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

Spotify upgrade, PayPal downgrade, and Marriott Vacations 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.

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Top 5 Upgrades:

• Wells Fargo upgraded Spotify Technology (SPOT) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $180, up from $121. Wells sees Spotify’s margins and valuation as "upward bound with margin delivery rerating" the shares. Atlantic Equities also upgraded Spotify to Overweight from Neutral.
• KeyBanc upgraded Splunk (SPLK) to Overweight from Sector Weight with a $130 price target. The firm likes its position as the incumbent enterprise log/data management vendor.
• Atlantic Equities upgraded Church & Dwight (CHD) to Neutral from Underweight with an $80 price target. The firm believes headwinds will begin to abate in the first half of 2023 with gross margins expected to expand and sales growth to accelerate through the year.
• Wedbush upgraded Celsius Holdings (CELH) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $115, up from $95. The firm believes that the recent pullback in shares creates an attractive entry point for investors looking to gain exposure to the best growth story in all of CPG.
• UBS upgraded Essential Utilities (WTRG) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $55, up from $54. The firm sees a valuation-driven opportunity in shares given the current 12% discount to SOTP fair value.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Raymond James downgraded PayPal (PYPL) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target, citing the stock’s outperformance this year along with the firm’s "cautious stance" on the company’s Q4 results.
• KeyBanc downgraded Datadog (DDOG) to Sector Weight from Overweight without a price target as it expects a "meaningful slowdown" of software spending growth in 2023.
• MoffettNathanson downgraded T-Mobile (TMUS) to Market Perform from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $174 in a note to investors partially titled "Wireless Q4 2022: The Great Deceleration." The firm sees a "growing mismatch" between industry growth rates and company expectations, not just for T-Mobile, but for all of the "Big Three" inclusive of Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) as well.
• Telsey Advisory downgraded RH (RH) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $330, up from $310. The firm expects RH to trade down on Monday following the company’s disclosures in its 8-K and proxy filings on Friday, including having updated its 2022 guidance, disclosing it found several mistakes after reviewing SEC comments on prior financial statements, stating it plans a revision to the effective tax rate, and identifying a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting.
• SVB Securities downgraded Seagen (SGEN) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $141, down from $162, driven by insights into the Padcev opportunity in metastatic bladder cancer gleaned from a proprietary MEDACorp survey.

Top 5 Initiations:

• BofA initiated coverage of Marriott Vacations (VAC) with a Neutral rating and $180 price target. Parts of Marriott Vacations, and the timeshare industry, are still recovering from the pandemic, but pricing and margins are both well ahead of pre-COVID levels, the firm says.
• Maxim initiated coverage of Interlink Electronics (LINK) with a Buy rating and $18 price target. The firm sees a positive inflection in the sensor market, which is typically less economically sensitive and more value-added compared to the semiconductor industry overall.
• Cowen initiated coverage of BridgeBio (BBIO) with an Outperform rating. The firm thinks "significant" near-term upside could be realized if infigratinib in children with achondroplasia works and if BBP-711 in healthy volunteers hits in Part B of its trial.
• Credit Suisse initiated coverage of Goosehead Insurance (GSHD) with an Outperform rating and $72 price target, or 62% upside potential, based on an analysis of a price-to-earnings-to-growth ratio of a peer set of insurance brokers.
• BMO Capital initiated coverage of Rexford Industrial (REXR) with an Outperform rating and $77 price target. BMO believes the company will likely deliver industry-high net operating income, supported by 72% mark-to-market.

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