Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: SpaceX, Nvidia, Apple, Meta, Brinker, Kontoor Brands & more
Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Mizuho upgrades Albemarle to outperform from neutral Mizuho said the lithium company is a beneficiary of increased battery storage demand. “We are raising ALB rating to Outperform as strong Battery Energy Stationary Storage (BESS) demand has tipped market balance into favorable territory.” Read more. Goldman Sachs upgrades Trane Technologies to buy from neutral Goldman said the company is a “best in class operator with accelerating growth.” “We upgrade TT to Buy from Neutral with a $565 12-month price target, representing ~18% upside.” Morgan Stanley reiterates SpaceX as overweight Morgan Stanley said in a note that the “extreme dimensionality of SPCX’s businesses” is undervalued. “The part of the SPCX story that we believe holds the greatest growth potential, and that is being largely ignored/not contemplated by investors, is the Distributed Inference Cloud.” Barclays downgrades Dell to equal weight from overweight Barclays said it’s worried about slowing growth for Dell. “We believe the vast majority of this growth comes from higher ASPs to offset memory inflation. As a result, we expect a meaningful deceleration in growth over the next two years and memory price normalize and potentially decline.” Jefferies upgrades Brinker to buy from hold Jefferies said it sees a “compounding story.” “We upgrade EAT t o Buy w/ $255 PT as we see a clear transition from turnaround into a durable, compounding story.” Read more. Barclays initiates Alcoa and Kaiser Aluminum as overweight Barclays said both stocks have plenty of upside. “Among the new additions to our coverage universe, we pref er Alcoa (AA, OW) within aluminum, as we see concerns of lower aluminum prices as overdone and its pending acquisition of South32’s AliGroup as underappreciated. We also like Kaiser Aluminum (KALU, OW), which is a provider of semi-fabricated specialty aluminum mill products operating in an oligopolistic, high-margin industry with limited commodity price risk.” JPMorgan initiates Kirby as overweight JPMorgan said the tank barge operator has “recovering free-cash flow.” “We are initiating coverage of Kirby Corporation (KEX) with an Overweight rating and a $200 Dec 2027 price target, implying ~40% upside from current levels.” JPMorgan initiates Arcus Biosciences as overweight JPMorgan said the biotech company has upside. “We are initiating coverage on Arcus Biosciences (RCUS) with an OW rating and a Dec-27 price target of $41.” JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan said it’s bullish on the company’s Welcome Home launch. “Apple’s ‘ Welcome Home’ launch expands its opportunity to monetize its strong position within households through additional hardware purchases and recurring Services, combining the new $299 HomeView, refreshed Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2, and Apple Home Collection accessories developed with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.” Citizens initiates Compass as market outperform Citizens said the real estate brokerage company is a share gainer. “We are initiating coverage of Compass, Inc. with a Market Outperform rating and an $11 price target.” Stifel initiates Innovative Industrial Properties as buy Stifel said the REIT company has plenty of upside. “We are initiating coverage of Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR) with a Buy rating and a $56.25 target price.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Meta as buy Goldman raised its price target on Meta to $860 from $725. “The recent success with the Muse agent launch and the Wonder model family release has catalyzed a significant re-rating in the shares from recent levels.” Jefferies upgrades Kontoor Brands to buy from hold Jefferies said the company has brands that are “steady.” “We view Wrangler (KTB) as a steady brand that could accel. through the pending Lee sale (frees up investment esp. in women’s). However, the story isn’t tied to denim, as Helly Hansen’s US oppty, cost mitigations, and capital allocation are also key stock drivers.” Citi initiates Ascentage Pharma as buy Citi said the biopharma company is underappreciated. “We see Ascentage as actively transitioning from a regional commercial stage player into a global hematology-oncology enterprise.” Truist initiates Entegris as buy Truist said it sees a margin recovery. “We believe ENTG is well-positioned to benefit from increased content into the semiconductor industry’s most advanced technology nodes, enabling growth that outperforms the industry in both its consumable-driven and capex-driven portfolio.” Truist initiates Qnity Electronics as buy Truist said Qnity has an impressive balance sheet. “We see upside to current valuation as we expect favorable mix, operating leverage, and cost improvements to be supportive of continued margin expansion and believe strong FCF generation and a healthy balance sheet will enable flexibility across organic investments, bolt-on M & A, and shareholder returns. We rate Q shares Buy.” Mizuho reiterates Nvidia as outperform Mizuho said it’s sticking with Nvidia. “We see NVDA remaining the leader in the AI training and inference chips for Data Center applications, with the leading market share.” William Blair initiates Marex as outperform William Blair said it sees “high growth” for the brokerage commodities company. ” Marex is a high-growth diversified specialty brokerage firm focused on global commodity and financial markets.” BTIG upgrades Liquidia to buy from neutral BTIG said shares of the biopharma company are compelling. “We are upgrading LQDA to BUY and a $70 PT.” Bank of America upgrades Weyerhaeuser to buy from neutral Bank of America said the paper company is undervalued. “We upgrade Weyerhaeuser t o Buy from Neutral. At $19/share, WY trades at a wider discount to our estimate of underlying asset value.” Jefferies upgrades Texas Roadhouse to buy from neutral Jefferies said it sees an attractive entry point. “Expect a more resilient casual dining occasion with TXRH well positioned to maintain share of traffic.” Seaport upgrades Ralliant to buy from neutral Seaport said the outlook is improving. “We’re upgrading our investment rating to Buy from Neutral. RAL’s sales trends and improved outlook, sales and margin execution and improving end-markets, combined with our positive pre-quiet period check-in are the underpinnings of our upgrade.” Canaccord initiates Amprius Technologies as buy Canaccord said it likes the company’s “capital light strategy.” “Amprius is capitalizing on silicon anode performance gains to secure a dominant market share across defense, drones, and light EVs, with robotics and other high-growth sectors on the horizon.” Goldman Sachs upgrades GXO Logistics to buy from neutral Goldman said it’s bullish on the company’s turnaround. ” GXO i s the #2 player in the fragmented and growing contract logistics (CL) market, offering scope to scale up and improve margins.”
