Stock analysts can provide valuable insight into the sentiment around a certain stock or sector and shed some light on what is possible or likely for a stock. Stirrings in the analyst community can sometimes be early signs of stock movement. Which is why our team reviews dozens of analyst research reports each and every day with the goal of finding new investment ideas.
Of the hundreds of reports we reference weekly, some stand out among the others for various reasons. Our team has sifted through this week’s reports and whittled it down to the most pertinent moves.
Read on for the details on some of the most impactful actions taken by analysts over the past week.
Tuesday, September 6th
- Wolfe Research analyst Rod Lache upgraded Tesla (TSLA) to Outperform from Peer Perform and set a $360 price target on the shares in conjunction with raising his 2025 U.S. EV penetration estimate to 20% from 10% and his global EV penetration estimate to 22% from 17.5%.
- Odeon Capital analyst Dick Bove downgraded Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs (GS) to Sell from Hold. He argued that the top six investment banks, along with Credit Suisse (CS), are “being harmed” as volumes they have processed in the debt markets in July and August this year versus last are sharply lower and other than investment grade bonds, “every significant category is down,” while the businesses with the highest profit margins are down the most.
- BofA analyst Michael Funk initiated coverage of Dropbox (DBX) with a Buy rating and $34 price target, citing its strong free cash flow generation and potential for incremental returns to shareholders, upside he sees to consensus estimates and what he calls “a business model and valuation that was largely untouched by the pandemic.”
Wednesday, September 7th
- Wolfe Research analyst Deepak Mathivanan upgraded Pinterest (PINS) to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $28 price target. The analyst believes the company has “significant runway” on both user growth and monetization over the long-term.
- Credit Suisse analyst Maheep Mandloi initiated coverage of ChargePoint (CHPT) with an Outperform rating and $22 price target. The analyst is “positive on ChargePoint,” as he believes it benefits from a capital-light growth model, first-mover advantage with integrated solutions, and an attractive valuation. Mandloi also started coverage of Wallbox (WBX) with an Outperform rating and $14 price target.
Thursday, September 8th
- Goldman Sachs analyst Brian Lee upgraded First Solar (FSLR) to Buy from Sell with a price target of $172, up from $60. The analyst believes the company is best-levered in his coverage to the tailwinds of the Inflation Reduction Act as the most immediate beneficiary of manufacturing credits as well as benefits from demand tailwinds given its above-80% exposure to the U.S.
- Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag double downgraded Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) to Underweight from Overweight with a price target of $35, down from $51 as she is “incrementally more negative” on the name.
- Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Jonathan Ruykhaver initiated coverage of CyberArk (CYBR) with an Overweight rating and $180 price target. CyberArk has established itself as a perennial leader in the PAM market and in recent years has successfully broadened its portfolio to include single-sign-on, adaptive multi factor authentication, endpoint identity security, customer identity and access management, credentials and secrets management and cloud entitlements management, creating a compelling platform opportunity in the broader Identity and Access Management market, Ruykhaver told investors in a research note.
Friday, September 9th
- Daiwa analyst Carlton Lai upgraded Coinbase (COIN) to Buy from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $100 following the retracement in share price over the past month. After “years of delay,” the Ethereum Merge, which he deems “one of the crypto industry’s biggest events this year,” is scheduled to take place during the period of September 13-15, Lai tells investors.
- Morgan Stanley analyst Matthew Harrison upgraded Regeneron (REGN) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $851, up from $625. The analyst says Eylea “tail risk is removed” following yesterday’s data and Regeneron is now a “key large-cap biotech growth story.” Jefferies analyst Akash Tewari also upgraded Regeneron to Hold from Underperform with a price target of $675, up from $536, following what he described as “very strong” high-dose Eylea data.
- Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned downgraded Virgin Galactic (SPCE) to Underperform from Market Perform with a $4 price target. The company’s Q2 results follow a pattern over the last two years that has meant delay of future flight operations, redesign of elements of its platform, and a need to raise more cash, Harned tells investors in a research note.
- Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale initiated coverage of V2X (VVX) with a Strong Buy rating and $50 price target. V2X is an undervalued and under-followed entity and, besides a favorable defense spending backdrop, Gesuale sees trends at inflections that support an acceleration of growth, including rising geopolitical instability driving an increased forward military posture for the first time since 2011 that drives base operations spend globally, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
