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

Verizon upgrade, Delta Air Lines downgrade and Nvidia 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:

  • Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery upgraded Verizon Communications (VZ) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $44, up from $41, which offers over 20% total returns. The analyst sees room for improved operational performance in 2023 and the company’s free cash flow ramping 45% by 2024.
  • Barclays analyst Brandt Montour upgraded Wyndham Hotels & Resorts (WH) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $88, up from $80. The company’s "bullish thesis" is finally starting to emerge, with its own balance sheet and resources more effectively curtailing room churn, accelerating net unit growth, without having to accelerate gross room growth, Montour tells investors in a research note
  • Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag upgraded L3Harris Technologies (LHX) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $278, up from $263. The market has yet to fully price in the extent of geopolitical realities and stronger focus on strategic competition, which supports a positive view on U.S. defense stocks heading into 2023, Liwag tells investors in a research note.
  • Baird analyst Rob Oliver upgraded VeriSign (VRSN) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $265, up from $216. Investor focus could turn towards the company’s upcoming contract renewal in 2024 and the durability and growth of its free cash flow "in an otherwise difficult software tape," Oliver tells investors in a research note.
  • BofA analyst Tazeen Ahmad upgraded BioNTech (BNTX) to Buy from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $239, citing the view that its oncology pipeline could be the "next driver of value" and seeing a positive read-through from the recent update from rival Moderna (MRNA) and Merck’s (MRK) PCV program in melanoma.

Top 5 Downgrades:

  • Evercore ISI analyst Duane Pfennigwerth downgraded Delta Air Lines (DAL) to In Line from Outperform with a price target of $40, down from $50. In light of slowing economic growth, Delta’s year-over-year top-line growth guidance of 15%-20% "feels full," Pfennigwerth added.
  • Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag downgraded Lockheed Martin (LMT) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $542, up from $506. The analyst believes Lockheed’s strong share performance this year limits further upside.
  • Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari downgraded Western Digital (WDC) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $31, down from $43, given an expectation for a "severe" memory industry downturn, and historically low trough gross margins by extension.
  • Jefferies analyst James Heaney downgraded Snap (SNAP) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $10, down from $12, as he took over lead coverage of the stock. In his view, the Street is "overly optimistic" on digital advertising growth in 2023 and 2024 and he sees Snap’s lack of catalysts as a "concern."
  • Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery downgraded AT&T (T) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a $20 price target. While AT&T’s solid execution continues, the analyst expects slowing growth in 2023 on more difficult wireless comps and continued secular pressures in wireline.

Top 5 Initiations:

  • HSBC analyst Frank Lee initiated coverage of Nvidia (NVDA) with a Reduce rating and $136 price target. The company’s potential in autos and artificial intelligence software is overshadowed by a shorter-term chip inventory correction and demand uncertainty, Lee tells investors in a research note.
  • Redburn analyst Christopher Pitcher initiated coverage of Estee Lauder (EL) with a Sell rating and $210 price target. The analyst assumes a steady reopening in 2023 but with Estee’s growth "partially absorbed by high inventories at its main travel retail customer."
  • Wedbush analyst Taz Koujalgi initiated coverage of Crowdstrike (CRWD) with an Outperform rating and $135 price target. The analyst believes the company’s current installed base of about 20,000 customers gives it significant runway to add new customers as other larger security vendors have much higher customer counts.
  • Wedbush analyst Taz Koujalgi initiated coverage of Zoom Video (ZM) with a Neutral rating and $80 price target. The analyst is a bit concerned about the competitive landscape as he hears anecdotes about pricing pressure in the Voice/UCaaS space, and also about competitors like Microsoft (MSFT) bundling their products with their broader portfolio. Koujalgi also started coverage of Splunk (SPLK) and Snowflake with Neutral ratings and price targets of $86 and $144, respectively.
  • Wolfe Research analyst Greg Badishkanian initiated coverage of Wayfair (W) with a Peer Perform rating and no price target. Wayfair is one of the largest online sellers of home goods and currently trades at a trough multiple, but with questions over customer growth and risks to discretionary spending ahead, the stock’s risk/reward is balanced, Badishkanian tells investors in a research note.
Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street

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