The most talked about and market moving research calls around Wall Street are now in one place. Here are today's research calls that investors need to know, as compiled by The Fly.
Top 5 Upgrades:
- Wedbush upgraded Zoom Video (ZM) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $85, up from $80, as the firm transferred coverage of multiple software names across the tech industry. The company is expecting to see a re-acceleration in growth at enterprise customers, while seeing its churn stabilize, says the firm, which expresses "confidence in the story going forward."
- Wedbush upgraded Dynatrace (DT) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $67, up from $55, after resuming coverage following a change in analysts. The firm cites its "incrementally better" field checks and the artificial intelligence "revolution" picking up that will provide a "stable tailwind" for Dynatrace going forward for the upgrade.
- Wedbush upgraded Couchbase (BASE) to Outperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $26 following a change in analyst coverage. The firm clews Capella as a "game changer" for Couchbase, with easy adoption or deployment compared to alternative customer managed offerings.
- Guggenheim upgraded Enphase Energy (ENPH) to Neutral from Sell without a price target. The firm cites valuation for the upgrade with the shares approaching its prior price target of $90.
- Oppenheimer upgraded Littelfuse (LFUS) to Outperform from Perform with a $310 price target. The company is well positioned to exceed the last earnings peak in 2022 over the next few years, the firm tells investors in a research note.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Daiwa downgraded Uber (UBER) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $84, up from $73. The firm sees limited valuation upside and potential risks from a high fixed-cost robotaxi model even under an Uber network.
- Guggenheim downgraded SolarEdge (SEDG) to Sell from Neutral with a $10 price target. The company seems to have "no answer" for the continued aggressiveness of Chinese suppliers in European markets for residential inverters, the firm says.
- Raymond James downgraded Brinker (EAT) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target. The firm says its bullish view of the company's underlying business momentum is unchanged, but believes its favorable view on the company's comparable sales and margin potential is largely reflected in the stock following the 110% rally this year.
- Wells Fargo downgraded Capri Holdings (CPRI) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $42 price target. The firm believes risk/reward is balanced at current levels as it awaits the court's decision on the fate of the merger.
- Mizuho downgraded Fortinet (FTNT) to Underperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $68. The firm's recent channel checks on Fortinet were "very mixed," with some enterprise-focused partners falling short of plan.
Top 5 Initiations:
- Bernstein initiated coverage of Eli Lilly (LLY) with an Outperform rating and $1,100 price target. The firm is optimistic on the outlook for the industry, and says the market "clearly rewards future revenue growth - as a marker of portfolio reinvention." Bernstein also started coverage of Gilead (GILD) and Amgen (AMGN) with Outperform ratings.
- Bernstein initiated coverage of AbbVie (ABBV) with a Market Perform rating and $203 price target. The firm initiated coverage on U.S. biopharma and is optimistic on the outlook for the industry, but says in-line sector stock performance versus the S&P 500 Index and historically average valuations combined with increasing industry pressures suggest that investment outcomes will be more tied to specific company opportunities. Bernstein also started coverage of Pfizer (PFE), Bristol Myers (BMY), Moderna (MRNA) and Merck (MRK) with Market Perform ratings.
- Loop Capital initiated coverage of Grocery Outlet (GO) with a Hold rating and $17 price target. The firm believes Grocery Outlet is currently a "show-me story" given the company's ongoing systems integration issues and concerns about increased competition.
- BofA reinstated coverage of Western Midstream (WES) with an Underperform rating and $37 price target. The firm believes midstream consolidation is in its final innings and expects to see these smaller companies underperform as acquisition premia fade away.
- JPMorgan initiated coverage of Constellation Energy (CEG) with an Overweight rating and $342 price target. The firm initiated coverage of the independent power producers with a positive sector view, even when considering the year-to-date stock price strength. JPMorgan also started coverage of Talen Energy (TLN) and Vistra (VST) with Outperform ratings.