Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
DAVE & BUSTER'S GETS TWO UPGRADES: Stifel analyst Chris O'Cull upgraded Dave & Buster's (PLAY) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $20, up from $18, as he believes yesterday's 26% pullback following the publication of a Wall Street Journal article calling attention to language in the company's 10-Q about Chapter 11 bankruptcy risk presents "an attractive entry point for investors with higher levels of risk tolerance." The analyst, in a note titled "Share Weakness Provides Investors Opportunity to Level Up," said he has greater confidence following the company's recent earnings report and his subsequent talks with management that the company has "cracked the code for achieving profitability at lower sales volumes." O'Cull expects Dave & Buster's to successfully restructure or amend its credit facility without the need for additional equity, he added.
Meanwhile, Raymond James analyst Brian Vaccaro also upgraded Dave & Buster's to Outperform from Market Perform with a $20 price target. Vaccaro believes the 26% stock decline in response to media reports highlighting bankruptcy risk seems overdone and creates an attractive risk/reward. Outside of a hard lockdown/closures due to COVID, the analyst is optimistic that the company's profitability will have returned to solidly positive territory by then, and that its lenders would be willing to amend its covenant definition.
HOME DEPOT, LOWE'S DOWNGRADED ON NEAR-TERM RISKS: Oppenheimer analyst Brian Nagel downgraded both Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) to Perform from Outperform with price targets of $305 and $180, down from $320 and $185, respectively. Over the near term, the analyst is "increasingly concerned" that the market is becoming "too lax" toward chances of a post-COVID-19 sales growth downshift. Nagel is "concerned somewhat" that the recent outsized comp gains within home improvement might to some extent reflect a demand pull forward, thereby impacting sales of durables and other items through 2021. As such, the analyst sees more modest upside in both stocks going forward. With that said, the favorable intermediate to longer-term stance for Home Depot and Lowe's is unchanged, Nagel tells investors in a research note.
BEYOND MEAT DOWNGRADED ON 'SLUGGISH' FUNDAMENTALS: JPMorgan analyst Ken Goldman downgraded Beyond Meat (BYND) to Underweight from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $122. The stock's 108% rally year-to-date is "above and beyond what we consider rational," even for a good company like Beyond Meat, Goldman tells investors in a research note. Street estimates look high with chief rival Impossible Foods taking market share at grocery and restaurants hesitating to add menu complexity during the COVID-19 crisis, adds the analyst. Goldman cites valuation and "sluggish fundamentals" for the downgrade.
TESLA PRICE TARGET HIKED: Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter raised the firm's price target on Tesla (TSLA) to $515 from $480 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares after analyzing two "poorly-understood" aspects of Tesla's business. Potter said that the aspects are the Energy segment and Elon Musk's compensation. The analyst added that such topics can be "vexing," but they are growing increasingly material, and as such, he believes they warrant more explicit attention.
LIMELIGHT INITIATED AT TRUIST: Truist analyst Greg Miller initiated coverage of Limelight Networks (LLNW) with a Buy rating and $9 price target. The company should gain share in the $9B Content Delivery Network market at a time when its industry growth is accelerating, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Miller adds that Limelight should be able to achieve its long-term target of 15% revenue growth and 25% EBITDA margin long term as the favorable "secular trends" have been "exacerbated" by the pandemic, causing traffic growth to remain elevated.
Dave & Buster's
-4.99 (-26.10%)
Home Depot
-1.9 (-0.67%)
Lowe's
-2.83 (-1.70%)
Beyond Meat
+0.49 (+0.31%)
Tesla
-18.87 (-4.27%)
Ticker changed to EGIO
+0.16 (+2.81%)