Here are the top demands on Wall Street on Friday: TD Cowen upgrades Diageo from hold to buy TD Cowen said “the tide is turning” at drinks company Diageo. “We expect the valuation movement to create an attractive entry, CEO-led cost cutting and reinvestment to restore growth and improve commercial execution.” Stevens introduces the overweight James Hardy, who called the fiber cement company “high quality.” “We initiate coverage on JHX with an OW rating and a $31 price target. JHX is a leading manufacturer of high-end fiber cement siding, and following its merger with AZEK, JHX is also the No. 2 manufacturer of composite decking materials.” Stevens starts Granite due to overweight Stevens said the civil construction company is firing on all cylinders. “We are initiating coverage on GVA with an OW rating and a $180 price target. GVA is a leader in construction services and civil engineering contracting, and a producer of aggregates and asphalt in select markets.” Mizuho Reiterates NVIDIA Outperforming Mizuho said it remains firm with NVIDIA stock. “We believe NVDA remains a leader in AI training and inference chips for data center applications.” Morgan Stanley Reiterates Apple Overweight Morgan Stanley said it expects Apple’s “earnings upside.” “Apple’s 15% to 25% price increases for Macs, iPads, and other products underpin an unprecedented effort to protect margins amid record memory inflation. Timing and size weigh on sentiment, but ecosystem lock-in, financing options, and relatively inelastic demand could support upside in sales and earnings.” Goldman Sachs names Penn Gaming & Red Rock Resorts as acquisition candidate Goldman has made acquisition offers for several gaming and leisure companies and says the stock price is “compelling.” “We see PENN, with its regional operations at an inflection point, as one of the most compelling risk/reward propositions in the gaming industry… RRR – The bottom line is that we believe the 2027 earnings story is compelling and represents an important turning point, as RRR has the dual benefit of weathering disruptive headwinds from 2026 and reaping growth investments from RRR’s latest five projects.” KeyBank downgrades Nike rating from overweight to sectorweight KeyBank said the recovery is taking longer than expected. “We downgrade NKE to sector weight and slightly lower our FY27 forecasts, suggesting China/EMEA headwinds are slightly stronger than originally expected.”Read more BMO rates AMH to above-market performer BMO said the housing company has “geographical diversity.” “Upgrades AMH to Outperform, maintains $39/hour target” Piper Sandler upgrades Crocs from Neutral to Overweight Piper said the stock is undervalued. “We upgrade Crocs to Overweight at $150 PT. Crocs North America DTC rises to MSD (mid-single digits) in Q1 2026 (highest since Q2 2024), compared to ease for the rest of the year. “Hay Dude is starting to see green shoots in DTC, EPS forecasts are biased upwards, and the stock price has risen from the low range, but the valuation is still cheap at 8 times PE.”Citi begins acquisition of Belden. Citi said the electronic connectivity maker is attractive to long-term investors. “We view BDC as poised for sustained earnings growth as it pivots to a ‘solution-based’ go-to-market strategy, enabling a favorable mix of larger order sizes, deeper customer engagement, and margin-accelerating ‘active’ products, supporting BDC’s 10%-12% EPS CAGR potential.” RBC Upgrades American Tower, Outperforming Sector Performance RBC said cell phone tower companies are the new top idea. “Our View: Despite headwinds from rising interest rate expectations and a clear unwinding of the LEO bull narrative, we upgrade AMT to Outperform and therefore assign a higher target multiple based on 1) superior organic revenue growth relative to peers and 2) strong core site trends.” Evercore ISI upgrades Americold Realty Trust from Inline to Outperform Evercore said the cold storage company’s fundamentals are improving. “We upgrade Refrigerated REIT Amecor from Inline to Outperform and raise our price target from $17 to $18, suggesting an attractive total return potential of over 25%.” Deutsche Bank reiterated its rating on Microsoft, and Deutsche said Microsoft is undervalued. “We are planting the flag and confirming that the current AI business across the cloud providers we cover is indeed value-creating and constitutes a sustainable commercial base based on the current economics of the market.” Citi upgrades Allegiant to neutral buyout Citi said it likes the combination of Allegiant and Sun Country. “The merger of ALGT and SNCY could be one of the best deals in industry history given the strong synergies, establishing a new 2027/2028 peak EPS forecast for ALGT and upgrading it to Buy/High Risk.” Needham Upgrades Barnes & Noble Education to Buy Needham said the company has a “stable balance sheet.” “We have upgraded BNED to Buy, establishing a $16 PT following the company’s Investor Day where management was reintroduced to investors and highlighting its strong balance sheet and multi-lever strategy for profitable growth.” Needham launched the formation of New Holdings as Needham said the Latin American fintech company is firing on all cylinders. “We are initiating coverage on Nu Holdings (NU) with a Buy rating and a $17 price target. NU operates as a neobank and digital lending platform with a focus on Brazil.” Piper Sandler Starts Connect Biopharma Due to Overweight Piper said there is still room to play in the biotech company’s stock. “We are initiating coverage of Connect Biopharma (CNTB) with an Overweight rating and a PT of $7…” BTIG acquires Robinhood and says the company is “built for compounding.” “We are initiating coverage on Robinhood (HOOD) with a Buy rating and a $125 price target.” Read more. JPMorgan upgrades HB Fuller from neutral to overweight JPMorgan said it sees many tailwinds for the specialty chemical company. “Fuller is growing adjusted EBITDA on price appreciation and positive currency effects in an environment of flat to low sales volumes.” Wedbush launches inflation with outperformance Wedbush said the company is “the only publicly traded neutral atom pure play company.” “We initiate inflation coverage with an Outperform rating and a $20 price target. INFQ is the only company commercializing the entire neutral stack spanning computing, sensing and software from one shared technology core, and is the only publicly traded neutral pure play company. Morgan Stanley reiterates its equal weight with Tesla. The company said it expects solid deliveries from Tesla next week.” RBC starts Honeywell Aerospace Inc. with an Outperform rating RBC said it expects sales growth for Honeywell Aerospace Inc. “We are initiating coverage of Honeywell Aerospace Inc. (HONA) with an Outperform rating and a price target of $300.” Rothschild & Company Redburn Inc. starts Mosaic as a Buy The company said the phosphate and fertilizer company has good upside. “We initiate coverage on Mosaic with a buy recommendation and a price target (PT) of $30, suggesting 40% upside potential.” Baird opens Faes Therapeutics as Outperform Baird said the biotech company has a strong pipeline. “Initiated coverage of Fath Therapeutics (FTH) with an Outperform rating and $57 price target.” Raymond James initiated Primis Financial, a strong acquisition that Raymond James called the banking company “unique.” “Primis Financial Corporation is a unique banking franchise in Virginia, built on a community banking core and complemented by a national mortgage warehouse and healthcare banking platform, both of which are largely funded by the bank’s national digital deposit platform.”Jeffries Upgrades FuelCell to Purchase from Pending Jefferies said it has significant visibility for the clean energy company. “We upgrade FCEL to Buy from Hold and raise PT to $24, reflecting our first contract order related to U.S. data center power through our energy infrastructure platform Fit Energy and the expected continuation of pipeline conversion momentum.” Argus says the stock is currently overvalued, so start SpaceX. “We are initiating coverage of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) (Nasdaq GS: SPCX) with a Hold rating.”
