Intel downgraded, Micron 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:

• BNP Paribas Exane double upgraded Micron (MU) to Outperform from Underperform with a price target of $270, up from $100. The firm now “fully embraces” high-bandwidth memory as a sustainable, separate growth vector and believes Micron and the market are in the “early innings of a memory supercycle,” the firm tells investors.
• BTIG upgraded Palo Alto Networks (PANW) to Buy from Neutral with a $248 price target after speaking with seven contacts who were “surprisingly positive” and coming away from the checks with greater confidence in the company’s ability to achieve growth targets of 14% total revenue growth and 26% growth in NGS ARR in FY26.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Estee Lauder (EL) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $115, up from $76. The firm sees a “fundamental inflection” for the company with the business potentially returning to sales growth as soon as the September quarter.
• BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Ciena (CIEN) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $185, up from $120. The company is positioned to benefit from “burgeoning” data center investments, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded both Public Storage (PSA) and CubeSmart (CUBE) to Buy from Hold with price targets of $325 and $45, respectively. The firm cites a more positive outlook on the self-storage real estate investment trust sector into the Q3 reports for the upgrades.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• BofA downgraded Intel (INTC) to Underperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $34. The recent $80B jump in Intel’s market cap more than reflects its improved balance sheet and external foundry potential, while the competitive outlook remains challenged with “no discernible AI portfolio/strategy,” uncompetitive server CPU, and less flexibility now than before in divesting loss-making manufacturing, argues the firm, which says the stock has come “too far, too fast” when considering the company’s still-challenged fundamentals.
• Goldman Sachs downgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Sell from Neutral with a $70 price target. The firm believes PayPal will face several transaction margin headwinds in 2026, including interest rate headwinds and the lapping of a reacceleration of its credit products.
• BofA downgraded Texas Instruments (TXN) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $190, down from $208. While the firm appreciates the “high quality” of TI’s assets and its execution consistency, it believes the turmoil caused by global tariffs could keep the lid on any near- to medium-term demand improvement in the industrial economy.
• BofA downgraded GlobalFoundries (GFS) to Underperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $35. The firm doesn’t see a specific catalyst for any immediate decline in the stock, but believes the company will need to display faster gross margin improvement and pricing power than what has been seen in the last two years.
• BofA downgraded Axcelis (ACLS) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $90, up from $81. Though the firm views the proposed merger with Veeco Instruments (VECO) as “an overall positive,” it notes that most of the benefits are generally far out and present limited near-term upside.

Top 5 Initiations:

• William Blair initiated coverage of Netskope (NTSK) with an Outperform rating. With the rise of AI in all of its various forms, the need to more granularly understand interactions between users and AI to apply policies to accessing data should lead to even stronger adoption of Netskope, the firm says. Oppenheimer, Wells Fargo, TD Cowen, Mizuho, RBC Capital, Piper Sandler, KeyBanc, Citizens JMP, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Berenberg, BMO Capital, and BTIG also started coverage of Netskope with Buy-equivalent ratings.
• Oppenheimer initiated coverage of StubHub (STUB) with an Outperform rating and $23 price target. The firm’s proprietary consumer survey shows continued strong demand for live events, assuming no recession. Mizuho, BofA, TD Cowen, JPMorgan, Citizens JMP, Evercore ISI, BMO Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Wedbush also started coverage of StubHub with Buy-equivalent ratings, while Wolfe Research initiated the name with a Peer Perform.
• Argus initiated coverage of Paramount Skydance (PSKY) with a Hold rating. The firm believes the media landscape brings opportunities and risks for the company.
• BofA resumed coverage of Jack in the Box (JACK) with a Buy rating and $22 price target. Jack in the Box faces added pressure from higher exposure to Hispanic consumers, but the company’s unchanged FY25 same-store sales growth guidance suggests the company has “given itself cushion” to manage through continued pressure, the firm added.
• Barclays initiated coverage of GE HealthCare (GEHC) with an Equal Weight rating and $86 price target. The firm expects GE HealthCare will see “sluggish” growth in China in the near-term, which will temper expectations into 2026.