Comcast upgrade, Netflix downgrade and Victoria's Secret coverage initiation among today's top calls on Wall Street Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to learn which companies the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.
Research analysts at Wall Street's largest banks issue recommendations on whether a stock should be bought, held, or sold. The Fly's team of financial market experts scours hundreds of research notes daily to uncover the best trading ideas. Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
Top 5 Upgrades:
- RBC Capital analyst Kutgun Maral upgraded Comcast (CMCSA; CMCSK) to Outperform from Sector Perform with an unchanged $60 price target. The analyst believes the selloff in Comcast shares since August is presenting an "attractive entry-point."
- Stephens analyst Vincent Caintic upgraded Affirm (AFRM) to Equal Weight from Underweight with an price target of $72, nothing that the shares are now trading between his unchanged target and his bear-case of $32, making them "cheap enough."
- BTIG analyst Gray Powell upgraded Splunk (SPLK) to Buy from Neutral with a $155 price target. Recent channel checks on Splunk have been improving and indicate the company is turning a corner with its cloud product and observability platform, Powell argued.
- UBS analyst John Hodulik upgraded Fox Corp. (FOXA) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $50, up from $42. The analyst sees the company as better positioned given its sports betting optionality, measured direct-to-consumer spend, and leadership within the legacy Pay TV bundle with its sports and news focus.
- RBC Capital analyst Kutgun Maral upgraded Charter (CHTR) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $690, down from $770. The analyst contended that the competitive threats to cable operators across broadband with telco fiber and fixed wireless assigned by the Street's negativity has become "too punitive."
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Jefferies analyst Andrew Uerkwitz downgraded Netflix (NFLX) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $415, down from $737, telling investors the he sees a path to a Buy rating, but "lacks the conviction" given that there is too much uncertainty in the near-term.
- Wedbush analyst Ygal Arounian downgraded Snap (SNAP) to Neutral from Outperform with a $36 price target as he sees risk to the company's revenue growth targets stemming from IDFA headwinds, difficult comps from stellar growth in 2020-2021, and increasing competition from TikTok in particular.
- Barrington analyst Michael Petusky downgraded Opko Health (OPK) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target after the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter to Opko's partners Pfizer (PFE), declining to approve somatrogon, a once weekly long-acting recombinant human growth hormone for the treatment of growth hormone deficiency in children.
- Barclays analyst Amit Goel double downgraded Credit Suisse (CS) to Underweight from Overweight with a CHF 9 price target. The analyst sees ongoing challenges for the bank given continued Greensill issues and its further litigation commentary.
- Wells Fargo analyst Michael Sison downgraded PPG (PPG) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $170, down from $200, to reflect a sizable EPS reduction for 2022 where he does not see a near-term catalyst for multiple expansion as earnings upside could be limited due to ongoing inflation headwinds continuing through the first half of 2022.
Top 5 Coverage Initiations:
- UBS analyst Jay Sole initiated coverage of Victoria's Secret (VSCO) with a Neutral rating and $59 price target. Multiple macro headwinds will keep the company's sales and margins declining in fiscal 2022 in spite of its turnaround efforts, the analyst contended.
- Needham analyst James Ricchiuti initiated coverage of Fathom (FATH) with a Buy rating and $12 price target. The analyst expects the company to win a larger share of wallet from its existing customer base while benefiting from the strong secular growth drivers fueling growth across the digital manufacturing market.
- Bank of America analyst Craig Siegenthaler initiated coverage of Blue Owl Capital (OWL) with a Buy rating and $18 price target. The analyst is positive on the stock's "high-growth, high-yield, high-margin" business with a capital-light model.
- Ascendiant analyst Edward Woo initiated coverage of SurgePays (SURG) with a Buy rating and $7 price target. Given the large market potential, he expects high growth for SurgePays and thinks the planned sale of about 25% of LogicsIQ shares to the public in an IPO spinoff to be positive for stock over the next year.
- HSBC initiated coverage of Daimler Truck Holding (DTRUY) with a Buy rating and EUR 41 price target.
Symbols:
CMCSA CMCSK AFRM SPLK - $116.32 /
+0.665 (+0.58%)
FOXA CHTR NFLX - $381.09 /
-16.095 (-4.05%)
SNAP OPK PFE PPG VSCO FATH OWL SURG DTRUY - $18.44 /
-0.1865 (-1.00%)
Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street