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

Molson Coors upgrade, Novocure downgrade, and Snowflake 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:

• Cowen analyst Vivien Azer upgraded Molson Coors (TAP) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $60, up from $55. After a decade of revenue declines, Molson Coors is on "much firmer footing to deliver solid revenue growth" fueled by market share gains in beer, consistent beer pricing and incremental growth from near-beer categories, Azer tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan analyst Jimmy Bhullar upgraded Voya Financial (VOYA) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $77, up from $75. The analyst’s long-term outlook for the life insurance sector is "downbeat" and he feels that the near-term risk-reward in stocks in "not enticing."
• Baird analyst Wesley Golladay upgraded Regency Centers (REG) to Outperform from Neutral with an unchanged $71 price target. The analyst states that he is long-term bullish on shopping centers, though 2023 will be more balanced for the industry due to expectation tenant churn will increase.
• Wells Fargo analyst Michael Blum upgraded Sunrun (RUN) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a $32 price target. The analyst is positive on the clean energy sector for 2023. While continued Federal Reserve tightening will likely act as a near-term headwind, the fundamental and regulatory backdrop is "much improved" in 2023 and beyond, Blum tells investors in a research note.
• Jefferies analyst Michael Yee upgraded Amarin (AMRN) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $3, up from $1.30. The shares are trading at a $200M enterprise value, or less than one-times peak European sales, and has some "strategic M&A optionality," a large activist investor working to drive change, and the company is not really burning cash anymore after cutting spending in 2022, Yee tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelsen downgraded Novocure (NVCR) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $107, up from $89. The analyst says his positive thesis on the shares has played out. The shares have rallied since the positive results from Novocure’s LUNAR lung-cancer study, which is a "huge win" and should bode well for the company’s longer-term outlook, but on the near-term, debate on the details of the trial and commercial uptake may limit any further share gains, Biegelsen tells investors in a research note.
• BMO Capital analyst Etzer Darout downgraded Fate Therapeutics (FATE) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $7, down from $20, after the company declined a revised proposal to its Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) collaboration and has therefore terminated the agreement. Further, Fate announced a pipeline reprioritization, terminating several programs, and a workforce reduction, Darout tells investors in a research note. The analyst says that while Fate’s actions will help extend its cash runway through 2025, there are limited opportunities for value generation near and medium-term. Fate Therapeutics was also downgraded at Cowen, Stifel, Wedbush, and Piper Sandler.
• Barclays analyst Mark DeVries downgraded Synchrony (SYF) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $38, down from $41. The analyst has turned neutral on the U.S. consumer finance sector with a "recession looking likely in 2023" and downgraded 10 stocks. He sees "inexpensive consumer finance stocks getting more inexpensive" and downgraded names stocks levered to credit.
• Deutsche Bank analyst Matt O’Connor downgraded Bank of America (BAC) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $36, down from $45. The analyst believes new lows seem likely for U.S. bank stocks. He assumes bank stocks will trade below their historical 60%-80% range as bank earnings may be peaking.
• BofA analyst Brandon Berman downgraded Silvergate Capital (SI) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $8, down from $37, arguing that Silvergate’s preliminary Q4 report created "more questions than answers" and introduced a new overhang on the stock, namely the prospect for negative earnings growth. Silvergate was also downgraded at JPMorgan and Craig-Hallum.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin initiated coverage of Snowflake (SNOW) with an Overweight rating and $170 price target. While shares are down nearly 60% TTM as concerns around headwinds to cloud consumption models have surfaced, the firm’s work suggests Snowflake is built to better weather this storm given the company’s mission-critical technology, strong expansion dynamics inherent to this model and impressively well-balanced financial profile, Turrin tells investors in a research note.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Joshua Pokrzywinski resumed coverage of Parker-Hannifin (PH) with an Equal Weight rating and $311 price target. While portfolio shifts towards longer-cycle end markets provide a more constructive outlook amid short-cycle slowdown risk, he sees less valuation support from short-term margin catalysts, Pokrzywinski tells investors.
• BofA analyst Jonathan Keypour initiated coverage of Celsius Holdings (CELH) with a Neutral rating and $104 price target. Though he views Celsius as "one of the better-positioned growth stories in consumer staples," his Neutral rating reflects that its strong sales and margin runway, which has been boosted by the recent U.S. distribution pact with Pepsi (PEP), is already reflected in shares that climbed more than 60% last year, Keypour tells investors.
• Exane BNP Paribas analyst Andrew Grobler initiated coverage of Equifax (EFX) with an Underperform rating and $150 price target. He sees significant addressable market growth for credit information companies, but anticipates that pressure on prices, costs and services will weigh on margins.
• Citi analyst Bryan Burgmeier initiated coverage of Waste Management (WM) with a Buy rating and $183 price target. The analyst views the company’s pricing power and long-term opportunity in renewable natural gas as "underappreciated."

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