Vertex Pharmaceuticals upgrade, GoodRx downgrade and Etsy initiations 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:
- Maxim analyst Jason McCarthy upgraded Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) to Buy from Hold with a $325 price target. The analyst cited the company "steadily reporting consistent positive data" on its pipeline beyond cystic fibrosis, or CF, since 2021 and believes that Vertex is now on pace to have multiple non-CF programs in pivotal trials in 2022.
- Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas upgraded Visteon (VC) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $93, up from $72. Visteon offers investors a way to play an automotive production recovery in "a propulsion agnostic manner" that skews toward industry mega-trends of digital cockpits and electrification, which "is something the market is picking up on," Jonas said.
- DA Davidson analyst Kevin Fitzsimmons upgraded Home Bancorp (HBCP) to Buy from Neutral with an unchanged $44.50 price target. The stock trades at an attractive valuation given its considerable discount to peer median on the basis of both price to tangible book value and price to earnings, though the bank is still positioned to deliver "peer-like core profitability," the analyst told investors in a research note.
- Jefferies analyst Eun Yang upgraded Blueprint Medicines (BPMC) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $78, down from $88, following a survey of U.S. hematologists and allergists on Ayvakit's potential in an expanded, third indication of indolent systemic mastocytosis, or ISM.
- Cowen analyst Joseph Giordano upgraded Xylem (XYL) to Market Perform from Underperform with an unchanged price target of $75. While the shares "remain quite expensive," the company's operational and earnings risks "have largely now passed or are known to investors," Giordano told investors in a research note.
Top 5 Downgrades:
- Baird analyst Vikram Kesavabhotla downgraded GoodRx (GDRX) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $7, down from $10. The company's first quarter report highlighted disruption associated with a specific grocer, now "well understood" to be Kroger (KR), and his latest proprietary analysis of pricing across several platforms leaves him incrementally concerned about the company's ability to recover this volume and alleviate this type of risk with other partners, Kesavabhotla told investors.
- Piper Sandler analyst Peter Keith downgraded Tempur Sealy (TPX) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $28, down from $36. A round of checks for Memorial Day weekend suggest a disappointing selling period, Keith told investors in a research note.
- JMP Securities analyst Nicholas Jones downgraded Poshmark (POSH) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target after resuming coverage of the name. Given its relatively slower revenue growth and lower profitability relative to the peer group, he sees the shares as fairly valued and looks for better than expected profitability to move shares higher from here.
- Atlantic Equities analyst James Mainwaring downgraded Medtronic (MDT) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $105, down from $125. The company "continues to be stuck in a negative earnings revision cycle" following the fourth quarter miss despite management trying to set conservative guidance in recent quarters, Mainwaring told investors in a research note.
- JPMorgan analyst Jeffrey Zekauskas downgraded Sealed Air (SEE) to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $62, down from $71. The analyst prefers other names in various material subsectors, saying outperformance at this juncture is more likely to stem from equities where it is possible for earnings performance to be much higher than consensus values either through business performance or acquisition.
Top 5 Coverage Initiations:
- JMP Securities analyst Nicholas Jones initiated coverage of Etsy (ETSY) with an Outperform rating with an unchanged price target of $125. The analyst views its increase in brand awareness "as lasting as opposed to transitory" and sees plenty of opportunity for the company to continue driving volume growth. The analyst also assumed coverage of Amazon.com (AMZN) with an Outperform rating and price target of $3,450, down from $3,600.
- JMP Securities analyst Nicholas Jones resumed coverage of eBay (EBAY) with a Market Perform rating and no price target. The analyst views eBay's strategic focus on enthusiasts and focus categories favorably, but looks for near-term trends at the company to begin moving toward its long-term vision to become more positive on the name.
- Barclays analyst Benjamin Theurer initiated coverage of five fertilizer and other agriculture supply companies. He put Overweight ratings on Corteva (CTVA) and Nutrien (NTR), Equal Weight ratings on CF Industries (CF) and ICL (ICL), and an Underweight rating on Mosaic (MOS).
- Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Louise Chen initiated coverage of Gracell Biotechnologies (GRCL) with an Overweight rating and $20 price target. The peak sales potential of the company's product pipeline is underappreciated, said the analyst, who expects upward earnings estimate revisions to potentially move the stock higher.
- Citi analyst Yigal Nochomovitz initiated coverage of Shattuck Labs (STTK) with a Buy rating and $13 price target. Nochomovitz thinks the recent share weakness has created a good entry point to own a name with a "very modular protein therapeutics platform and a promising lead asset in SL-172154."
Symbols:
ICL MOS VRTX VC HBCP BPMC XYL GDRX TPX POSH MDT SEE EBAY CTVA NTR CF GRCL STTK ETSY AMZN - $2,478.55 /
+73.99 (+3.08%)
Keywords: analyst, analyst calls, upgrades, downgrades, initiations, research, wall street