Upgrade for Car Rental Stock, Spirit Airlines Loses Support from Citi: Thursday's Analyst Calls

Morgan Stanley Upgrades Hertz to Overweight, Citi Downgrades Spirit Airlines to Sell

Morgan Stanley has upgraded its rating on car rental company Hertz to overweight, citing strong gains ahead. On the other hand, Citi has downgraded budget airline Spirit Airlines to sell, citing uncertainty after a proposed merger with JetBlue was blocked.

Guggenheim Analyst Maintains Buy Rating on Target

Guggenheim analyst Robert Drbul has maintained his buy rating on Target and reduced his 2024 estimates. He believes that softer industry trends in discretionary categories will continue into 2024 but expects a sequential comp improvement driven by traffic. Drbul sees ongoing cost-cutting and efficiency efforts, shrink improvement, and fewer markdowns as opportunities for Target.

Analysts Lower Estimates on Charles Schwab After Q4 Results

Analysts on Wall Street are lowering their estimates on Charles Schwab after the company’s fourth-quarter results. Goldman Sachs reiterated a neutral rating on the stock, while Bank of America restated an underperform rating. Both analysts lowered their EPS forecasts for the next few years due to lower net interest margin forecasts and potential organic growth trends.

Argus Upgrades Pinterest as Users Turn into Shoppers

Argus has upgraded shares of Pinterest to buy as the platform has become an increasingly popular e-commerce destination. The upgrade comes as Pinterest focuses on increasing shopping through partnerships with Amazon and improvements in content and personalization. The analyst expects more users, higher engagement, increased ad prices, and higher ad loads to drive growth for Pinterest.

Oppenheimer Bullish on NICE’s AI ‘Pure Play’

Oppenheimer is turning more bullish on contact center stock NICE, viewing it as an AI pure play. The analyst expects the company’s AI-enabled product to continue expanding in the near term and sees its total addressable market growing three times by 2027. The firm holds an outperform rating on NICE with a $225 price target.