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:
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KeyBanc upgraded DoorDash (DASH) to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $177 price target. The firm came away more confident from its Q3 mobility and delivery survey that DoorDash is gaining ground in its core and emerging verticals, which should sustain greater than 15% gross order volume growth and drive EBITDA of $3.5B by 2026, or 6% above consensus.
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Morgan Stanley upgraded AutoNation (AN) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $200, up from $145. The firm believes its previous latent concerns about the franchise dealer business model have “proven largely mitigated” and it now sees greater risk in other pockets of its U.S. autos coverage.
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Barclays upgraded HP Enterprise (HPE) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $24, up from $20. The firm believes the company will continue to grow its artificial intelligence server revenues, improve in storage, and it likes the accretion from the Juniper Networks (JNPR) deal.
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Wells Fargo upgraded Baker Hughes (BKR) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $42, up from $40, as part of a broader research note on Energy Services. The firm is raising the multiple for the Industrial & Energy Technology segment, IET, reflecting better prospects and valuation opportunities for this diversified segment helping in offsetting the lower multiple for the Oilfield Services & Equipment segment, OFSE, which reflects its “muted views” for this business that is consistent with its peers.
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JPMorgan upgraded Petrobras (PBR) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $19, up from $16.50. The firm cites the company’s “supportive” free cash flow and “discounted” valuation for the upgrade.
Top 5 Downgrades:
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Morgan Stanley downgraded Rivian Automotive (RIVN) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $13, down from $16. The firm believes Rivian’s ability to drive competitive compute progress in a financially prudent way is limited.
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Morgan Stanley downgraded General Motors (GM) to Underweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $42, down from $47, and Ford (F) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $12, down from $16. Morgan Stanley cites expectations for greater share loss through the end of the decade, price/mix headwinds, and China risk for the downgrades of both Ford and GM.
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William Blair downgraded Global Payments (GPN) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target following the investor day. The company’s merchant business faces structural competitive challenges impeding long-term organic revenue growth acceleration, the firm tells investors in a research note. Seaport Research and BTIG also downgraded Global Payments to Neutral following the company’s investor day.
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TD Cowen downgraded Expedia (EXPE) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $150, up from $130. The firm says Expedia’s weak business-to-consumer business, which drove guidance cuts the past three quarters, may take longer than expected to turn around.
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Piper Sandler downgraded Tyson Foods (TSN) to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $50, down from $57. The firm sees more downside risk that does not look priced into the shares.
Top 5 Initiations:
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Wolfe Research initiated coverage of Apollo Global (APO) with an Outperform rating and $139 price target. Despite the negative revision risk from lower interest rates, the firm sees the stock’s risk reward as attractive given its heavily discounted valuation vs. peers and multiple positive catalysts.
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Macquarie initiated coverage of Riot Platforms (RIOT) with an Outperform rating and $15 price target. Riot continues to “drive massive scale” as a pure-play, vertically integrated bitcoin miner, managing infrastructure, power, computing, and cooling technology. Macquarie also started coverage of Mara (MARA), Cipher (CIFR), and CleanSpark (CLSK) with Outperform ratings.
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Truist initiated coverage of Perspective Therapeutics (CATX) with a Buy rating and $21 price target. The firm says the company’s two Phase 1 data readouts, one in neuroendocrine tumor and one in melanoma, in the second half of 2024 can potentially give platform validation and investor credit towards its pipeline.
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JPMorgan reinstated coverage of Alcoa (AA) with a Neutral rating with a price target of $36, up from $32, following a period of restriction. The firm sees limited near-term catalysts for aluminum pricing given “conflicting indicators” out of China, the U.S. election overhang, and the start of an interest rate cutting cycle.
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Oppenheimer reinstated coverage of McGrath RentCorp (MGRC) with an Outperform rating and $120 price target. The firm notes that on September 18, following an FTC review, WillScot Holdings (WSC) discontinued its attempt to acquire McGrath.
