Monster Beverage upgrade, Target downgrade and ServiceNow initiations 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:
- Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott upgraded Monster Beverage (MNST) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $110, up from $97. In the last three months, performance has rapidly improved and Monster actually gained share in the latest period, the analyst noted.
- Roth Capital analyst Richard Baldry upgraded Salesforce (CRM) to Buy from Neutral with a $242 price target. Given a near 50% selloff versus their 52-week highs, Baldry believes Salesforce's resulting 5.6-times run-rate revenue multiple now adequately factors in its less savory operational tendencies.
- Jefferies analyst David Katz upgraded Penn National (PENN) to Buy from Hold with a $49 price target, as he argues that the recent weakness has reduced the shares to a level that "comfortably reflects" the stable cash generation of the land-based casino business while assigning "de minimis value" for the company's digital prospects.
- Roth Capital analyst Richard Baldry upgraded Five9 (FIVN) to Buy from Neutral with a $129 price target after resuming coverage of the name. The analyst believes Five9 remains one of the premier publicly-traded software-as-a-service players.
- RBC Capital analyst Ken Herbert upgraded AeroVironment (AVAV) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $100, up from $95. The stock is up 44% since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the acceleration in demand for the company's Switchblade drone represents a positive inflection that should be sustained, the analyst told investors in a research note.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Truist analyst Scot Ciccarelli downgraded Target (TGT) to Hold from Buy with a $261 price target after its first quarter earnings miss. While he's against downgrading a stock when it is under significant pressure, it is doubtful that Target will get much support in the coming quarters after the results and lowered 2022 outlook.
- Bank of America analyst Derik de Bruin downgraded Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $3, down from $6, given his view that the near-to-medium term upside appears limited although he remains positive on the long-term potential of the synthetic biology industry and Ginkgo's platform.
- Piper Sandler analyst Mark Lear downgraded Comstock Resources (CRK) to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $16, down from $19. The analyst anticipates cost inflation will have a disproportionate impact on the company's project returns, and in turn, free cash flow and capital return.
- Wolfe Research analyst Timna Tanners downgraded Century Aluminum (CENX) to Peer Perform from Outperform with a price target of $14, down from $30. A "sharply worse" power price outlook in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, region in recent weeks eclipses a positive aluminum view, said Tanners, who adds that Century is uniquely exposed to steep spot power rates that can worsen over the summer.
- RBC Capital analyst Ken Herbert downgraded VSE Corp. (VSEC) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $48, down from $65. While the growth in the Aviation business will drive sentiment and he continues to like the company's opportunities in both distribution and MRO, the analyst believes near-term outlook for margin upside is limited.
Top 5 Coverage Initiations:
- Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin initiated coverage of ServiceNow (NOW) with an Overweight rating and $600 price target. Benefiting from a number of secular trends that are transforming businesses globally - the rise of automation, cloud infrastructure, edge computing, application modernization, remote work, among others - he finds ServiceNow's "platform of platforms" sits at a critical point in the digital transformation lifecycle, positioned to capitalize on the increasing need for modernization initiatives globally.
- Northland analyst Abhishek Sinha initiated coverage of Sunnova Energy (NOVA) with an Outperform rating and $30 price target. Sinha sees "a compelling entry point" for investors looking for exposure to the residential solar market given the view that Sunnova has "a well-oiled dealership-based business model" as well as very strong and dependable cash flows.
- Berenberg analyst Alok Patel initiated coverage of Performance Food Group (PFGC) with a Buy rating and $71 price target. He believes food distributors should benefit from the normalization in economic headwinds and the demand for food away from home expanding as the economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Patel, adding that he prefers names with brand recognition, diligent management, strong growth, and prudent operations. The analyst also started coverage of US Foods (USFD) with a Buy rating and a price target of $53.
- Piper Sandler analyst Clarke Jeffries initiated coverage of Amplitude (AMPL) with an Overweight rating and $25 price target. The analyst cited favorable secular growth prospects with the potential for revenue to reach $900M by 2027.
- Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein initiated coverage of Leafly (LFLY) with a Perform rating on valuation. The analyst believes the current interest-rate environment has caused future growth to be fully discounted, implying Leafly reaches 8% of total legal sales on its platform by fiscal 2028, assuming a 10% take-rate, a 13-times EBITDA multiple, and a 30% terminal EBITDA margin.
Symbols:
CRM PENN MNST FIVN AVAV TGT - $160.19 /
-55.11 (-25.60%)
DNA CRK CENX VSEC NOW NOVA PFGC USFD AMPL LFLY Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street