Starbucks downgraded, Dollar Tree upgraded: Wall Street’s top analyst calls

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:

• KeyBanc upgraded Dollar Tree (DLTR) to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $150 price target. The firm expects the company’s fundamentals to accelerate into the second half of 2024.
• Wedbush upgraded Seagate (STX) to Outperform from Neutral with a $100 price target. The firm cites an improving nearline HDD demand environment that creates likely upside to its near-term expectations, and its increased conviction that HAMR is a “good” technology, with the ramp of HAMR only likely to augment favorable nearline trends.
• JPMorgan upgraded 3M (MMM) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $111, up from $110. The firm cites the combination of an attractive valuation, an increasingly cleaned up balance sheet, and the dividend cut catalyst behind the company for the upgrade.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Sirius XM (SIRI) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $3.25, down from $3.50. The firm cites valuation for the upgrade with the shares down 46% year-to-date.
• JPMorgan upgraded Fifth Third (FITB) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $39.50, up from $37.50. Looking past the earnings report, interest rates are staying higher for longer with sticky inflation, with 10-year Treasury yields up 48 basis points to date in Q2, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Deutsche Bank downgraded Starbucks (SBUX) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $89, down from $108, following the “challenging” fiscal Q2 report. Starbucks is facing broad-based headwinds with limited visibility into the pace of a recovery, the firm tells investors in a research note. William Blair also downgraded Starbucks to Market Perform from Outperform.
• Benchmark downgraded Skyworks (SWKS) to Hold from Buy and removed the firm’s prior price target after the company posted March quarter revenue that matched the Street consensus, but excess market inventories and soft consumer smartphone activity weighed on the company’s guidance for the June quarter. TD Cowen also downgraded Skyworks to Hold from Buy with a price target of $90, down from $125.
• Argus downgraded Boyd Gaming (BYD) to Hold from Buy after its Q1 earnings miss. 2024 earnings should “rise modestly” due to solid revenue growth and the company’s share buyback program, but the company’s Las Vegas Locals segment will likely be pressured by the opening of a competitor’s location, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan downgraded Logitech (LOGI) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $85, down from $92. While the company’s fiscal Q4 report showed continued signs of robust execution, the rebound of the product portfolio to healthy growth in the medium term will remain constrained by a challenging macro environment and its efforts to drive growth will likely need to return to robust promotional levels, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Berenberg downgraded Autodesk (ADSK) to Hold from Buy with an unchanged price target of $295. Autodesk is still unable to file its annual report, and the risks associated with the audit committee investigating its accounting practices are now at a significant enough level to make this the overriding factor within the investment thesis on the stock, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Baird initiated coverage of Praxis Precision Medicines (PRAX) with an Outperform rating and $117 price target. The firm views Praxis’ ulixacaltamide as “a promising agent” for the treatment of essential tremor and sees a positive risk/reward heading into topline phase 3 results due in the second half of 2024.
• Baird initiated coverage of Longboard Pharmaceuticals (LBPH) with an Outperform rating and $36 price target. As the neuroscience biotech spinout of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Longboard’s agents came out of the same “leading” GPCR drug discovery engine as Arena’s agents and “just like Arena a few years ago,” Longboard has two lead agents that each “appear on track to have a meaningfully differentiated best-in-class profile for an area of high interest to large biotech/pharma companies,” says the firm.
• Stifel initiated coverage of Cullinan Therapeutics (CGEM) with a Buy rating and $40 price target. Among the growing list of CD19-targeted B-cell depletion therapies for autoimmune diseases, the firm prefers Cullinan’s simpler bispecific T-cell engager over CAR-T.
• H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage of Cyclo Therapeutics (CYTH) with a Buy rating and $3 price target. The firm currently projects the company to generate revenues of $412M in 2031 and believes Cyclo at current valuation levels is an attractive opportunity for a long-term investor.
• Craig-Hallum analyst Matt Hewitt assumed coverage of NeoGenomics (NEO) with a Buy rating and $26 price target. The firm says NeoGenomics remains a premier oncology lab testing provider and with the regulatory overhang now removed, it sees an opportunity for the stock to regain its position in growth portfolios.