Nvidia initiated, Airbnb downgraded: 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:

• Leerink upgraded Bristol Myers (BMY) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $73, up from $55. The firm expects “upward pressure” on Cobenfy and milvexian consensus expectations to drive stock outperformance from current levels, and in the wake of AbbVie’s (ABBV) emraclidine pivotal Phase 2 trial failures, Leerink no longer anticipates that competing product to launch in 2026.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Twilio (TWLO) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $120, up from $80. Wells expects AI agents drive increased volumes over multiple years, which in combination with potential improvement in cyclical exposures and mix-shift to margin accretive channels, should drive sustained growth for Twilio.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded SentinelOne (S) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $32, up from $25. The firm believes the company is benefitting from positive organic momentum as well as “some disruption” within the endpoint market post July 19.
• BofA upgraded iHeartMedia (IHRT) to Neutral from Underperform with a price target of $3, up from $1. Given the recent transaction support agreement related to iHeartMedia’s debt, alongside better than expected calendar year 2025 guidance, the firm views the risk/reward as more balanced while awaiting more concrete signs of a true inflection in the multi-platform group and Broadcast radio to get more constructive on shares.
• Wolfe Research upgraded Argenx (ARGX) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $697 price target. Wolfe sees positive earnings results from Argenx to drive the stock in 2025, especially given the company’s consistent history of beating revenue, while also noting that its operating margins are “trending positive.”

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Phillip Securities downgraded Airbnb (ABNB) to Reduce from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $120. The firm says the stock’s valuation remains “expensive” following the recent share price performance.
• Citi downgraded Ross Stores (ROST) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $152, down from $179. The firm says that after having more time to digest the upcoming management transition at Ross, the combination of a management change that brings increased uncertainty to the story and the stock’s “relatively high multiple” creates a less favorable risk/reward.
• Deutsche Bank downgraded Okta (OKTA) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $85, down from $115. While not an explicit call on the company’s fiscal Q3 results, feedback on Okta has been more mixed of late and the path to realizing value may still be several quarters away, “perhaps making it more interesting deeper into next year,” the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Wells Fargo downgraded Five9 (FIVN) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $40, down from $55. While Five9’s IVA is touted as an offset, its tech lags GenAI/agents and traction beyond voice is sparse to date, the firm argues.
• Citi downgraded Schneider National (SNDR) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $30, down from $32. The firm cites the stock’s “historically elevated” valuation and “still-challenged market dynamics,” which could weigh on the company’s first half of 2025 results for the downgrade.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage of Nvidia (NVDA) with a Buy rating and $178 price target. The firm says accelerated computing is further helping to lower the cost of compute as Moore’s law and Dennard scaling slow.
• Loop Capital initiated coverage of NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) with a Buy rating and $300 price target. While cyclical headwinds may limit NXP’s bounce off the bottom, the firm believes investors should overweight stocks/companies with high exposure to the automotive end market and overweight the companies exposed to the fastest growing automotive trends, and NXP checks many of these boxes. Loop Capital also started coverage of Cadence Design (CDNS), Rambus (RMBS), Synopsys (SNPS), On Semiconductor (ON), and Allegro (ALGM) with Buy ratings.
• Loop Capital initiated coverage of Qualcomm (QCOM) with a Hold rating and $180 price target. The firm believes that the company needs revenue diversity “more than anything,” especially considering that Apple (AAPL) is in the early stages of moving to its own baseband modem and that the smartphone market is mature.
• Loop Capital initiated coverage of Qorvo (QRVO) with a Hold rating and $73 price target. The firm believes Qorvo should continue to face near-term headwinds from the changing market dynamics in the Android smartphone market, particularly in the China Android market. Loop Capital also started coverage of Marvell (MRVL) and Skyworks (SWKS) with Hold ratings.
• Morgan Stanley resumed coverage of Illumina (ILMN) with an Equal Weight rating and $156 price target. While the firm views the move higher as “justified” after GRAIL resolution, framing achievable long-term targets and an efficiency push, it sees the stock as range-bound pending evidence of a sustained top-line reacceleration.