not believe GE's (GE) financial statements purposely misrepresent the company's current financial condition and future potential liabilities. He finds it "hard to believe that GE, which has been engaged with several regulatory reviews of its accounting and financial disclosures for over two years, has fraudulently misrepresented its financial reporting." Further, Heymann found the effort to portray GE's current financial condition assuming all three alleged cash or noncash charges totaling ~$38B should have been previously recognized is "at best disingenuous and at worst highly inaccurate." The analyst kept an Outperform rating on General Electric. He believes GE's underlying intrinsic value, with no value assigned to Power, is somewhere in the $14-$16 per share based on enterprise valuations for similar businesses serving the same end-markets. That range is a "highly feasible base-case" valuation for GE's share price over the next 6-12 months, argued Heymann.
TJX BOOSTED TO BUY AT LOOP: Loop Capital analyst Laura Champine upgraded TJX (TJX) to Buy from Hold and raised her price target to $60 from $50 as part of her broader "Deep Dive" research note into off-price retailers, saying her model changes are driven by the continued market share gains at the expense of the department and specialty stores. The analyst also raised her price target by $5 on Buy-rated Burlington Stores (BURL) and Ross Stores (ROST) to $200 and $120 respectively, citing her recent round of store checks at all 3 companies that showed "improving brand availability, attractive assortments, and healthy traffic trends." Champine believes that these chains can benefit from market dislocations as retailers increasingly worry about the impact of tariffs impacting product costs.
INTEL RAISED TO MARKET PERFORM AT NORTHLAND: Northland analyst Gus Richard upgraded Intel (INTC) to Market Perform from Underperform as he noted that the negative AMD (AMD) server launch catalyst has now passed and he thinks a value stock such as Intel has odds of outperforming higher multiple stocks during selloffs. He also noted that sentiment on Intel is "nearing a low point."
BRINKER UPGRADED TO OVERWEIGHT AT STEPHENS: Stephens analyst Will Slabaugh upgraded Brinker (EAT) to Overweight from Equal Weight, telling investors that he believes the risk/reward has become "too attractive to ignore." Chili's has consistently outpaced the industry in recent quarters and while the market has remained skeptical about the brand continuing this trend, Slabaugh said he's becoming comfortable that Chili's recent sales drivers can help sustain above-industry results. He maintained a $45 price target on Brinker shares.
TRUPANION CUT TO HOLD AT CRAIG-HALLUM: Craig-Hallum analyst Kevin Ellich downgraded Trupanion (TRUP) to Hold from Buy and lowered his price target to $29 from $38, saying he has some growing concerns about deteriorating operating metrics, including the total addressable market for pet insurance, and the competitive landscape. Ellich said that while there is little question that the animal health industry, especially the pet market, has a number of tailwinds, he believes deterioration in some of Trupanion's key operating metrics signal the pet insurance market is getting more challenging and growth could slow over the next several quarters.
Tapestry
+0.44 (+2.27%)
GE Aerospace
+0.53 (+6.63%)
TJX
+0.87 (+1.73%)
Burlington Stores
+4.27 (+2.53%)
Ross Stores
+2.19 (+2.16%)
Intel
+0.89 (+1.95%)
Brinker
+1.29 (+3.49%)
Trupanion
-2.6 (-8.91%)