PayPal upgrade, Zoom Video downgrade and Matson 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:
- Daiwa analyst Kazuya Nishimura upgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $116, up from $85. While operating visibility "remains murky," the significant deterioration of the company’s earnings prospects since last year seems to have played out while a number of positive catalysts appear to be falling into place, including cost reductions and a commitment to capital returns in collaboration with Elliott Investment Management, Nishimura argued.
- Mizuho analyst Haendel St. Juste upgraded Site Centers (SITC) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $17, up from $15, citing its core growth, signed, not occupied pipeline, lower leverage and "more opportunistically-oriented balance sheet."
- UBS analyst Wei Xiong upgraded Kanzhun (BZ) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $27.50, down from $29. The stock's near-term weakness does not change the company's long-term growth outlook, the analyst told investors in a research note.
- Craig-Hallum analyst Anthony Stoss upgraded CalAmp (CAMP) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $10, up from $8. The analyst acknowledged that CalAmp has been plagued with major component shortages over the last six quarters, but says he believes the worst is behind CalAmp and much of the risk is already baked into the stock.
- H.C. Wainwright analyst Swayampakula Ramakanth upgraded Diffusion Pharmaceuticals (DFFN) to Buy from Neutral with a $9.50 price target after the company reported second quarter results and management announced that they have met with the FDA and have received the green light to start a Phase 2 trial to evaluate the company's lead product, trans sodium crocetinate, or TSC, along with standard of care in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Citi analyst Tyler Radke downgraded Zoom Video (ZM) to Sell from Neutral with a $91 price target. The analyst sees new hurdles to Zoom sustaining growth, including rising competition from Microsoft's (MSFT) Teams and macro-related weakness hitting small-to-mid size businesses.
- B. Riley analyst Susan Anderson downgraded Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) to Sell from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $5. The stock has increased more than three times in price since Bed Bath reported "a very weak" first quarter, leading to the ousting of CEO at the time Mark Tritton.
- Daiwa analyst Kazuya Nishimura downgraded Visa (V) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $225, down from $230. Visa continues to offer an upbeat growth scenario given a rebound in cross-border travel, but with border restrictions now almost fully lifted with the exception of some parts of Asia, he sees reduced scope for earnings to surpass market expectations. The analyst also downgraded MasterCard (MA) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $375, down from $385.
- UBS analyst Karl Keirstead downgraded Snowflake (SNOW) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $175, up from $165. He caught up with three partners and four customers ahead of Snowflake's fiscal second quarter report due on August 24 to better assess how demand for Snowflake has tracked and said "this round of field checks felt like a tone downtick relative to prior rounds."
- Morgan Stanley analyst Toni Kaplan downgraded Equifax (EFX) to Equal Weight from Overweight with an unchanged price target of $230. Equifax is up 20% quarter-to-date, and Kaplan sees a more balanced risk/reward at this level, the analyst told investors in a research note.
Top 5 Initiations:
- Wolfe Research analyst Jacob Lacks initiated coverage of Matson (MATX) with an Underperform rating and $80 price target. The ocean transportation and logistics services provider has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the huge increase in ocean rates over the past couple of years, but with transpacific ocean spot rates now down over 30% from their peak, he believes calendar year 2022 will "clearly represent peak EPS for" Matson.
- Piper Sandler analyst David Amsellem initiated coverage of Alkermes (ALKS) with a Neutral rating and $26 price target. Alkermes is in transition as it looks to drive adoption of atypical antipsychotic Lybalvi, which launched last October, though he believes Lybalvi will "fall short of blockbuster status," Amsellem told investors.
- H.C. Wainwright analyst Patrick Trucchio initiated coverage of GH Research (GHRS) with a Buy rating and $45 price target. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Dublin, Ireland, is a "leader in the neuropharmaceutical psychedelics space," said Trucchio, who added that lead asset GH001 has generated "compelling" Phase 1 and 2 data so far in healthy volunteers and patients with treatment-resistant depression, or TRD, its lead indication.
- JPMorgan analyst Chris Schott initiated coverage of EQRx (EQRX) with a Neutral rating and $5.50 price target. While the company's goals "clearly address a significant unmet need in the drug space," the analyst sees the business model as still in a relatively early stage of development and thinks a number of unknowns are unlikely to be addressed in the near-term.
- Roth Capital analyst George Kelly reinstated coverage of F45 Training (FXLV) with a Neutral rating with a price target of $2, down from $8, following second quarter results. While F45's system appears generally healthy, and cost reduction initiatives are underway, the analyst prefers waiting on the sidelines until the model firms and growth stabilizes.
Symbols:
PYPL BZ CAMP DFFNDiffusion Pharmaceuticals
SITC ZM BBBY MSFT V MC SNOW - $161.69 /
-8.625 (-5.06%)
EFX MATX ALKS GHRS EQRX FXLV Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street