Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
CARVANA THE 'AMAZON OF AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL': Stifel analyst Scott Devitt upgraded Carvana (CVNA) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $225, up from $210, calling it the "Amazon of automotive retail" following the company's first profitable quarter. Devitt, who believes the path to pre-pandemic inventory levels is clearer, has a favorable view of the company's long-term growth as the online leader in the category, he added.
PAPA JOHN'S UPGRADED AT OPPENHEIMER: Oppenheimer analyst Brian Bittner upgraded Papa John's (PZZA) to Outperform from Perform with a $96 price target. Following a 25% pullback, the shares "undervalue the merits" of Papa John's "transforming investment story," Bittner tells investors in a research note. The market market overly discounts the potential loss of COVID-era financial gains, discredits new management's operational playbook and underappreciates catalysts for a "powerful" unit growth cycle, says the analyst. Further, Bittner believes Papa John's is a "prime takeout candidate."
ARISTA UPGRADED AT MORGAN STANLEY, MKM: Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshall upgraded Arista Networks (ANET) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $250, up from $230, citing her belief that 200G upgrades from Facebook (FB) and 400G upgrades from Microsoft (MSFT) are now closer to being catalysts. While concerns about potential share loss from competitive efforts has been an overhang on Arista shares, her diligence points to less risk of competitive insertion than a quarter ago, Marshall tells investors. Given her increased confidence in Arista's ability to preserve share in the upcoming 200G/400G cycle, she sees a "positively skewed risk/reward," the analyst added.
MKM Partners analyst Fahad Najam also upgraded Arista Networks to Buy from Neutral with a $225 price target. The analyst is citing the company's "significant opportunity in the hyper-scale Data Center Switching market", its growing total addressable market expansion in the enterprise Campus Switching market, and its "best-in-class" management team.
ANALYSTS WEIGH IN ON APPLE RESULTS: Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar came away from Apple's (AAPL) earnings announcement "extremely bullish." He keeps an Overweight rating on the shares with a $135 price target. Apple set records in every category except the iPhone during the September quarter, Kumar tells investors in a research note. The iPhone segment was impacted by the delayed 12 launch, but iPhone traction was still strong through mid-September, says the analyst. Kumar is expecting strong iPhone 12 series traction given strong carrier subsidies. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said her confidence in Apple's ability to retain existing users, attract new users and accelerate growth and profitability "has never been higher" following the company's fiscal fourth quarter report and heading into fiscal 2021. Apple grew revenue by double-digit percentages across all products, including iPhone after normalizing for product cycle, and enters FY21 "with its strongest Product and Services portfolio in years," argues Huberty.
Canaccord analyst T. Michael Walkley noted Apple reported a solid end to its fiscal year with double digit growth for all products but iPhones. He noted the company did not give guidance given macro uncertainty but he said the commentary was strong across all business segments.
DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte raised the firm's price target on Apple to $133 from $120 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares, while Raymond James analyst Chris Caso raised the firm's price target on Apple to $140 from $120 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares.
Meanwhile, Citi analyst Jim Suva says "difficult questions" emerged from the results and conference call, including no guidance for the third quarter in a row, a 29% decline in sales in China, commentary on the outlook despite no guidance, why product gross margins were lower, and the potential regulatory oversight into exclusive search and other agreements.
PROS HOLDINGS DOWNGRADED AT KEYBANC, RBC: KeyBanc analyst Jason Celino downgraded Pros Holdings (PRO) to Sector Weight from Overweight. While Celino continues to see compelling opportunities in digital selling, and believes Pros is positioned to emerge from the pandemic in a better position, the analyst thinks meaningful improvement may take longer to recover than initially anticipated.
Additionally, RBC Capital analyst Alex Zukin downgraded Pros Holdings to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $33, down from $45. The analyst says the company's Q3 results were "mixed" and he warns of a lack of "meaningful catalysts" over the next few quarters. Zukin further points to elevated risk from a large number of renewals this quarter, as well as from Europe's economy locking down.
Carvana
+9.08 (+4.74%)
Papa John's
+0.995 (+1.30%)
Arista Networks
+0.675 (+0.33%)
Ticker changed to META
-12.765 (-4.55%)
Microsoft
-1.305 (-0.64%)
Apple
-5.21 (-4.53%)
Pros Holdings
-3.7 (-11.75%)