First Solar upgrade, Roku downgrade and Li Auto 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:
- Guggenheim analyst Joseph Osha upgraded First Solar (FSLR) to Buy from Neutral with a $135 price target. His confidence in the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, has grown after the act passed the Senate on Sunday and of all the names in his coverage he believes First Solar appears positioned to benefit the most from the provisions of the IRA. JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse also upgraded First Solar to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $126, up from $83.
- JPMorgan analyst Jeffrey Zekauskas upgraded Corteva (CTVA) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $63, up from $58. There are a number of tailwinds converging for Corteva in 2023, and fewer headwinds, Zekauskas told investors in a research note.
- UBS analyst Kevin Caliendo upgraded Henry Schein (HSIC) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $80, down from $83. The company should be able to expand margins in the next couple of years and grow its revenues by mid-single digits while sufficiently offsetting COVID and macro headwinds, the analyst argued.
- JPMorgan analyst Mark Strouse upgraded TPI Composites (TPIC) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $27, up from $17. The analyst views the Inflation Reduction Act as the largest policy change in U.S. history to accelerate growth in an "already inevitable energy transition to renewables."
- Roth Capital analyst Joe Reagor upgraded Centrus Energy (LEU) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $48, up from $45, following quarterly results that beat expectations.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Pivotal Research analyst Jeffrey Wlodarczak downgraded Roku (ROKU) to Sell from Hold with an unchanged price target of $60 following the stock's recent rally. Management ramped expenses dramatically into what will likely be a recession in 2023, which is likely to lead to lower than consensus revenue growth and larger losses through 2023 and possibly 2024, Wlodarczak told investors in a research note.
- Barrington analyst James Goss downgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target. The neutral stance reflects delays in the introduction of the company's new strategic options and lack of specificity in blending it two distinct programming services, Goss told investors in a research note.
- JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta downgraded Carvana (CVNA) to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $35, up from $25. The shares screen expensive relative to e-commerce peers on near- to medium-term profit estimates, Gupta argued.
- Northland analyst Michael Latimore downgraded iRobot (IRBT) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $61, down from $75, after Amazon (AMZN) announced it will acquire iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.7B, including iRobot's net debt.
- Benchmark analyst Mark Miller downgraded Western Digital (WDC) to Hold from Buy with no price target after the company reported upside in its June quarter results, but gave September quarter guidance that was well below expectations amid a "sharp inventory correction" that is underway in the client segment impacting both HDDs and flash.
Top 5 Initiations:
- CLSA analyst Aaron Li initiated coverage of Li Auto (LI) with a Buy rating and HK$190 price target. Li's first model, the Li ONE, achieved success in China's family SUV market and he expects its second model launched in the second quarter, the L9, to continue to attract family consumers, Li told investors.
- Northland analyst Donovan Schafer initiated coverage of Maxeon Solar (MAXN) with an Outperform rating and $22 price target. The analyst views Maxeon as "an attractive way to play the tailwinds" he expects from Manchin's proposed climate bill and increased EU solar demand due to ongoing energy security concerns.
- Lake Street analyst Frank Takkinen initiated coverage of Artivion (AORT) with a Buy rating and $32 price target. The analyst thinks Artivion is "particularly attractive" in a turbulent market given its high-margin growth opportunities funded by profitable legacy businesses.
- Citi analyst Scott Gruber reinstated coverage of Chord Energy (CHRD) with a Buy rating and $150 price target. Chord appears well positioned to produce "ample" cash flows in the current pricing environment and should benefit from its increased scale post-merger, Gruber argued.
- EF Hutton analyst Tim Moore initiated coverage of Legacy Housing (LEGH) with a Buy rating and $25 price target. Legacy, the sixth largest manufactured homes producer in the U.S., is differentiated by its brand of value-priced homes and its high-quality construction, said Moore, who sees the company being a beneficiary of the shortage of affordable entry-level homes and the low vacancy rate of rentals in the U.S.
Symbols:
FSLR CTVA HSIC TPIC LEU ROKU WBD CVNA IRBT AMZN WDC LI MAXN AORT CHRD LEGH Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street