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

Teva upgrade, Procter & Gamble downgrade, and Braze 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: 

• Evercore ISI upgraded Teva (TEVA) to Outperform from In Line with no price target. In the last few years, Teva‘s net debt has been cut in half, its opioid lawsuits have been settled and its base business has "generally stabilized," the firm says. [Read more]
• Roth MKM upgraded Snap-On (SNA) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $298, up from $278. The "recession-resistant narrative" surrounding the business remains intact and should get a boost in the event that the U.S. enters a recession, the firm says. [Read more]
• BofA upgraded Cincinnati Financial (CINF) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $117, up from $113. Rising umbrella claims have weighed on Cincinnati’s results since mid-2022, driving underperformance compared to the peer group, but the firm believes "the worst is over." [Read more]
• BTIG upgraded Dynatrace (DT) to Buy from Neutral with a $57 price target. The company reported strong fiscal Q4 results with upside on all key metrics and the outlook for fiscal 2024 was better-than-expected, the firm says. [Read more]
• Jefferies upgraded Rambus (RMBS) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $65, up from $45. The firm has increased confidence that Rambus is well positioned for not only leading buffer chip share in ramping DDR5 but also for "meaningful share in the significant adjacent growth opportunities" of companion chips. [Read more]

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Truist downgraded Procter & Gamble (PG) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $155, down from $165. The company has done a remarkable job of refocusing its product portfolio by cutting about $10B of overhead and other costs and improving investor sentiment over the past five years, but the stock’s current valuation now fully reflects those turnaround efforts, the firm argues. [Read more]
• Morgan Stanley downgraded Futu Holdings (FUTU) to Underweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $34, down from $44. Following Futu‘s announcement of app removal in China, the firm sees higher risks of outflows of assets under management from existing onshore clients. [Read more]
• BofA downgraded The Hanover (THG) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $130, down from $142. The Hanover’s share of catastrophe losses has materially outpaced investor expectations for the past two quarters, the firm notes. [Read more]
• BofA downgraded Selective Insurance (SIGI) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $97, down from $101. The firm cites valuation for the downgrade. [Read more]
• Bradesco BBI downgraded XP Inc. (XP) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $17, down from $25. The firm is also cutting its earnings estimates. [Read more]

Top 5 Initiations:

• Scotiabank initiated coverage of Braze (BRZE) with a Sector Perform rating and $34 price target. The firm sees Braze as reasonably priced at current share levels. [Read more]
• Jefferies initiated coverage of Wolfspeed (WOLF) with a Hold rating and $46 price target. The firm views the risk/reward as balanced, saying that investors will not afford Wolfspeed a premium valuation given the time to profitability and rising net leverage ratio in an environment marked by high interest rates and concerns about a recession. [Read more]
• Seaport Research initiated coverage of Array Technologies (ARRY) with a Buy rating and $30 price target. As the world’s second largest provider of tracker solutions for utility-scale solar projects, Array’s earnings should grow on the back of the continued secular uptrend in tracker deployments, with global installations from 2020 to 2023 expected to total 650 to 700 GW, the firm says. [Read more]
• William Blair resumed coverage of Dynatrace (DT) with an Outperform rating and no price target after the company reported strong Q4 results that outperformed expectations on all key metrics. [Read more]
• Truist initiated coverage of Arcellx (ACLX) with a Buy rating and $60 price target. With cash, future milestone revenues and clear line of sight to product revenue generation, Truist forecasts that Arcellx reaches profitability in 2027, and in that timeframe, there are multiple opportunities for clinical and regulatory catalysts to add value. [Read more]