Roblox upgraded, GM downgraded: 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:

• Oppenheimer upgraded Roblox (RBLX) to Outperform from Perform with a $70 price target. The firm believes the recent pullback in the stock has created an excellent entry point for long-term investors. 
• HSBC upgraded Palo Alto Networks (PANW) to Hold from Reduce with an unchanged price target of $156. The firm considers cybersecurity “recession resilient” and says the stock’s valuation is “no longer stretched.” 
• Morgan Stanley upgraded AppLovin (APP) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $350, down from $470. The firm says that despite AppLovin’s strong results in recent quarters, the stock has fallen by 46% since Q4 earnings. 
• Benchmark upgraded Western Digital (WDC) to Buy from Hold with a $55 price target. Forward valuations of the hard drive stocks have typically ranged from mid-single-digits to low teens multiples, but Western Digital’s shares are trading at the low end of this historic range as investors’ concern over tariffs have “produced compelling valuations for some Tech hardware stocks,” notes the firm. 
• Piper Sandler upgraded Assurant (AIZ) to Overweight from Neutral with a $223 price target. The firm believes shares have unnecessarily gotten caught up in tariff-related market volatility and views the current valuation as too cheap to ignore, while it sees EPS as intact for a number of reasons

Top 5 Downgrades:

• UBS downgraded General Motors (GM) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $51, down from $64. The firm cut estimates to reflect the impact of tariffs on the company’s cost structure as well as the impact to auto demand. UBS also downgraded Visteon (VC), Phinia (PHIN), Aptiv (APTV) and BorgWarner (BWA) to Neutral from Buy.
• Goldman Sachs downgraded Ford (F) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $9, down from $11. The firm sees a more difficult cyclical dynamic for the company, including competition internationally, weaker consumer demand, and what it expects will be higher costs from tariffs. Goldman Sachs also downgraded Visteon and Lear (LEA) to Neutral from Buy.
• Gordon Haskett downgraded Dollar General (DG) to Reduce from Hold with an unchanged price target of $75 after members of the firm’s team attended Walmart’s (WMT) investor meeting in Dallas. The firm thought the meeting left positive impressions on the warehouse club model, but made it “incrementally more guarded on the dollar stores.” 
• UBS downgraded QuantumScape (QS) to Sell from Neutral with a price target of $2.50, down from $5. New trade policies are raising the cost to make a vehicle, leading to increased consumer prices and negatively impacting demand, while production disruptions are likely, financially challenging suppliers, the firm tells investors in a research note. 
• JPMorgan downgraded Eversource (ES) to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $58, down from $69. Although President Trump announced a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal tariffs, raising tariffs on China to 125% still leaves the average effective tariff rate above 25%, the firm tells investors in a research note. 

Top 5 Initiations:

• BofA reinstated coverage of Verisk Analytics (VRSK) with an Underperform rating and $280 price target. The stock trades at a premium multiple relative to its growth profile and while the consistency of its cash flows “makes the stock attractive in an uncertain economic backdrop,” the firm sees little upside left for investors.
• Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage of Kenvue (KVUE) with a Neutral rating and $23.50 price target. The firm is taking a more cautious view against consensus and anticipates flat margins rather than expanding margins and modest earnings declines against flat growth.
• Raymond James initiated coverage of Apollo Global (APO) with a Strong Buy rating and $173 price target. Raymond James likes Apollo’s “robust” growth profile, operational advantages supported by scale, and excellent risk management, and tells investors in a research note that the “dislocation” in the stock appears to be a unique opportunity. 
• BofA reinstated coverage of Cintas (CTAS) with a Buy rating and $250 price target, while also adding the stock to BofA Global Research’s “US 1 List.” The firm’s Buy rating is driven by the strength of the company’s network effects, its distinctive culture, its incentive pay structure, and the duration of EPS growth.
• BofA reinstated coverage of TransUnion (TRU) with an Underperform rating and $84 price target. The firm cites TransUnion having “the weakest network effect within our coverage,” an international outlook that is less clear due to India and tariffs, and a valuation that it views as already reflecting a free cash flow acceleration.