Baidu upgrade, Bed Bath & Beyond downgrade and Datadog 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:
- JPMorgan analyst Alex Yao upgraded Baidu (BIDU) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $200, up from $160. The analyst expects the company's EPS growth to resume being "notable" from Q4 onward and expects upward revisions of others' earnings estimates to drive the stock price higher.
- Vertical Research analyst Michael Dudas upgraded Vulcan Materials (VMC) to Buy from Hold with a $225 price target. The analyst believes Vulcan will likely benefit from a broader construction recovery, public sector funding that will get an ILJA boost in 2023-24 and the potential for expanding unit margin improvement.
- UBS analyst Felix Liu upgraded iQIYI (IQ) to Buy from Neutral with a $4.80 price target. The company reported a "strong bottom line beat" in the second quarter driven by better-than-expected cost savings, Liu told investors in a research note.
- JPMorgan analyst Katherine Lei upgraded Futu Holdings (FUTU) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $62, up from $55. Futu's second quarter results beat expectations on the back of stable client growth, market share gain and a higher blended commission rate, Lei noted. CLSA analyst Hans Fan also upgraded Futu Holdings to Underperform from Sell with a price target of $46, up from $27.
- BofA analyst Tarik El Mejjad upgraded Societe Generale (SCGLY) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of EUR 35, up from EUR 28. The stock's "distressed" current valuation more than prices in the ongoing restructuring profile of the bank, El Mejjad told investors in a research note.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Raymond James analyst Bobby Griffin downgraded Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) to Underperform from Market Perform without a price target. The analyst finds it challenging to even maintain a neutral stance "given the current trends of the business and ongoing cash burn."
- Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah downgraded HP Inc. (HPQ) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $29, down from $50. The company remains "foundationally well positioned" for the next 5 years and its acquisition of Poly (POLY) is improving that position, but HP Inc is also entering a "recalibration event period," the analyst argued.
- Canaccord analyst T. Michael Walkley downgraded Okta (OKTA) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $85, down from $155, after the company reported "solid" second quarter results but lowered its billings guidance and removed its annual growth guidance to $4B by fiscal 2026. Needham, Stephens and Morgan Stanley also downgraded the stock to Neutral-equivalent ratings.
- Benchmark analyst Mark Miller downgraded Western Digital (WDC) to Sell from Hold with a $34 price target, noting that Seagate (STX) joined other firms such as Micron (MU) and Nvidia (NVDA) in lowering outlooks. The analyst also downgraded Seagate to Hold from Buy.
- JPMorgan analyst Pinjalim Bora downgraded GitLab (GTLB) to Neutral from Overweight with a $63 price target after resuming coverage of the name. While the analyst has a "fundamental positive bias toward the company" and believes it is favorably positioned in the DevOps space, he's moving to a Neutral rating largely based on valuation.
Top 5 Initiations:
- BofA analyst Koji Ikeda initiated coverage of Datadog (DDOG) with a Buy rating and $135 price target. The analyst believes the company has a "best-of-breed portfolio of 15 products."
- Citi analyst Steven Enders initiated coverage of Intuit (INTU) with a Buy rating and $538 price target. Intuit's expanding portfolio of consumer and small business-focused solutions remains one of the best execution stories in large-cap software, Enders told investors in a research note.
- Citi analyst Steven Enders initiated coverage of Coupa Software (COUP) with a Buy rating and $77 price target. Coupa has emerged as a leader in spend management with an expanding portfolio of solutions for the broader expense process including invoicing, procurement and supply chain management, Enders contended.
- Citi analyst Steven Enders initiated coverage of Workday (WDAY) with a Neutral rating and $186 price target. The analyst cited slowing pipeline conversion rates with a recent guide down and his view that human resources will continue to slow.
- Citi analyst Steven Enders initiated coverage of Paycom (PAYC) with a Buy rating and $457 price target. Paycom has steadily seen strong traction moving upmarket into larger customers with a differentiated approach focused on automation and employee self-service with its Beti interface, Enders argued.
Symbols:
BIDU VMC IQ FUTU SCGLY BBBY HPQ OKTA - $65.84 /
-25.66 (-28.04%)
WDC STX GTLB DDOG INTU COUP WDAY - $161.96 /
-2.985 (-1.81%)
PAYC Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street