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

Domino’s Pizza upgrade, Starbucks downgrade, and Rent-A-Center initiation among today’s top calls on Wall Street

Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to learn which companies the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.

Research analysts at Wall Street’s largest banks issue recommendations on whether a stock should be bought, held, or sold. The Fly’s team of financial market experts scours hundreds of research notes daily to uncover the best trading ideas. Check out today’s top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.

Top 5 Upgrades:

• BTIG analyst Peter Saleh upgraded Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) to Buy from Neutral with a $460 price target. The analyst believes the company’s margins have bottomed and are set to rebound in 2023 due to higher menu pricing and organic improvements in driver availability.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker upgraded United Airlines (UAL) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $67 price target. The analyst sees 2023 as a "Goldilocks sweet spot" for United with all the tailwinds of the late pandemic recovery and the initial gains from the transition to the capacity phase of United NEXT.
• Daiwa analyst Stephen Bersey upgraded Crowdstrike (CRWD) to Buy from Outperform with a price target of $181, down from $193, as he now sees 46% upside in the shares.
• Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall upgraded Comcast (CMSCA) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $38, up from $30. The analyst is "less negative" on the company’s cable outlook with slower EBITDA growth but also "clearer capex."
• Truist analyst Barry Jonas upgraded MGM Resorts (MGM) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $50, up from $40. The analyst notes valuation on MGM Resorts is "compelling" as non-Macau entity is trading at a 1-times turn discount relative to the regionals.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Mullan downgraded Starbucks (SBUX) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $106, up from $100. The analyst is making a risk/reward and valuation call on the shares, saying "there is not much more to it than that."
• Loop Capital analyst Ananda Baruah downgraded NetApp (NTAP) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $67, down from $100. Deteriorating macro conditions have started to impact Storage, both in on-premise and in Cloud business, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan analyst Richard Sunderland downgraded Spire (SR) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $69, down from $75. The company’s 2023 guidance and implied forward earnings power landed well short of expectations, says the analyst, who lowered 2023 and 2024 earnings estimates by 4% and 7%, respectively.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Manan Gosalia downgraded First Republic (FRC), SVB Financial (SIVB), and Silvergate Capital (SI) to Underweight from Equal Weight as he initiated coverage of 12 midcap banks and took over coverage of several others.  The analyst also downgraded Signature Bank to Equal Weight from Overweight as he prefers to be positioned in names that are best-equipped to manage the headwinds from tightening liquidity conditions as rates rise.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker downgraded Allegiant Travel (ALGT) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $115, down from $175. The analyst continues to like Allegiant’s "flexible and nimble" business model, but says "uncontrollable factors have impacted the last few quarters, creating noise and uncertainty in the medium term."

Top 5 Initiations:

• Craig-Hallum analyst Alex Fuhrman initiated coverage of Rent-A-Center (RCII) with a Buy rating and $40 price target. Rent-A-Center is a best-in-class lease-to-own operator that should be one of the biggest beneficiaries of falling inflation, the analyst argues.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Stephen Grambling initiated coverage of Marriott (MAR) with an Overweight rating and $190 price target. Marriott has transformed its business over the past 10 years, shedding owned real estate, spinning off timeshare, and shifting management contracts to be more variable, Grambling tells investors in a research note. The analyst also started coverage of Hilton (HLT), Hyatt (H) and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (WH) with Overweight ratings.
• Raymond James analyst Felix Boeschen initiated coverage of RXO Inc. (RXO) with a Market Perform rating without a price target. The analyst is "impressed" with RXO’s technology and asset-light business model, but remains "hesitant" on the cyclical freight backdrop.
• Citi analyst Stephen Trent initiated coverage of JetBlue Airways (JBLU) with a Neutral rating and $9 price target. The company faces uncertainties on its Northeast Alliance and on its efforts to acquire Spirit Airlines, Trent tells investors in a research note. The analyst also started coverage of Alaska Air (ALK) with a Buy rating and $55 price target.
• Goldman Sachs analyst Chris Shibutani initiated coverage of United Therapeutics (UTHR) with a Sell rating and $230 price target. With a DPI formulation launched and reimbursement coverage in hand, the company has potentially fewer catalysts that can drive performance of the business at levels that would be necessary to propel further outperformance of the stock, Shibutani tells investors in a research note.

Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street