Tesla upgrade, FedEx downgrade and Lyft initiation among today's top calls on Wall Street
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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:
Wolfe Research analyst Rod Lache upgraded Tesla (TSLA) to Outperform from Peer Perform and set a $360 price target on the shares in conjunction with raising his 2025 U.S. EV penetration estimate to 20% from 10% and his global EV penetration estimate to 22% from 17.5%.
Rosenblatt analyst Barton Crockett upgraded Nexstar (NXST) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $246, up from $181. After reviewing his stance on TV stations, he sees a "surprising opportunity" in mix-driven ad resilience, hedges to cord-cutting and new revenues from next-gen transmission tech that in combination can support growth for "sector leader" Nextstar, even in a recessionary environment.
Morgan Stanley analyst David Arcaro upgraded NextEra Energy (NEE) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $99, up from $94. The analyst expects NextEra to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which should bring faster wind, storage, and battery storage growth for the next decade.
Wells Fargo analyst Jacob Hughes upgraded Perrigo (PRGO) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $54, up from $48. The analyst notes the trade-down effect to store brand is real and improved product innovation supports sustainable organic growth, and cites infant formula competitor recall and launch of store brand hypo formula tailwind in the second half of the year, HRA deal bringing in solid product portfolio with very attractive financial profile, and high conviction in margins inflecting higher in the second half of the year.
Stifel analyst Daniel Arias upgraded Mettler-Toledo (MTD) to Buy from Hold with a $1,500 price target. Mettler-Toledo is "a stock that is best bought when the macroeconomic environment yields an opportunity," argued Arias who sees the current moment as "one of those times" with the stock down 30% year-to-date.
Top 5 Downgrades:
Citi analyst Christian Wetherbee downgraded FedEx (FDX) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $225, down from $270. The analyst is concerned that macro headwinds in the near-term are going to impact shares and pressure the company's earnings growth potential in fiscal 2023.
Odeon Capital analyst Dick Bove downgraded Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to Sell from Hold. He argued that the top six investment banks, along with Credit Suisse (CS), are "being harmed" as volumes they have processed in the debt markets in July and August this year versus last are sharply lower and other than investment grade bonds, "every significant category is down," while the businesses with the highest profit margins are down the most.
JPMorgan analyst Richard Shane downgraded Discover Financial (DFS) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $113, down from $140. The analyst is now "incrementally more cautious" on U.S. consumer finance stocks.
Oppenheimer analyst Suraj Kalia downgraded ShockWave Medical (SWAV) to Underperform from Perform with a $165 price target. The analyst argued that clinical evidence on SWAV IVL was mixed, at best, TAM is nowhere close to implied Street outlook, and high ASP is unsustainable.
BofA analyst Craig Slegenthaler double downgraded Carlyle Group (CG) to Underperform from Buy with a price target of $33, down from $58. The analyst reduced his target multiple for the shares to reflect an expected deceleration of growth in 2023 and 2024, emerging fundraising challenges, and the "surprise" CEO departure in August.
Top 5 Initiations:
BofA analyst Michael McGovern initiated coverage of Lyft (LYFT) with an Underperform rating and $14 price target. While he sees long-term option value in Lyft as the largest pure-play U.S. rideshare name, McGovern noted that Uber (UBER) management said that their U.S. Mobility market share was "at or near a multi-year high" in the second quarter and in the near-term McGovern expects Lyft's smaller scale to create "unique challenges in its post-pandemic recovery," including share losses.
BofA analyst Vivek Arya initiated coverage of Lumentum (LITE) with a Buy rating and $105 price target. The analyst stated that while the company faces near-term macro and cyclical risk around China lockdowns and in Europe, he likes Lumentum's improving product mix with more data center and telco customers longer term.
Credit Suisse analyst John Roberts initiated coverage of Westlake (WLK) with an Outperform rating and $120 price target. Approximately 30% of Westlake's sales are now within its housing and infrastructure products segment, which is primarily building products, Roberts noted.
Credit Suisse analyst John Roberts initiated coverage of Olin (OLN) with an Underperform rating and $51 price target. The company is significantly exposed to chlorine, caustic soda, and ethylene dichloride, which will face supply/demand pressure, Roberts contended.
BofA analyst Michael Funk initiated coverage of Dropbox (DBX) with a Buy rating and $34 price target, citing its strong free cash flow generation and potential for incremental returns to shareholders, upside he sees to consensus estimates and what he calls "a business model and valuation that was largely untouched by the pandemic."