Kraft Heinz upgraded, AMD initiated: 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:

• Bernstein upgraded Kraft Heinz (KHC) to Outperform from Market Perform with an unchanged price target of $40. The firm believes the pullback in the stock price is overdone.
• Bernstein upgraded J.M. Smucker (SJM) to Market Perform from Underperform with a price target of $119, down from $123. The firm sees an overreaction to GLP-1’s impact on future food volumes, and believes the risk/reward for the sector is modestly attractive at these current levels.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $175, up from $155. The firm believes a major product announcement, such as the highly anticipated trailer for GTA 6, is likely to drive positive investor sentiment and should serve as a catalyst for the stock.
• Baird upgraded Aspen Technology (AZPN) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $202, up from $194. With the stock down 28% since the fiscal Q3 results in March and the valuation at low end of the historical range, the share price discounts concerns around the achievability of Aspen’s fiscal 2024 annual contract value guide and EMR integration, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Barclays double upgraded Mosaic (MOS) to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $42, up from $40. After a volatile Q3 and relative underperformance of potassium versus and nitrogen, the firm switched Americas agribusiness recommendations and double-upgraded Mosaic and Nutrien (NTR) given their potassium exposure, while upgrading ICL Group (ICL) to Overweight as well.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• JPMorgan downgraded Beauty Health (SKIN) to Underweight from Neutral without a price target. The company’s Q3 report was headlined by both a significant negative revision to the financial outlook and the exit of CEO Andrew Stanleick, the firm notes. Piper Sandler also cut Beauty Skin’s rating to Underweight, while Canaccord, Benchmark, William Blair, and TD Cowen downgraded the stock to Neutral-equivalent ratings.
• BofA double downgraded Ansys (ANSS) to Underperform from Buy with a price target of $295, down from $356. The firm has concerns around broader demand trends and U.S-China export restrictions.
• Lake Street downgraded Asure Software (ASUR) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $8, down from $20. The firm believes the company can grow total revenue double-digits organically over the coming year, but says that the absence of ERC revenue will weigh on comps in the near-term.
• Barclays downgraded Corteva (CTVA) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $50, down from $66, due to its persistent destocking overhang.
• Barclays downgraded CF Industries (CF) to Underweight from Equal Weight with an unchanged price target of $85 given its recent relative outperformance.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Roth MKM initiated coverage of AMD (AMD) with a Buy rating and $125 price target. AMD is well-positioned from a product portfolio perspective to address the growing data center infrastructure market, and the firm’s checks indicate that AMD is poised to gain further share in the cloud server market and is making further inroads in the enterprise market.
• Roth MKM initiated coverage of ON Semiconductor (ON) with a Buy rating and $75 price target. ON targets the large and growing SiC power device market, says the firm, which believes the stock “represents a differentiated investment in automotive and industrial power semiconductors.”
• Roth MKM initiated coverage of Marvell (MRVL) with a Buy rating and $60 price target. Marvell has an opportunity in the cloud AI market, particularly with newer generative AI driving a faster-than-typical upgrade cycle to 800G networking, says the firm, which believes that the company’s broad data-infrastructure-centric portfolio is well-positioned to benefit from high-performance data center infrastructure upgrades.
• CL King initiated coverage of Integra LifeSciences (IART) with a Buy rating and $50 price target. The firm believes the stock price is currently depressed due to the Boston recall and FDA Warning Letter, but as the company proceeds with its remediation plans, the stock price should move higher.
• B. Riley initiated coverage of Real Good Food (RGF) with a Buy rating and $6 price target. Strong demand at retail is outstripping supply and the company is ramping production “toward utilization that brings the P&L to the precipice of positive AEBITDA,” says the firm.