Pinterest, Cisco 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:

• Wedbush upgraded Pinterest (PINS) to Outperform from Neutral with a $38 price target. The firm thinks the company is executing well against its user engagement and monetization strategies and remains on pace to deliver growth and profits in line with its multi-year guidance framework.
• Wolfe Research upgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Peer Perform from Underperform without a price target. Though the firm expects linear decline to weigh on Warner’s cash flow for years to come, it says Max’s leverage to the industry’s re-bundling and partnership trends create a plausible path to stable total company EBITDA.
• JPMorgan upgraded Cisco (CSCO) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $66, up from $55. The firm sees “further headroom for upside in the medium term” despite the recent rally in the shares.
• HSBC upgraded Fortinet (FTNT) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $111, up from $83. Fortinet reported better-than-expected Q3 results and provided upbeat Q4 guidance and long-term outlook.
• R.F. Lafferty upgraded Lucid Group (LCID) to Buy from Hold with a $4 price target following the Q3 report. The firm cites the company’s cost improvement, continued volume growth, and balance sheet strength for the upgrade.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Raymond James downgraded Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN) to Market Perform from Outperform without a price target following the Q3 report. The firm sees lower near-term visibility and views the stake sale in Bloomin’s Brazil division as “underwhelming.”
• Guggenheim downgraded Smartsheet (SMAR) to Neutral from Buy without a price target citing the expiration of the “go-shop” period in the proposed acquisition by Blackstone (BX) and Vista Equity Partners.
• JPMorgan downgraded Cabot (CBT) to Underweight from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $105, citing valuation. The firm expects prices for carbon black in the U.S. to flatten out after a multi-year period of increase
• BMO Capital downgraded Celanese (CE) to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $76, down from $138. With the significant amount of leverage Celanese took on to make the M&M acquisition, compounded by the addition of capacity in its end markets and a weaker than expected macro environment, the company’s risk/reward profile for the equity holders “now skews reasonably negative,” the firm tells investors in a research note. UBS also downgraded Celanese to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $97, down from $161.
• JPMorgan downgraded Nerdy (NRDY) to Underweight from Neutral without a price target. The company reported Q3 revenue toward the high end of guidance but reduced its Q4 outlook by 23% across revenue at the midpoint and now expects an adjusted EBITDA loss, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Piper Sandler analyst Arvind Ramnani assumed coverage of Block (SQ) with an Overweight rating and $83 price target. Block should benefit from a continued secular shift to electronic payments, as well as being at the forefront of innovation, Piper contends.
• Wells Fargo initiated coverage of RXO Inc. (RXO) with an Equal Weight rating and $31 price target. While the firm sees value creation from the Coyote acquisition, it believes the lingering estimate risk is a headwind and brokerage typically performs better post initial cycle turn, which may be on the near-term horizon.
• Evercore ISI initiated coverage of Stellantis (STLA) with an In Line rating and EUR 13 price target. Stellantis is a pivotal player in the current global auto macro landscape, but it is hard to get constructive on the name in the near-term given “significant idiosyncratic headwinds,” the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Alliance Global Partners initiated coverage of GeoVax Labs (GOVX) with a Buy rating and $15 price target. Lead candidate GEO-CM04S1 is a “potentially best-in-class” COVID-19 prophylactic with potential in both healthy and immunocompromised patients, notes the firm, which attributes $12.25 per share in value to CMO4S1.
• Roth MKM initiated coverage of TriSalus Life Sciences (TLSI) with a Buy rating and $11 price target. The company’s TriNav catheter significantly improves drug delivery with pressure enabled drug delivery, which is on its way to becoming the standard of care for delivering therapeutics to tumors in the liver, the firm tells investors in a research note.