Analysts Stocks

      Daily Update - Dec 19, 2022

      Selected stock price targets highlights of the day

      By: Matthew Otto

       

      Maxar Technologies

      Announced lastFriday their acquisition by Advent International, a firm with 35+ years of global security and defense investing experience. The $6.4 billion transaction will provide stockholders with an impressive 129% premium to the prior closing price at $53 per share in cash – making it one of the largest buyouts this year. Following close, Maxar is set to remain U.S.-controlled and operated while utilizing funds from the deal to accelerate investment into next-generation satellite technologies for its customers.

      • TD Securities’ Tim James downgraded from Buy to Tender.
      • BMO Capital’s Thanos Moschopoulos increased his price target from $27 to a $53.
      • Michael Ciarmoli of Truist and Matthew Sharpe from Morgan Stanley both maintained a bullish outlook for the stock, keeping price targets at $42 and $43 respectively prior to the announcement.

       

      Darden Restaurants

      Reported their second quarter 2023 financial results last Friday as well with impressive growth in sales and net earnings per share. Total sales rose 9.4 percent to $2.49 billion due to a blended same-restaurant sales increase of 7.3% plus 35 new restaurants while the Company repurchased 100 million dollars’ worth of its outstanding common stock contributing to an overall 2/7% rise in diluted net earnings per share from last year’s figure.

      • David Palmer of Evercore ISI raising the price target to $153 while maintaining his In-Line rating.
      • Barclays’ Jeffrey Bernstein also upgraded his to $148 and holding and an Overweight status.
      • Credit Suisse’s Lauren Silberman bumped up her forecast for Darden Restaurants to $157 with an Outperform ratings.

      DRI’s rise from its March 2020 bottom of $50 has been predicted by the three analysts, all with proven accuracy in their price target maintenance.

       

       COIN Coinbase Global

      • Benjamin Budish lowered his price target to $37 while maintaining an Equal-Weight rating
      • Richard Repetto decreasing his forecast to $75 from a previous Overweight recommendation citing global macro environment impact and regulations constriction.

      Both analysts have been lukewarm for the crypto stock since it went down from its highs at $400 per share earlier this year.

      Amazon gets reduced by Evercore

      • Mark Mahaney from Evercore ISI Group reduced Amazon price target to $150, yet maintained the Outperform rating for the e-commerce giant. His research report was quoted on Seeking Alpha “While the company will be negatively impacted by the probable ’23 Recession and likely requires Street estimates cuts on both the top and bottom line, in part due to insufficient cost actions to date, AMZN remains arguably the highest quality asset we cover in terms of Revenue and Profit outlooks.”.

       

      MRNA

      • Moderna experienced an upgrade by analyst Michael Yee of Jefferies who upped his price target from $170 to a whopping $275, showing approval for the potential in cancer vaccine agreement made with Merch last week.

      Oppenheimer adjusts lower on Tesla

      • Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch made headlines when he lowered his outlook on Tesla Motors from Outperform to Perform. Just half a year ago, an analyst held an optimistic outlook on the stock forecast for $430. However, his recent downgrade has shifted this opinion significantly and goes in line with the market sentiment that cut the stock price by half since then.