Instacart initiated with a Hold at Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of Instacart (CART) with a Hold rating and $37 price target While Instacart deserves an “immense amount of credit” for building itself into a large and profitable grocery delivery platform, the company’s fundamentals will be challenged over the next 12-24 months, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm believes Instacart’s digital grocery share gains are likely to remain muted given affordability challenges. It also expects first-party competitors like Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN) as well as marketplace competitors like DoorDash (DASH) and Under (UBER) have more flexibility to address affordability challenges and thus drive greater share relative to Instacart.