Southwest upgrade, Acuity Brands downgrade and eBay assumption 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:
- Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth upgraded Southwest (LUV) to Strong Buy from Outperform with a price target of $55, down from $57. Syth views the recent pullback as an attractive entry point and continues to expect Southwest to retain its position of strength, including a best-in-class balance sheet and cost benefit from a very attractively priced fleet order, the analyst told investors in a research note.
- JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy upgraded Snowflake (SNOW) to Overweight from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $165. Snowflake's standing "surged to elite territory" in the firm's annual CIO Survey for 2022, said Murphy, who is also incrementally confident that Snowflake is reaching an inflection point in terms of material free cash flow generation.
- JPMorgan analyst Megan Alexander upgraded Funko (FNKO) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $28, up from $25. Given the strong content rebound with Funko's "stable of evergreen properties," Alexander sees upside to Street 2022 revenue estimates.
- Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth upgraded Frontier Group (ULCC) to Outperform from Market Perform with a $14 price target. The upgrade is based on the view that JetBlue (JBLU) will prove successful in its bid to buy Spirit (SAVE), Syth told investors in a research note.
- HSBC analyst Albert Tam upgraded KE Holdings (BEKE) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $20.80, up from $13.70, citing his "revived confidence" in the company's outlook given how the Chinese government has showed a more supportive stance toward the platform economy since April's Politburo meeting and accelerated property policy changes.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- William Blair analyst Ryan Merkel downgraded Acuity Brands (AYI) to Market Perform from Outperform, telling investors that the firm's lighting survey indicates slower demand next quarter and that price inflation may have peaked.
- Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth downgraded Alaska Air (ALK) to Outperform from Strong Buy with a price target of $58, down from $75. Syth cited potential earnings and operational volatility around exiting the A320 fleet by early 2023 for the downgrade.
- Bank of America analyst Heather Balsky downgraded Robert Half (RHI) to Underperform from Buy with a price target of $67, down from $133. Fundamentals have peaked and she sees downside risk to Street estimates given that she is cutting her own 2022 and 2023 EPS forecasts by 4% and 27%, respectively.
- B. Riley analyst Lucas Pipes downgraded Marathon Digital (MARA) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $9, down from $34. Given the sharp decline in the Bitcoin price over the preceding weeks, he now uses the average price quarter-to-date of $33,805 and assumes $22,000 for the remainder of the quarter to arrive at his second quarter estimates for his digital miner coverage.
- Redburn analyst Nicholas Watts downgraded Credit Suisse (CS) to Sell from Neutral. The last decade has been "highly favorable for global wealth accumulation," but the outlook from here is "less clear" amid cyclical pressures and intensifying debate around wealth inequality, Watts said.
Top 5 Coverage Initiations:
- Morgan Stanley analyst Lauren Schenk assumed coverage of eBay (EBAY) with an Underweight rating and Street-low $36 price target. Schenk sees continued share losses driving below consensus top-line results and margin pressure.
- Redburn analyst Charles Bendit initiated coverage of Charles Schwab (SCHW) with a Neutral rating. The last decade has been "highly favorable for global wealth accumulation," but the outlook from here is "less clear" amid cyclical pressures and intensifying debate around wealth inequality, Bendit said.
- Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges initiated coverage of Veeva (VEEV) with a Buy rating and $253 price target, which represents 35% upside. Veeva, because of its competitive moat and exposure to technology adoption in Life Sciences, is "a long-term compounder," Borges told investors.
- Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard initiated coverage of Sono Motors (SEV) with an Overweight rating and $7 price target. Sono is developing a solar-powered, electric car for the mass market and the analyst believes it can offer a more affordable electric vehicle that is less dependent on charging.
- Goldman Sachs analyst Gabriela Borges initiated coverage of Palantir (PLTR) with a Neutral rating and $10 price target, which represents 11% upside. Borges cited limited visibility into the cadence of the business in any given quarter, especially in a weaker macro environment.
Symbols:
LUV SNOW FNKO ULCC JBLU SAVE BEKE AYI ALK MARA RHI CS EBAY SCHW VEEV SEV PLTR Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street