Wall St Engine
Piper Sandler Downgrades $ZS to Neutral from Overweight, Raises PT to $260 from $235
Analyst comments: "While the year appears to be playing out as we had hoped, with the company topping 3Q metrics and the back half billings ramp appearing less daunting given quarterly performance, the recent run in shares (+30% over past 3 months) have us mulling upside from here. Especially in light of integrating an acquisition, a pending guide for the coming FY (ARR-based which could dip below the 20% threshold) and looming Fed uncertainty. We don't think investors should chase what has been solid performance (fundamentals and stock) and should look for more compelling entry points to buy shares. Downgrading to Neutral with a $260 target."
Analyst: Ron Owens
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Piper Sandler Downgrades $ZS to Neutral from Overweight, Raises PT to $260 from $235
Analyst comments: "While the year appears to be playing out as we had hoped, with the company topping 3Q metrics and the back half billings ramp appearing less daunting given quarterly performance, the recent run in shares (+30% over past 3 months) have us mulling upside from here. Especially in light of integrating an acquisition, a pending guide for the coming FY (ARR-based which could dip below the 20% threshold) and looming Fed uncertainty. We don't think investors should chase what has been solid performance (fundamentals and stock) and should look for more compelling entry points to buy shares. Downgrading to Neutral with a $260 target."
Analyst: Ron Owens
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Synopsys $SNPS has told staff in China to stop all sales, services, and new orders following new U.S. export restrictions, per an internal memo seen by Reuters. https://t.co/J2NgQ6dbo5
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Synopsys $SNPS has told staff in China to stop all sales, services, and new orders following new U.S. export restrictions, per an internal memo seen by Reuters. https://t.co/J2NgQ6dbo5
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Barclays Upgrades $ROK to Overweight from Equalweight, Raises PT to $350 from $283
Analyst comments: "The main drivers are: 1) Why now? The top-line outlook appears firmer... We had upgraded our rating on ROK to EW from UW in late 2024 in our 2025 Outlook report, as we thought its top line was likely to bottom in 2025 after a very weak 2024, and the stock had underperformed its main Automation peer (EMR) substantially in 2024. However, we did not move to an outright OW rating, because we thought the timing of the top-line trough was very uncertain, amidst uncertainty around the extent of further de-stocking needed by its customers / distributors. Today, while there is a high degree of macro uncertainty, it does seem as if the de-stocking that was under way for much of the past 18 months for some of ROK’s main hardware products (hardware is around two-thirds of its sales, with the balance comprised of software and services) has run its course, and it does not seem as if there was an outsized degree of tariff pre-buy for its products in early 2025, based off sequential trends for ROK and its peers."
Analyst: Julian Mitchell
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Barclays Upgrades $ROK to Overweight from Equalweight, Raises PT to $350 from $283
Analyst comments: "The main drivers are: 1) Why now? The top-line outlook appears firmer... We had upgraded our rating on ROK to EW from UW in late 2024 in our 2025 Outlook report, as we thought its top line was likely to bottom in 2025 after a very weak 2024, and the stock had underperformed its main Automation peer (EMR) substantially in 2024. However, we did not move to an outright OW rating, because we thought the timing of the top-line trough was very uncertain, amidst uncertainty around the extent of further de-stocking needed by its customers / distributors. Today, while there is a high degree of macro uncertainty, it does seem as if the de-stocking that was under way for much of the past 18 months for some of ROK’s main hardware products (hardware is around two-thirds of its sales, with the balance comprised of software and services) has run its course, and it does not seem as if there was an outsized degree of tariff pre-buy for its products in early 2025, based off sequential trends for ROK and its peers."
Analyst: Julian Mitchell
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Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica is buying Optegra, which runs 70+ eye hospitals across Europe, in a push into AI-driven eyecare. Deal builds on recent med-tech buys like Heidelberg Engineering and Cellview Imaging. https://t.co/1zTqbFLUJZ
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Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica is buying Optegra, which runs 70+ eye hospitals across Europe, in a push into AI-driven eyecare. Deal builds on recent med-tech buys like Heidelberg Engineering and Cellview Imaging. https://t.co/1zTqbFLUJZ
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Wall St Engine
Morgan Stanley on $CRM (OW; PT $404): "1Q26 results left questions for investors around timeline to realizing growth inflection, but metrics were largely in line with expectations amidst an uneven macro environment."
"Market reacted more negatively than we anticipated, with questions centered on Core performance, margins, & Agentforce."
"Are Margins Tapping Out? With Q1 operating margin of 32.3% coming in slightly shy of the Street at 32.6%, and FY26 guidance for 34% margin was only reiterated despite the favorable currency move in the quarter driving the raise to as-reported revenue guidance (+$400M), investors questioned whether Salesforce is signaling a moderation in margin expansion potential ahead. While management did not call out any specific impacts pressuring margin in the quarter, we would note 32.3% margins came more in line with MSe (at 32%), and Q1 is Salesforce's seasonally weakest quarter, where margins tend to ramp throughout the year thereafter. As it relates to the lack of guidance flow through on FX, while foreign currency strengthening drives benefits to revenue, heightened exposure to international expenses largely offsets the revenue tailwinds, driving unchanged margin guidance."
