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

FIS upgrade, Lyft downgrade, and Palo Alto Networks initiation among today’s top calls on Wall Street

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Check out today’s top analyst calls from around Wall Street:

Top 5 Upgrades:

• Morgan Stanley upgraded FIS (FIS) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $79, up from $73, as it sees limited downside in the shares given the company’s increased focus on mergers and acquisitions. [Read more]

• Goldman Sachs upgraded Occidental Petroleum (OXY) to Buy from Neutral with an $81 price target, implying 24% total return. The stock’s current valuation is "difficult to reconcile with the quality of the underlying assets and cash flow power through a cycle," the firm says. [Read more]

• Argus upgraded Sonoco Products (SON) to Buy from Hold with a $67 price target after its Q4 earnings beat. The company’s balance sheet is solid and Sonoco has also issued strong 2023 guidance, the firm argues. [Read more]

• B. Riley upgraded Indie Semiconductor (INDI) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $13, up from $10, after the company announced it has entered a definitive agreement to purchase GEO Semiconductor for $180M in cash and stock with a $90M earn-out. [Read more]

• Grupo Santander upgraded ArcelorMittal (MT) to Outperform from Neutral with a EUR 35.60 price target. [Read more]

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Argus downgraded Lyft (LYFT) to Hold from Buy without a price target following the company’s Q4 operating loss and "weak" Q1 guidance. [Read more] BTIG also downgraded Lyft to Neutral following the company’s Q4 results last week. [Read more]

• Evercore ISI downgraded First Solar (FSLR) to In Line from Outperform with a price target of $157, up from $150. With the company’s capacity largely sold out through 2025-2026, and current manufacturing volume expansion already factored into models, the benefits of the IRA are being largely reflected in the current share price, the firm contends. [Read more]

• Citi downgraded FIS to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $70, down from $85. The company delivered on Q4 estimates but its forward outlook, strategic direction and level of detail disappointed investors, the firm says. [Read more] Credit Suisse also downgraded FIS to Neutral with a price target of $75, down from $85. [Read more]

• Evercore ISI downgraded XPO Logistics (XPO) to In Line from Outperform with a price target of $35, down from $44. The firm believes XPO‘s yield starting point is lower, while relative volume upside is likely to be "capped" by a tough macro backdrop amid "still-elevated" corporate costs. [Read more]

• Northland downgraded Encore Capital (ECPG) to Market Perform from Outperform with a $58 price target ahead of the company’s quarterly results. The risk of an impairment charge is “real due to soft collections," the firm says. [Read more]

Top 5 Initiations:

• Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Palo Alto Networks (PANW) with a Buy rating and $205 price target. The firm believes emerging software industry dynamics are favorable for long-term investors. Goldman also started coverage of Fortinet (FTNT) and Check Point (CHKP) with Buy ratings. [Read more]

• WestPark Capital initiated coverage of Crowdstrike (CRWD) with a Hold rating and no price target. The firm believes Crowdstrike is not immune to the industry-wide increase in sales cycles and slowdown in the decision-making processes from corporate customers. [Read more] Goldman also started coverage of Crowdstrike with a Buy rating. [Read more]

• WestPark Capital initiated coverage of SentinelOne (S) with a Buy rating and $22 price target, citing its view that the company has the "best cloud-based security tool in the endpoint management space." [Read more] Goldman also started coverage of SentinelOne with a Neutral rating. [Read more]

• Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Okta (OKTA) with a Sell rating and $70 price target. The firm expects the pace of its share gain in identity access management to slow, saying Microsoft (MSFT) is becoming slightly more competitive and the identity cloud upgrade cycle being further along. [Read more]

• Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Cloudflare (NET)  with a Sell rating and $51 price target. The firm thinks the path to executing on $5B in annual recurring revenue will likely not be linear. [Read more]

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