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

Verizon upgrade, Tesla downgrade and Main Street initiation among today’s top calls on Wall Street

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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:

• MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett upgraded Verizon (VZ) to Market Perform from Underperform with an unchanged price target of $41. After "an unprecedented stretch of underperformance" for Verizon, he believes his prior Underperform recommendation for "has likely run its course," Moffett tells investors.
• Northland analyst Gus Richard upgraded Enphase Energy (ENPH) to Outperform from Market Perform with a $365 price target after the California Public Utility Commission, or CPUC, passed NEMS 3.0 last week, which increases incentives for storage and reduces them for residential solar.
• Jefferies analyst Michael Yee upgraded Moderna (MRNA) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $275, up from $170. The shares can rebound in 2023 given the company’s pipeline opportunities, Yee tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan analyst Allen Gong upgraded Glaukos (GKOS) to Neutral from Underweight with a price target of $42, down from $48. Although Glaukos "isn’t in the clear yet," the lapping of challenges to the base business and a "long-awaited cadence" of new products set to begin contributing in 2023-2024 "has us incrementally positive on the story heading into the new year," the analyst writes.
• Stifel analyst Nathan Jones upgraded Pentair (PNR) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $57, up from $46. The analyst also added the shares to the "Stifel Select List." The analyst believes "we are approaching the end of the tunnel with clarity likely coming in the next quarter."

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch downgraded Tesla (TSLA) to Perform from Outperform. While the analyst continues to see Tesla evolving EV and autonomous technology in advance of peers and driving costs to levels those peers will struggle to match-and has tried to separate Elon Musk’s non-Tesla endeavors from his analysis on Tesla-he believes Musk’s acquisition and subsequent management of Twitter now make that separation untenable.
• MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett downgraded AT&T (T) to Underperform from Market Perform with an unchanged price target of $17. After "a dramatic bounce for AT&T," he thinks AT&T "once again looks overvalued."
• Baird analyst Peter Arment downgraded L3Harris Technologies (LHX) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $241, down from $290. The deal to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne (AJRD) in an all-cash transaction valued at about $4.7B in enterprise value is strategic in the long-term, but will be an overhang on the stock in the near-term, Arment tells investors.
• TD Securities analyst Tim James downgraded Maxar Technologies (MAXR) to Tender from Buy with a price target of $53, up from $34, following Advent International’s takeover offer.
• Jefferies analyst Michael Yee downgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) to Hold from Buy with an unchanged price target of $340. While Vertex fundamentals "are fine and the pipeline is as large as ever," this looks accounted for in the current valuation, Yee tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• UBS analyst Vilas Abraham initiated coverage of Main Street (MAIN) with a Neutral rating and $40 price target. The analyst expects the combination of growing interest income, durable fee income, and a low-cost expense structure to generate quarterly net investment income in excess of the company’s dividend for the foreseeable future. However, consistent with the sector, portfolio companies will feel the impact of higher rates as credit headwinds intensify, Abraham adds.
• Needham analyst Serge Belanger initiated coverage of Viridian Therapeutics (VRDN) with a Buy rating and $45 price target. VRDN-001, the company’s lead asset, has the potential to deliver more convenient dosing, faster onset, and improved efficacy vs. Horizon Therapeutics’ (HZNP) Tepezza, Belanger tells investors in a research note.
• Lake Street analyst Brooks O’Neil initiated coverage of Apollo Medical (AMEH) with a Buy rating and $40 price target. The analyst sees ApolloMed having "a huge opportunity" to partner with physicians and payors to accelerate the move to value-based care occurring in many markets across America and thinks the company’s roots in California managed care "provides a base of knowledge and experience the company can leverage as it moves into new markets."
• Cowen analyst Paul Silverstein initiated coverage of DZS (DZSI) with an Outperform rating and $25 price target. DZS generates about 80% of its revenue from fiber to the premises, or FTTP, broadband access, which is an area that offers "highly attractive absolute and relative growth in terms of magnitude, duration, and resiliency" with CSPs worldwide undertaking new FTTP buildouts, Silverstein tells investors.
• Goldman Sachs analyst Chris Shibutani initiated coverage of Ventyx Biosciences (VTYX) with a Buy rating and $50 price target. Ventyx’s "fast-follower" approach developing potentially best-in-class therapies for validated therapeutic targets will translate to meaningful opportunities in the "commercially attractive" immunology and inflammation space, Shibutani tells investors in a research note.

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