Verizon Communications upgrade, Splunk downgrade and DraftKings 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:
- Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan upgraded Verizon Communications (VZ) to Outperform from Perform with a $50 price target. The analyst expects "gradual stabilization-to-growth" of the company's subscriber base but admits its near-term trends "could remain volatile."
- Argus analyst Joseph Bonner upgraded Fox Corp. (FOXA) to Buy from Hold with a $43 price target. The company has differentiated itself from its Hollywood peers by not "following the stampede" into streaming and thereby saving millions in related costs, the analyst told investors in a research note.
- Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded Pinterest (PINS) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $31, up from $24. Although digital advertising landscape remains mired in "uncertain times," the analyst is turning more positive on improved user growth and engagement trends for the company over the short and medium term.
- JPMorgan analyst Michael Cho upgraded Nasdaq (NDAQ) to Overweight from Neutral with a $70 price target after assuming coverage of the name following a period of restriction. A consistent trend of organic revenue growth progression, balanced with margin expansion and reinvestment will continue to solidify Nasdaq's "secular and compounding earnings stream," Cho told investors in a research note.
- Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan upgraded Take-Two (TTWO) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $165, up from $131. The gaming industry continues to face a number of short-term fundamental headwinds, but these headwinds are being increasingly priced into the stock, the analyst argues.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- UBS analyst Karl Keirstead downgraded Splunk (SPLK) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $86, down from $125. The analyst stated that his latest round of industry checks helped to clarify the root cause of the company's recent $250M annual recurring revenue guidance cut for full year 2023.
- UBS analyst Kohei Takahashi downgraded Toyota (TM) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of 1,950 yen, down from 2,300 yen, on lower profit forecasts.
- JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta downgraded AutoNation (AN) to Neutral from Overweight with a $125 price target. The analyst believes the setup for franchise auto dealers into third quarter earnings is the most negative he has encountered since the pandemic.
- Wells Fargo analyst Jared Shaw double downgraded Silvergate Capital (SI) to Underweight from Overweight with a price target of $70, down from $115. The growth outlook for Silvergate as a pure-play crypto banking solution is "significantly limited in the current environment," Shaw told investors in a research note.
- Baird analyst Jeffrey Meuler downgraded Fair Isaac (FICO) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $475, down from $546. He expects "meaningful" incremental year-over-year mortgage market headwind in 2023 and thinks relative value appears better elsewhere following the stock's outperformance.
Top 5 Initiations:
- Exane BNP Paribas analyst Alistair Johnson initiated coverage of DraftKings (DKNG) with an Underperform rating. The analyst believes the company's profitability "remains a long way off."
- Canaccord analyst Jason Tilchen initiated coverage of Penn Entertainment (PENN) with a Buy rating and $50 price target. At current levels, investors can access "a very reasonably valued, consistent, and strongly profitable regional casino business" with upside from the rapidly expanding online sports betting and iGaming markets, the analyst contended.
- Evercore ISI analyst Peter Levine initiated coverage of Zscaler (ZS) with an Outperform rating and $235 price target. Zscaler is a "true disruptor" in next-gen cloud security as wall as "one of the few beneficiaries" monetizing hybrid work and protecting cloud workflow, Levine contended.
- Evercore ISI analyst Peter Levine initiated coverage of Crowdstrike (CRWD) with an Outperform rating and $250 price target. Crowdstrike has a "hyper-growth profile coupled with profitability," as well as "best-in-class" cash flow margins, Levine argued. The analyst also assumed coverage of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) with an Outperform rating and $207 price target.
- Evercore ISI analyst Peter Levine initiated coverage of Okta (OKTA) with an Underperform rating and $45 price target. The company is at the forefront of identity, but given recent missteps and lack of execution, it "has a long road ahead to clean up the narrative and regain credibility with investors," Levine argued.
Symbols:
VZ - $39.43 /
+0.7175 (+1.85%)
FOXA PINS NDAQ TTWO SPLK TM AN SI FICO - $423.28 /
-18.27 (-4.14%)
DKNG PENN ZS CRWD PANW OKTA Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street