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

Warner Bros. Discovery upgrade, Salesforce downgrade, and Autodesk coverage assumption 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:

• Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Buy from Neutral with a $16.50 price target, which represents 31% potential upside. He sees "an attractive narrative" for the first half of 2023 given recently announced domestic affiliate renewals, strong cost controls, and the upcoming launch of a restructured Max product.
• Oppenheimer analyst Jed Kelly upgraded Expedia (EXPE) to Outperform from Perform with a $120 price target. After declining 48% in the last 12 months, the stock is largely discounting the current macro headwinds but not reflecting improvements to Expedia’s "unified tech stack," Kelly tells investors in a research note.
• Wells Fargo analyst Finian O’Shea upgraded Blackstone (BX) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $95, up from $88, on more confidence in BREIT’s liquidity situation, more sobriety in the outlook for retail flows, and an attractive valuation.
• Roth Capital analyst Philip Shen upgraded JinkoSolar (JKS) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $70, up from $50. The analyst cites the recent Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act releases and "the expected progress ahead" for the upgrade.
• Truist analyst Barry Jonas upgraded Gaming and Leisure Properties (GLPI) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $60, up from $54. Jonas notes that Gaming and Leisure Properties management continues to execute on deals to drive accretive growth as the stock is performing well despite substantial increases in yields.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler downgraded Salesforce (CRM) to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $119, down from $134. Comparing the valuation of Salesforce against peers the analyst finds that Salesforce is overpriced, as it has a similar growth rate to peers but lower margins and lower quality earnings.
• BofA analyst Jason Kupferberg downgraded Coinbase (COIN) to Underperform from Neutral with a price target of $35, down from $50, noting that his 2023 revenue estimates are now "even further below" the Street view after analyzing Q4 crypto transaction volume data.
• Susquehanna analyst Christopher Stathoulopoulos downgraded Southwest (LUV) to Neutral from Positive with a $40 price target. Winter Storm Elliot disrupted air travel in late December, with Southwest’s "related operational meltdown front-and-center among US peers," Stathoulopoulos tells investors in a research note.
• Susquehanna analyst Christopher Stathoulopoulos downgraded Allegiant Travel (ALGT) to Neutral from Positive with a price target of $90, down from $95, ahead of what he sees as "another transition year for the airlines" in 2023.
  JPMorgan analyst Brian Ossenbeck downgraded C.H. Robinson (CHRW) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $90, down from $103. Sentiment is already bearish but there remains downside to C.H. Robinson consensus estimates as ocean rates and forwarding profits fall, Ossenbeck tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Berenberg analyst Nay Soe Naing initiated coverage of Autodesk (ADSK) with a Buy rating and $230 price target. The company is outgrowing its sector and offers one of the most profitable and cash-generative businesses.
• Mizuho analyst Siti Panigrahi initiated coverage of Oracle (ORCL) with a Buy rating and $116 price target. Oracle’s "broad" portfolio of infrastructure and application products has matured, prompting the company to transition to the cloud to reaccelerate its growth profile, Panigrahi tells investors in a research note.
• Redburn analyst Russell Quelch initiated coverage of Verisk Analytics (VRSK) with a Sell rating. While arguing that data and analytics providers will have a significant opportunity to capitalize on increasingly complex risks in the financial markets, Quelch tells investors he prefers providers that have invested in data and analytics capabilities and whose structural growth the market is underappreciating.
• Mizuho analyst Siti Panigrahi initiated coverage of Bill.com (BILL) with a Neutral rating and $105 price target. While encouraged by the company’s estimated $25 trillion U.S. business-to-business payment opportunity and secular tailwinds driving bill pay adoption and monetization post COVID, the analyst believes the greenfield small business payment market remains increasingly competitive.
• William Blair analyst Cristopher Kennedy initiated coverage of Jack Henry (JKHY) with an Outperform rating without a price target. Revenues have grown at a compound annual rate of 7% and adjusted EPS at about 12% since fiscal 2011, noted Kennedy, who sees the traditional fundamental drivers of the business remaining "largely intact."

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