Nike and Alphabet 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:

• Seaport Research upgraded International Paper (IP) to Buy from Neutral with a $52 price target. The selloff after Suzano dropped its takeover pursuit provides a “reasonable entry point” into International Paper, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Guggenheim upgraded Guardant Health (GH) to Buy from Neutral with a $36 price target. Based on recent checks and an updated revenue model, the analyst’s view has evolved on how Shield will ultimately be used as an every three year test for the colorectal cancer screening non-compliant market.
• BMO Capital upgraded SAP (SAP) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $237, up from $218. The analyst believe the company has a high degree of visibility into bookings and revenues over the next few years, largely driven by conversion of its “large and sticky” installed base to cloud offerings.
• JPMorgan upgraded Digital Realty Trust (DLR) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $175, up from $150. The analyst sees the company as a substantial beneficiary of cloud and artificial intelligence demand for data center capacity.
• Citi upgraded Cincinnati Financial (CINF) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $135, up from $126. The analyst says share downside is limited by less workers’ comp exposure, higher comp loss picks and material casualty reserving actions already taken.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Nike (NKE) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $79, down from $114. The company reported another disappointing earnings print and reduced outlook, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Stifel also downgraded Nike to Hold from Buy with a price target of $88, down from $117, to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $78, down from $125, at UBS, and to Market Perform from Outperform at Raymond James. Nike was also downgraded at Barclays and JPMorgan.
• Rosenblatt downgraded Alphabet (GOOGL) to Neutral from Buy with an $181 price target. The analyst sees “multiple areas of transitional risk” for Alphabet and recommends “stepping back for a little while to see how the company handles it.”
• William Blair downgraded Travelers (TRV) to Market Perform from Outperform and Chubb (CB) to Underperform from Market Perform, both without price targets. The casualty side of the insurance business is being hit by rising levels of claims and losses, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Argus downgraded Charles River (CRL) to Hold from Buy. The company continues to face headwinds to revenue growth due to cautious spending by the biotech industry, says the analyst.
• Wells Fargo downgraded Acuity Brands (AYI) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $260, down from $295. The analyst says capital deployment and non residential demand uncertainties are two key overhangs that will make it too difficult to argue for multiple expansion at this juncture.

Top 5 Initiations:

• JMP Securities initiated coverage of Affirm (AFRM) with a Market Perform rating and no price target. Over the past few years, Affirm’s business model has diversified and strengthened, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Baird initiated coverage of Synchrony Financial (SYF) with an Outperform rating and $56 price target. The firm calls Synchrony the number one domestic private label credit card platform, with tenured large retailer partnerships, and an experienced management team.
• Bernstein initiated coverage of Stellantis (STLA) with a Market Perform rating and $23.50 price target. After a significant re-rating in 2023, Stellantis shares have declined 30% since late March and following the recent capital markets day, the company faces increasing risks to near term results, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Guggenheim assumed coverage of Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP) with a Neutral rating and no price target. The firm says the company’s ongoing global commercial launch of Casgevy, cell therapy expansion into autoimmune indication, and foray into cardiovascular via ANGPTL3 and other in vivo targets are the “three pillars” that underpin “the CRSP 2.0 story.”
• Scotiabank last night initiated coverage of PagerDuty (PD) with a Sector Perform rating and $23 price target. The company has moved from an incident management tool to help IT operations and developers quicken their mean time to resolution to a broader operations cloud, which has expanded its total addressable market and fostered cross-selling capabilities, the analyst says.