Wednesday's analyst calls: Ford downgrade; crypto mining stock gets a big upgrade
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(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Wednesday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) Early analyst calls on Wednesday included a downgrade to a legacy automaker and a rerating for a crypto mining stock that won big last year. UBS lowered its rating on Ford Motor, calling for slim gains ahead. BTIG, meanwhile, upgraded Marathon Digital, with the firm estimating major gains ahead. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:14 a.m.: Barclays downgrades SolarEdge, says consensus estimates need reassessment Barclays is moving to the sidelines on SolarEdge despite shares trading at a premium to peer Enphase Energy. The firm downgraded the solar stock to underweight from equal weight on Tuesday, and lowered its price target to $50 per share from $74. Barclays’ forecast implies more than 31% downside from Tuesday’s $72.83 close. “As we have parsed through our numbers, we think the road to recovery will be tougher for SEDG from the perspectives of top line, gross margins, and market share,” analyst Christine Cho said. “Lower demand and regulatory changes have led to elevated levels of channel inventories, which we believe will continue to slow growth and also contribute to lower gross margins at SEDG relative to peers,” Cho added. SolarEdge has slumped more than 22% in 2024. — Brian Evans 6:01 a.m.: JPMorgan downgrades Morgan Stanley after the firm warns of ‘major downside risks’ in quarterly results Morgan Stanley is likely fairly valued with limited upside moving forward, according to JPMorgan. The firm downgraded shares of the investment bank to neutral from overweight in a Wednesday note. JPMorgan also lowered its price target on Morgan Stanley to $87 per share from $94. That forecast implies upside of just 1.2%. The move comes after Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick warned last week that a potential weakening of the U.S. economy coupled with geopolitical risks served as “major downside risks” moving forward. The bank also posted mixed quarterly results. “While MS offers significant gearing to improvement in capital markets activity, we reflect this in our estimates with IBD revenues +47% YoY in our 2024E forecasts and we would seek any further upside to this exposure through GS (OW) which is our preferred name in US IBs while we prefer UBS’ global exposure for WM gearing,” analyst Kian Abouhossein said. Morgan Stanley stock has slipped nearly 8% this year. — Brian Evans 5:42 a.m.: UBS downgrades Ford, says stock has limited upside moving forward UBS thinks shares of legacy automaker Ford are fairly valued and that the company will have a more difficult road ahead compared to peers. The firm downgraded Ford to neutral from buy in a Tuesday note and reiterated a $12 per share price target. UBS’ forecast implies about 5% upside from Tuesday’s $11.46 close. “While Ford is subject to the same industry headwinds as other automakers (pricing, affordability, labor, investment) and is trying to increase their capital efficiency, we believe F may have more to reverse vs peers considering execution and quality challenges,” analyst Joseph Spak said. Spak added that while he forecasts more potential for earnings growth on Ford compared to peer U.S. automaker General Motors, he cautioned that chief executive Jim Farley’s company blueprint “could take a number of years for the benefits of those plans to be realized.” Ford shares have struggled this year, losing 6%. The stock also lagged in 2023, rising just 4.8%, while the S & P 500 jumped more than 20%. — Brian Evans 5:42 a.m.: BTIG upgrades Marathon Digital Crypto mining company Marathon Digital is coming off a banner year, and BTIG thinks there are more gains ahead. Analyst Gregory Lewis raised his rating on Marathon Digital to buy from neutral with a price target of $27 per share. That forecast implies upside of nearly 52% from Tuesday’s close. He cited the recent approval of a bitcoin ETF as a positive catalyst for the company. “The approval comes ~10 years after the first spot ETF was proposed and is another step in BTC’s maturation and should pave the way for more institutional capital into the ecosystem,” Lewis wrote. “Since launching, these ETFs (initial fees of 0% for the first 6 months to ~1.5%) hold ~$2B in BTC and look to have driven some fund flows away from miners with miners down 20%-30% versus BTC which is down ~5%.” “On the back of the weakness in the miners and Marathon’s decision to pivot into infrastructure late last year, we upgrade to Buy from Neutral,” he added. Marathon rallied more than 586% in 2023 as bitcoin prices recovered. Shares have struggled in early 2024, however, losing 24%. MARA 1Y mountain MARA in past year — Fred Imbert
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