Street Wrap: Today’s Top 15 Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations

Mesa Air upgrade, Disney downgrade, and Palo Alto Networks 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:

• Raymond James upgraded Mesa Air (MESA) to Market Perform from Underperform without a price target. The analyst sees more balanced risk/reward following the recent selloff in shares on the heels of a disappointing earnings update. [read more]
• Cantor Fitzgerald last night upgraded Iris Energy (IREN) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $7, up from $4. The company on its investor update call outlined a plan for an additional 1.0 EH/s of near-term expansion, which could increase its total hash rate to 6.5 EH/s, the analyst says. [read more]
• SVB Securities upgraded Bolt Biotherapeutics (BOLT) to Outperform from Market Perform with an unchanged price target of $4 ahead of the clinical readout for BDC-1001 from the phase 1 dose escalation study at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. The analyst believes there is potential for positive outcomes that could result in "meaningful upside" for the stock. [read more]
• Credit Suisse upgraded Vitru (VTRU) to Outperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $23 post the Q1 results. The analyst cites valuation for the upgrade given the negative price action in the last month. [read more]
• RBC Capital upgraded Barclays (BCS) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of 230 GBp, up from 215 GBp, implying 50% upside. The analyst believes Barclays will be the biggest beneficiary of a "structural hedge tailwind," the magnitude and duration of which the firm thinks are underappreciated by the market. [read more]

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Wolfe Research downgraded Disney (DIS) to Peer Perform from Outperform without a price target. The company’s direct-to-consumer subscriber and linear TV outlooks "keep deteriorating," the analyst says. [read more]
• Wells Fargo downgraded Fox Corp. (FOXA) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $35, down from $44. While the firm liked Fox when EBITDA was growing, sports betting seemed promising and for its relative balance sheet appeal when rates were going higher, there’s a lot less to get excited about looking ahead, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• Mizuho downgraded Twilio (TWLO) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $55, down from $90. The company’s Q1 guidance of 4%-5% year-over-year revenue growth was meaningfully below the consensus of 11%, which reflects the difficult macro backdrop as well as tough compares from crypto that will likely continue to pressure growth over the near-term, says the analyst. [read more]
• Exane BNP Paribas downgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Neutral from Outperform. [read more]
• SVB Securities downgraded Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (ARWR) to Market Perform from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $40. The favorable risk/reward skew that made Arrowhead a compelling buy ahead of better-than-expected results from ARO-RAGE is far more balanced ahead of R&D Day on June 1, the analyst says. [read more]
  
  

Top 5 Initiations:

• Capital One initiated coverage of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) with an Overweight rating and $247 price target. [read more]
• Truist initiated coverage of SoFi Technologies (SOFI) with a Buy rating and $8 price target. The analyst sees SoFi as the future of U.S. banking as it is "digital, nimble and always on." [read more]
• BofA resumed coverage of Green Plains (GPRE) with a Buy rating and $39 price target. The 12% post-earnings selloff is "too steep" given improved ethanol fundamentals, the analyst tells investors in a research note. [read more]
• Mizuho  initiated coverage of Surgery Partners (SGRY) with a Buy rating and $48 price target. The analyst believes Surgery Partners is an attractive investment opportunity given its "solid" earnings visibility. [read more]
• Needham initiated coverage of TriNet (TNET) with a Buy rating and $115 price target. The analyst contends that the company’s leading competitive positioning and the massive and growing market for PEO and HR services bode well for share gains in the market while TriNet also expands and enhances its product suite. [read more]