Oracle initiated, Ulta Beauty 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:

• Argus upgraded Ulta Beauty (ULTA) to Buy from Hold with a $570 price target. Last month the company reported its fourth consecutive earnings beat, though shares have underperformed the S&P 500 and the industry ETF IYC over the past quarter, the firm says.
• Scotiabank upgraded CrowdStrike (CRWD) to Outperform from Sector Perform with a price target of $600, up from $440. The firm’s latest channel checks indicate that CrowdStrike is “more competitively entrenched than ever” in core endpoint security.
• BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Arista Networks (ANET) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $172, up from $125, calling the company a “key beneficiary” of the multi-year AI data center capex supercycle.
• MoffettNathanson upgraded Chewy (CHWY) to Buy from Neutral with a $48 price target. As pet household formation continues its recovery, the volatility on Chewy’s quarterly customer additions should decrease, says the firm, which cautions that Chewy’s path forward to the firm’s above-consensus customer additions and adjusted EBITDA in FY26 “will not be linear.”
• Seaport Research upgraded Intel (INTC) to Neutral from Sell without a price target. While Intel “is on the wrong path with a shrinking window” to save its fabs, the stock is likely to be driven by follow-on investments and the potential for a “stop-gap solution” in the near-term, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• Needham downgraded Lululemon (LULU) to Hold from Buy without a price target. The firm believes the company’s competitive environment is “too challenging at the moment.”
• Wedbush downgraded CarMax (KMX) to Neutral from Outperform with a price target of $54, down from $84, after the company reported “weak results” in Q2 that underperformed expectations across “all key metrics.”
• Northcoast downgraded Wendy’s (WEN) to Sell from Neutral with a $7 price target. The firm’s channel checks indicate Wendy’s is facing a “leadership vacuum” while its marketing is not working, which is driving product launch delays.
• Scotiabank downgraded Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) to Sector Perform from Outperform with a price target of $45, down from $55. The firm cites the mud rush incident at the company’s Grasberg Block Cave Cu-Au mine in Indonesia for the downgrade.
• Berenberg downgraded TotalEnergies (TTE) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $64, down from $67. The company spending leaves a higher reinvestment ratio than peers and less cash available for shareholder returns in the near-term, the firm tells investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Rothschild & Co Redburn initiated coverage of Oracle (ORCL) with a Sell rating and $175 price target. The firm believes the market “materially overestimates” the value of Oracle’s contracted cloud revenues.
• Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Oklo (OKLO) with a Neutral rating and $117 price target. The firm sees a catalyst-rich backdrop supporting the stock’s elevated valuation levels in the near-to-medium term.
• Jefferies initiated coverage of Biogen (BIIB) with a Buy rating and $190 price target. The firm believes investor expectations are low with Biogen’s key risks generally understood.
• RBC Capital initiated coverage of Becton Dickinson (BDX) with a Sector Perform rating and $211 price target. The firm believes Becton is positioning itself for the next phase of growth with the business separation in Q1 of 2026.
• Seaport Research initiated coverage of Frontier Group (ULCC) with a Neutral rating and no price target. Shares have “option-like upside and downside on externalities that are not factored into our base case,” says the firm, who acknowledges that the upside optionality is “substantial” for “investors that like to swing for the fence.”