DocuSign upgraded, Arista downgraded: 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:

• UBS upgraded DocuSign (DOCU) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $62, up from $48. The shares are now fairly valued, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Raymond James upgraded GitLab (GTLB) to Outperform from Market Perform with a $70 price target. The analyst believes GitLab’s growth rate should approach or exceed 30% year-over-year as fiscal 2025 progresses.
• Wolfe Research upgraded Mobileye (MBLY) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $41 price target. The analyst sees limited risk to near-term Street estimates and believes the company’s advantages in Supervision and Chauffeur to be more apparent in the next 6-12 months.
• Williams Trading last night upgraded Boot Barn (BOOT) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $113, up from $80. The firm says Cowboy Carter, Beyonce’s new album, provides the positive same-store-sales catalyst it needed to see.
• Mizuho upgraded Ecolab (ECL) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $260, up from $216. The analyst has gained more confidence that the company “appears to be back to its historical beat-and-raise visibility.”

Top 5 Downgrades:

• JPMorgan downgraded Corteva (CTVA) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $57, down from $58. The analyst says 2024 is likely to begin slowly for Corteva as crop chemical de-stocking continues in South America and Europe.
• Rosenblatt downgraded Arista Networks (ANET) to Sell from Buy with a $210 price target. The stock trades at its current valuation because most people believe Arista will be a large AI beneficiary, but the firm’s view is that while Ethernet is “a long-term winning technology,” Arista may not benefit as much as would be needed to support the current stock price or higher, the analyst tells investors.
• Exane BNP Paribas downgraded VF Corp. (VFC) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $14, down from $18. The company is in a “hard place for now,” the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Stifel downgraded Target Hospitality (TH) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $12, down from $13, following Arrow Holdings and TDR Capital’s recent bid to take the company private. While the firm believes a modestly higher bid might be required to achieve approval from Target Hospitality’s Board, it does not expect an outside bidder to surface.
• Zelman downgraded D.R. Horton (DHI) to Neutral from Outperform with a $156 price target.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Citi initiated coverage of Ciena (CIEN) with a Sell rating and $44 price target. The analyst likes Ciena’s established leadership position in the optical transport market, particularly data center interconnect, but says the benefits from artificial intelligence networking traffic are still years out.
• Citi resumed coverage of Cisco (CSCO) with a Neutral rating and $52 price target. The analyst also opened a “90-day positive catalyst watch” on the shares. While estimates likely come down for the next two quarters on a prolonged inventory correction and impact from Splunk, the stock’s multiple should expand modestly as the company benefits from Stage 2 artificial intelligence-related networking demand from sovereign nations and cloud providers, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage of First Solar (FSLR) with a Buy rating and $236 fair value estimate. First Solar’s utility-scale panel business is oversold through 2026 with a greater than $23B backlog, providing a “unique level of long-duration certainty” and insulating it from ongoing challenges regarding project pushouts impacting the domestic utility-scale landscape in 2024-2025, the analyst tells investors.
• Stephens resumed coverage of Wingstop (WING) with an Overweight rating and $425 price target. Noting that Wingstop is “one of the few publicly traded restaurant names that is delivering consistent same-store sales growth,” while also giving investors targeted exposure to the chicken megatrend, the firm believes that the company has “perhaps the most unique and attractive growth story,” the analyst tells investors.
• Stephens resumed coverage of Chipotle (CMG) with an Equal Weight rating and $3,010 price target. The company separates itself from its fast casual dining peers through best-in-class execution and offers impressive unit economics in its company-owned stores coupled with expanding digital offerings, the analyst tells investors in a research note.