Apple initiated, Hershey 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:

• Arete upgraded Baidu (BIDU) to Buy from Sell with a $143 price target. AI chips remain under-supplied within China and Baidu’s Kunlun chip venture has the potential to more than offset the struggling online advertising business, the firm tells investors.
• Citizens JMP upgraded CoreWeave (CRWV) to Outperform from Market Perform with a $180 price target. The firm now believes CoreWeave’s graphics processing unit-as-a-service business is likely to grow to an estimated $300B from $3B-$4B currently.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Hershey (HSY) to Buy from Sell with a price target of $222, up from $170. The shares are trading at a “compelling risk/reward” following the company’s multiple guidance reductions over the past year, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• BofA upgraded Prologis (PLD) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $130, up from $118, following the firm’s Global RE Conference. The key new takeaway from the event is that conversion of new lease proposals into signed leases during Q3 is occurring at a better rate than during Q2, says the firm, which sees demand versus supply dynamics improving throughout 2026 and notes its estimates are above the Street consensus.
• Loop Capital upgraded Union Pacific (UNP) to Hold from Sell with a price target of $227, up from $214. With the shares down 5% year-to-date, Union Pacific’s valuation multiples are now only modestly above the bottom of their five-year ranges, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• TD Cowen downgraded Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) to Hold from Buy with an unchanged price target of $14. The shares have rallied well above the price target following last week’s report that Paramount Skydance (PSKY) may be considering a bid, the analyst tells investors in a research note. TD believes that while Paramount may come in with a bid of $20 per share or higher, it does not find Warner’s current risk/reward attractive given the potential for the stock to “quickly round-trip” to $11-$12 if the bid doesn’t materialize.
• Rothschild & Co Redburn downgraded Live Nation (LYV) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $170, up from $144. The company’s margin expansion will slow from fiscal 2026, leaving less potential upside to earnings estimates, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• Stifel downgraded VF Corp. (VFC) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $16, up from $15. The risk-reward on the stock is now “in balance” after a 12.5% one-month return, and the $600M sale of Dickies is a “strong outcome”, representing 15-times enterprise value to expected forward EBITDA multiple, even though the company’s Vans business still continues to seek a new base and a normalized growth rate, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan downgraded Camp4 Therapeutics (CAMP) to Neutral from Overweight without a price target. The company’s private placement provides a cash runway into 2027, but this is balanced by its lead program CMP-SYNGAP-01 for Syngap-related disorders being in the very early stage, the firm tells investors in a research note.
• JPMorgan downgraded Neumora Therapeutics (NMRA) to Underweight from Neutral without a price target. The company’s Phase 3 KOASTAL-1 trial evaluating navacaprant as a monotherapy treatment in major depressive disorder failed to hit its primary endpoint or key secondary endpoint earlier this year, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Bernstein initiated coverage of the IT hardware group, saying Apple (AAPL), Dell Technologies (DELL), Seagate (STX) and SanDisk (SNDK) are will be winners in the “intelligence revolution.” All four stocks were given Outperform ratings. Bernstein sees significant long-term upside for IT hardware on the “sustainable” increase in spending as artificial intelligence expands the addressable market. The firm put Market Perform ratings on Western Digital (WDC), IBM (IBM), Super Micro (SMCI), HP Enterprise (HPE) and HP Inc. (HPQ).
• Compass Point initiated coverage of Klarna (KLAR) with a Buy rating and $53 price target, which represents 24% upside. Demand for buy now play later “remains robust “and credit trends across the payment landscape are “fairly benign,” the firm tells investors in a research note. Needham also started coverage of Klarna but with a Hold rating and no price target.
• Raymond James initiated coverage of CoreWeave (CRWV) with an Outperform rating and $130 price target. The target and rating reflect the firm’s bullish stance on the duration of scaling laws due to reasoning vector growth and broadening inference commercialization with AI 6 CapEx Street estimates that appear too low.
• Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of Kingsoft Cloud (KC) with a Buy rating and $21 price target. Kingsoft Cloud, as one of the “leading” cloud service providers in China with extensive cloud infrastructure and a comprehensive suite of cloud-based services and industry-specific solutions, is set to benefit from “explosive growth” in demand for AI computing and its strategic cooperation with key shareholders Xiaomi and Kingsoft Group, the firm tells investors.
• Evercore ISI initiated coverage of TransMedics (TMDX) with an Outperform rating and $155 price target. There is a misunderstanding among investors that the cost of TransMedics’ services is materially higher than competitive alternatives, but the firm’s analysis shows total costs are similar, despite materially better patient outcomes, the firm tells investors.