AutoZone upgraded, SoFi downgraded: Wall Street’s top analyst calls

AutoZone upgrade, SoFi Technologies downgrade, and Airbus initiation among today’s top calls on Wall Street

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:

• UBS upgraded AutoZone (AZO) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $2,900, up from $2,800. The analyst thinks the current valuation has created an attractive buying opportunity. [read more]
• JPMorgan double upgraded MorphoSys (MOR) to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $10, up from $3.30. The Pelabresib BET inhibitor MANIFEST-2 Phase III study will report late in 2023, with "success de-risking a blockbuster asset" and offering 200% upside potential in the shares, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• BofA upgraded West Pharmaceutical (WST) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $405, up from $390. Rising worldwide obesity rates have created huge demand for drugs to treat weight loss and Type-2 diabetes, and BofA sees GLP-1s as a meaningful near-term driver, the analyst said. [read more]
• BofA upgraded Abcam (ABCM) to Buy from Neutral with a $25 price target. The analyst has grown increasingly confident in the company’s ability to meet its "ambitious" mid-term targets. [read more]
• Citi upgraded Santos (SSLZY) to Buy from Neutral with an A$8 price target. The analyst says the company has "more compelling resilience" to the energy transition relative to Woodside based on its growth projects being lower on the cost curve. [read more]

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Piper Sandler downgraded SoFi Technologies (SOFI) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $8, up from $6.50. The downgrade is primarily due to valuation as SoFi is up 107% year-to-date compared to consumer lending peers up 15% on average, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more] BofA also downgraded SoFi Technologies to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $10, up from $9.50. [read more]
• JPMorgan downgraded Mersana Therapeutics (MRSN) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $5, down from $11, following the partial clinical hold and the new Grade 5 bleeding events disclosed this morning. The analyst also removed the shares from the firm’s Analyst Focus List. The firm was "completely blindsided" by the new fatal bleeding cases. [read more]
• TD Cowen downgraded Bausch Health (BHC) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $12, down from $35. Bausch appears fairly valued based primarily on its 90% stake in Bausch + Lomb (BLCO), the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• BofA downgraded Evotec (EVO) to Neutral from Buy with a $13 price target. The analyst says the "still uncertain" impact of the recent cyber attack and negative investor sentiment regarding biotech activity will limit share upside in the near- to medium-term. [read more]
• Odeon Capital downgraded Truist Financial (TFC) to Hold from Buy with a $32.75 price target. Truist has had difficulty raising its revenues "from the time it was created in a merger of equals" and it "appears that the problem will persist through 2023," says the firm. [read more]

Top 5 Initiations:

• RBC Capital initiated coverage of Airbus (EADSY) with a Sector Perform rating and EUR 140 price target. The company is poised to push production aggressively into the strong demand environment, but continued supply chain stress will limit its 2025 and mid-decade upside, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• UBS initiated coverage of Guess (GES) with a Neutral rating and $22 price target. The analyst believes macro headwinds will continue pressuring U.S. consumer discretionary spending. [read more]
• Jefferies initiated coverage of LendingClub (LC) with a Buy rating and $13.50 price target. LendingClub is an early mover in the fintech space with a "deep" operating history, bank charter, and a tech-enabled lending platform, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• BTIG assumed coverage of Lightspeed (LSPD) with a Buy rating and $20 price target. While the recently announced Lightspeed Payments initiative "leaves a significant amount of uncertainty about customer churn," the firm believes the stock is pricing in "a more dire operating scenario than is likely to happen." [read more]
• DA Davidson initiated coverage of Elastic (ESTC) with a Neutral rating and $60 price target. Elastic has been leading with its flexible Lucene-based enterprise search product and then selling observability and security, which means its position "may be in peril" as the market starts transitioning to Vector-based enterprise search, says the analyst. [read more]