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

IAC upgrade, Bath & Body Works downgrade, and Tesla 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:

• UBS upgraded IAC (IAC) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $54, up from $46. The firm is incrementally more positive on Angi (ANGI), which represents 22% of the IAC shares, and the upgrade is also based on a higher valuation for DDM given multiples for digital ad names have expanded year-to-date. [Read more]

• UBS also upgraded Angi Inc. to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $2.75, up from $2.00. UBS is incrementally more positive after management disclosed that it is going "back to basics" with a focus on the directory-style listings for Ads & Leads and smaller, simpler, and repeatable jobs for Services. [Read more]

• RBC Capital upgraded Ecolab (ECL) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $185, up from $155, noting that fixed currency operating income growth accelerated to 14% in Q4 and stating that the firm expects further improvement going forward. [Read more]

• Piper Sandler upgraded U.S. Bancorp (USB) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $57, up from $53. U.S. Bancorp is as one of the "sturdiest" large regional stories in an uncertain environment, yet the stock’s valuation does not give due credit, the firm says. [Read more]

• Loop Capital upgraded Upstart (UPST) to Buy from Hold with an unchanged $24 price target. The company reported a "difficult" Q4 with declining volume and gave an "ugly" Q1 guidance, but the stock has reached a level that offers "relative outperformance," the firm says. [Read more]

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Citi downgraded Bath & Body Works (BBWI) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $48, down from $50. The firm anticipates a "modest" Q4 beat driven by slightly better comps and margins, but believes investor focus will be on where new CEO Gina Boswell sets the bar for fiscal 2023 as well as longer-term margin targets. [Read more]

• Evercore ISI downgraded Marriott (MAR) to In Line from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $180. The firm is moving to the sidelines with the stock having run through its $180 price target as the shares are up 22% year-to-date and up 32% since last July. [Read more]

• RBC Capital downgraded Akamai (AKAM) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $85, down from $100. The company’s Q4 results were in line with estimates, but the major story of the earnings call was the "clear change in strategy" to go all-in on Linode and Compute as Security growth slows, the firm says. [Read more]

• Citi downgraded Upstart to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $11, down from $17. Acknowledging that it had concerns for a more challenging outlook going into results, Citi said it was "still surprised by the company’s indications." [Read more]

• Stifel downgraded TE Connectivity (TEL) to Hold from Buy with an unchanged price target of $130. The firm sees some risk to forward consensus estimates, given a "still uncertain" macro outlook and concerns that the broader industrial markets will slow and distribution will continue to correct. [Read more]

Top 5 Initiations:

• Barclays initiated coverage of the U.S. autos and mobility sector with a Neutral view overall, but started six stocks with Overweight ratings: Adient (ADNT), Aptiv (APTV), BorgWarner (BWA), Mobileye (MBLY), Rivian Automotive (RIVN) and Tesla (TSLA). [read more]
• Loop Capital initiated coverage of Dick’s Sporting (DKS) with a Hold rating and $130 price target. The firm notes that the stock is trading at significant premiums to its comparable companies and historical levels, while already pricing in its bullish fundamentals. [Read more]

• Gordon Haskett initiated coverage of Chewy (CHWY) with a Hold rating and $46 price target. Investors are currently focused on the macro and a pandemic "hangover" pressuring new customer additions, but the firm believes the company is investing wisely in initiatives and infrastructure that will improve the business in the long-term. [Read more]

• Barclays initiated coverage of TD Synnex (SNX) with an Equal Weight rating and $109 price target. The firm believes the company’s improving mix and strong execution will likely be offset by near-term macro pressures and the longer-term IT move to the cloud from on-premise. [Read more]

• BMO Capital initiated coverage of Samsara (IOT) with a Market Perform rating and $17 price target. With shares trading at a relative premium, BMO would look for better entry points. [Read more]

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