Micron downgraded, Block upgraded: Wall Street’s top analyst calls

The most talked about and market moving research calls around Wall Street are now in one place. Here are today’s research calls that investors need to know, as compiled by The Fly.

Top 5 Upgrades:

• Oppenheimer upgraded Block (SQ) to Outperform from Perform with a $115 price target. Recent investments in product and sales should drive accelerated Gross Payment Volume at Square, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Jefferies upgraded SentinelOne (S) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $30, up from $27. The firm says SentinelOne’s “value dislocation” versus CrowdStrike (CRWD) and the remainder of its software coverage “has become to significant.”
• Jefferies upgraded Tapestry (TPR) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $80, up from $50. With the Capri (CPRI) deal in rearview, the market will view Tapestry as a quality name given its improving sales growth, expanding margins and buyback, while driving a low-double-digit EPS CAGR, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
• Mizuho upgraded Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) to Outperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $110. The firm also moved the shares to one of its top electrical equipment and multi-industry picks.
• Morgan Stanley double upgraded Synchrony (SYF) to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $82, up from $40. The firm adds EPS upside from late fee rule preparatory actions and notes that its base case now assumes the CFPB’s late fee rule does not go through.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• BofA downgraded Micron (MU) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $110, down from $125. The firm, whose estimates were below consensus heading into Q1 results, is reducing estimates again as gross margin is expected to stay weak in Q2 and even Q3, the analyst tells investors.
• Wells Fargo downgraded Viridian Therapeutics (VRDN) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $27, down from $37. It cites a lack of catalysts for the downgrade.
• RBC Capital downgraded General Dynamics (GD) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $290, down from $330. The firm appreciates the recent weakness in the stock but says a shift in sentiment has played out as the company’s Q4 Gulfstream deliveries “appear to lag expectations.”
• KeyBanc downgraded C3 AI (AI) to Underweight from Sector Weight with a $29 price target, which implies 28% downside from current levels. The firm sees an unfavorable risk/reward with shares trading at 13.3-times enterprise value to revenue versus the company’s 10%-20% growth peers at 7.3-times.
• Benchmark downgraded Western Digital (WDC) to Hold from Buy and removed the firm’s price target. The firm sees “a growing number of concerns” for Western Digital, including softening NAND pricing driven by customer inventory adjustments in consumer markets, continued expected slowness in NAND chip demand in the industrial and automotive markets, weak Q2 guidance issued by Micron and a declining share in the NAND market.

Top 5 Initiations:

• DA Davidson initiated coverage of IonQ (IONQ) with a Buy rating and $50 price target. The firm believes IonQ represents “a compelling pure-play investment positioned to capitalize on quantum computing’s rapid growth,” driven by increasing inadequacy of classical computing for solving complex problems.
• UBS initiated coverage of Palantir (PLTR) with a Neutral rating and $80 price target. The firm’s 2025 and 2026 estimates are well above the Street consensus and it has a positive view of Palantir’s fundamentals.
• Guggenheim initiated coverage of Neogen (NEOG) with a Buy rating and $15 price target. While the company has struggled with integration issues subsequent to the acquisition of the 3M Food Safety business and “challenges linger,” which continues to affect growth and margins, the firm believes the company is progressing towards turning the corner and views the market, management and long-term financial profile as “attractive.”
• Piper Sandler assumed coverage of Baker Hughes (BKR), TechnipFMC (FTI), Halliburton (HAL) and Tenaris (TS) with Overweight ratings. The analyst also assumed coverage of SLB (SLB), Weatherford (WFRD), Ormat Technologies (ORA) and NOV Inc. (NOV) with Neutral ratings. Oilfield services has endured a number of challenges over the past decade, but despite these headwinds the industry has been “tenacious” and “relentless in its pursuit to maximize value through technology innovation, scale, and service,” the analyst tells investors.
• Wedbush initiated coverage of SolarWinds (SWI) with an Outperform rating and $20 price target. The provider of “simple, powerful, and secure solutions” to help organizations accelerate business transformation projects can deliver tangible value across observability, database performance monitoring, and service management across cloud environments by providing customers the ability to accelerate productivity and deliver seamless resilience at any size or complexity, the analyst tells investors.