Palantir initiated, Roku 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:

• Jefferies upgraded Roku (ROKU) to Hold from Underperform with a price target of $100, up from $55, following the Q4 outperformance. Roku’s 25% year-over-year Platform growth was well ahead of its guidance as the company executes on third party integrations and improving fill rates, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• BTIG upgraded Snowflake (SNOW) to Buy from Neutral with a $220 price target. After two-plus years of Snowflake dealing with cloud optimization headwinds, the firm’s recent fieldwork is pointing towards an improving demand backdrop in calendar 2025.
• Susquehanna upgraded Lam Research (LRCX) to Positive from Neutral with a price target of $125, up from $75, after Lam yesterday held its first analyst day since early 2020. During the event, the company introduced a calendar 2028 EPS target of $6-$7, while focusing on a free cash flow margin of 30%, the majority of which will be returned to investors in addition to the existing buyback authorization of $9.2B, the firm says.
• Citi upgraded NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $290, up from $210. The firm believes the analog recovery is imminent and that “every analog company will feel it as sales from the analog companies have fallen roughly 30% from the peak.”
• Morgan Stanley upgraded SolarEdge (SEDG) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $18, up from $11. The company’s stronger free cash flow generation and clearer strategic direction reduces liquidity concerns, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Northland downgraded SolarEdge to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $15 following quarterly results as the firm argues that SolarEdge is “behind in new products, customer service, and reliability,” which will take “a while to repair.” BMO Capital also downgraded SolarEdge to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $15, up from $13.
• RBC Capital downgraded Celanese (CE) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $56, down from $84. The company’s overexposure to auto end markets has resulted in near-term earnings headwinds from lower builds and bloated inventories throughout the chain, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Daiwa downgraded Grab Holdings (GRAB) to Outperform from Buy with a price target of $5.20, down from $6. The company’s 2025 EBITDA guidance of $440M-$470M was a disappointment to investors, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Craig-Hallum downgraded Axon (AXON) to Hold from Buy with a $625 price target. The firm a more balanced risk/reward following a powerful rally in shares over the past year with the stock trading at all-time high multiples.
• Barclays downgraded DTE Energy (DTE) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $135, down from $137. The firm reshuffled its preferences in Michigan utilities following the Q4 earnings, now seeing CMS (CMS) as the preferred way to invest in the state’s “premium” regulatory environment.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Loop Capital initiated coverage of Palantir (PLTR) with a Buy rating and $141 price target. The company is leveraged to the AI and GenAI themes sweeping through the tech sector, which represent “enormous market opportunities” that are likely to create several multi-billion-dollar revenue companies, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Barclays reinstated coverage of Baxter (BAX) with an Overweight rating and $39 price target. The firm updated its sales projections to reflect the company’s continuing operations, which exclude sales of renal care in 2024, 2025 and beyond.
• Canaccord initiated coverage of Palvella Therapeutics (PVLA) with a Buy rating and $39 price target based on early clinical data suggesting the company’s proprietary topical formulation platform – called Qtorin – is an optimal formulation that keeps finicky small molecules stable and optimizes delivery through the skin.
• Northland initiated coverage of zSpace (ZSPC) with a Market Perform rating and $20 price target. The firm’s interviews and analysis indicate zSpace creates better educational outcomes, making zSpace’s core market “the subscriptionizing educational content market.”
• Ladenburg initiated coverage of Beta Bionics (BBNX) with a Buy rating and $31 price target. The medical device company offers the iLet Bionic Pancreas, which is the first FDA-cleared fully autonomous insulin delivery system, and has developed an AI-driven closed-loop algorithm that automatically adjusts insulin delivery based only on CGM data and the patient’s weight, the firm notes.