To The Moon

Top 5 Upgrades:

• UBS upgraded IAC(IAC) to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $54, up from $46. The firm is incrementally more positive on Angi(ANGI), which represents 22% of the IAC shares, and the upgrade is also based on a higher valuation for DDM given multiples for digital ad names have expanded year-to-date.

• UBS also upgraded Angi Inc.to Neutral from Sell with a price target of $2.75, up from $2.00. UBS is incrementally more positive after management disclosed that it is going "back to basics" with a focus on the directory-style listings for Ads & Leads and smaller, simpler, and repeatable jobs for Services.

• RBC Capital upgraded Ecolab(ECL) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $185, up from $155, noting that fixed currency operating income growth accelerated to 14% in Q4 and stating that the firm expects further improvement going forward.

• Piper Sandler upgraded U.S. Bancorp(USB) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $57, up from $53. U.S. Bancorp is as one of the "sturdiest" large regional stories in an uncertain environment, yet the stock's valuation does not give due credit, the firm says.

• Loop Capital upgraded Upstart(UPST) to Buy from Hold with an unchanged $24 price target. The company reported a "difficult" Q4 with declining volume and gave an "ugly" Q1 guidance, but the stock has reached a level that offers "relative outperformance," the firm says.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Citi downgraded Bath & Body Works(BBWI) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $48, down from $50. The firm anticipates a "modest" Q4 beat driven by slightly better comps and margins, but believes investor focus will be on where new CEO Gina Boswell sets the bar for fiscal 2023 as well as longer-term margin targets.

• Evercore ISI downgraded Marriott(MAR) to In Line from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $180. The firm is moving to the sidelines with the stock having run through its $180 price target as the shares are up 22% year-to-date and up 32% since last July.  

• RBC Capital downgraded Akamai(AKAM) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $85, down from $100. The company's Q4 results were in line with estimates, but the major story of the earnings call was the "clear change in strategy" to go all-in on Linode and Compute as Security growth slows, the firm says.

• Citi downgraded Upstart to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $11, down from $17. Acknowledging that it had concerns for a more challenging outlook going into results, Citi said it was "still surprised by the company's indications."

• Stifel downgraded TE Connectivity(TEL) to Hold from Buy with an unchanged price target of $130. The firm sees some risk to forward consensus estimates, given a "still uncertain" macro outlook and concerns that the broader industrial markets will slow and distribution will continue to correct.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Barclays initiated coverage of the U.S. autos and mobility sector with a Neutral view overall, but started six stocks with Overweight ratings: Adient(ADNT), Aptiv(APTV), BorgWarner(BWA), Mobileye(MBLY), Rivian Automotive(RIVN) and Tesla(TSLA).
• Loop Capital initiated coverage of Dick's Sporting(DKS) with a Hold rating and $130 price target. The firm notes that the stock is trading at significant premiums to its comparable companies and historical levels, while already pricing in its bullish fundamentals.

• Gordon Haskett initiated coverage of Chewy(CHWY) with a Hold rating and $46 price target. Investors are currently focused on the macro and a pandemic "hangover" pressuring new customer additions, but the firm believes the company is investing wisely in initiatives and infrastructure that will improve the business in the long-term.

• Barclays initiated coverage of TD Synnex(SNX) with an Equal Weight rating and $109 price target. The firm believes the company's improving mix and strong execution will likely be offset by near-term macro pressures and the longer-term IT move to the cloud from on-premise.

• BMO Capital initiated coverage of Samsara(IOT) with a Market Perform rating and $17 price target. With shares trading at a relative premium, BMO would look for better entry points.