"That said, we do acknowledge expectations should contemplate a more modest pace of margin expansion ahead following the company's structural focus on improving profitability amidst the burgeoning of a slower-growth environment in FY23. More philosophically, given the momentum building behind Agentforce and Data Cloud, management spoke to its propensity to invest behind the growth opportunities ahead, in the form of accelerated AE hiring to support the higher-touch selling motion in the near term as these are new product cycles. Constructively, the company reiterated its commitment to continuing to improve margins despite the focus on growth, noting ability to redeploy headcount from areas like customer service towards the new forward deployed engineer strategy. As such, a faster pace of growth with a return to double digits YoY, combined with modest margin expansion, should yield durable ~low teens Free Cash Flow growth ahead, which, against the Large-Cap average multiple of ~1.8X EV/FCF/G, implies shares trading at a ~low 20x EV/FCF multiple, leaving material room for expansion from the ~mid-teens multiple the shares trade at today."
Analyst: Keith Weiss
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Morgan Stanley on $CRM (OW; PT $404): "1Q26 results left questions for investors around timeline to realizing growth inflection, but metrics were largely in line with expectations amidst an uneven macro environment."
"Market reacted more negatively than we anticipated, with questions centered on Core performance, margins, & Agentforce."
"Are Margins Tapping Out? With Q1 operating margin of 32.3% coming in slightly shy of the Street at 32.6%, and FY26 guidance for 34% margin was only reiterated despite the favorable currency move in the quarter driving the raise to as-reported revenue guidance (+$400M), investors questioned whether Salesforce is signaling a moderation in margin expansion potential ahead. While management did not call out any specific impacts pressuring margin in the quarter, we would note 32.3% margins came more in line with MSe (at 32%), and Q1 is Salesforce's seasonally weakest quarter, where margins tend to ramp throughout the year thereafter. As it relates to the lack of guidance flow through on FX, while foreign currency strengthening drives benefits to revenue, heightened exposure to international expenses largely offsets the revenue tailwinds, driving unchanged margin guidance."
"That said, we do acknowledge expectations should contemplate a more modest pace of margin expansion ahead following the company's structural focus on improving profitability amidst the burgeoning of a slower-growth environment in FY23. More philosophically, given the momentum building behind Agentforce and Data Cloud, management spoke to its propensity to invest behind the growth opportunities ahead, in the form of accelerated AE hiring to support the higher-touch selling motion in the near term as these are new product cycles. Constructively, the company reiterated its commitment to continuing to improve margins despite the focus on growth, noting ability to redeploy headcount from areas like customer service towards the new forward deployed engineer strategy. As such, a faster pace of growth with a return to double digits YoY, combined with modest margin expansion, should yield durable ~low teens Free Cash Flow growth ahead, which, against the Large-Cap average multiple of ~1.8X EV/FCF/G, implies shares trading at a ~low 20x EV/FCF multiple, leaving material room for expansion from the ~mid-teens multiple the shares trade at today."
Analyst: Keith Weiss
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Wall St Engine
Goldman Sachs reiterated a Neutral on NuScale $SMR with a $27 price target after the NRC approved its US460 small modular reactor design. The approval confirms the 77MW design meets safety requirements and can now be referenced in license applications. While it’s a key regulatory milestone, the firm notes NuScale still needs to clear more hurdles before securing its first commercial contract.
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Goldman Sachs reiterated a Neutral on NuScale $SMR with a $27 price target after the NRC approved its US460 small modular reactor design. The approval confirms the 77MW design meets safety requirements and can now be referenced in license applications. While it’s a key regulatory milestone, the firm notes NuScale still needs to clear more hurdles before securing its first commercial contract.
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Evercore ISI Maintains In Line Rating on $PATH, Raises PT to $15 from $11
Analyst comments: "PATH delivered solid F1Q results, headlined by ARR of $1,693mn (+12%) vs. our/Street expectations of $1,682/1,689mn, revenue of $357mn (+6%) vs. our/Street expectations of $333/333mn, and op. margins of 20% vs. our/Street expectations of 13% as the company’s prior business model transformation and operational efficiencies materialized. Mgmt. cited similar variability in the macro environment when looking ahead to F2Q as seen in F1Q, but mgmt. now expects favorable timing and mix of deals between the second and third quarters. The public sector continued to see some moratoriums in place though the tone was slightly more positive q/q. Bottom Line: F1Q demonstrated PATH’s ability to deliver solid results even in a choppy backdrop, though the company continues to take a cautious tone given the variable execution environment. While there are some positives worth calling out in terms of favorable deal timing and early traction with PATH’s agentic offerings, we believe stringing a couple quarters together of outperformance, a flattening of NRR, and further proof points around the agentic strategy are likely needed to shift investor sentiment in a more positive direction. But this was a solid start to FY26. Maintain In Line and move PT to $15 (~4x EV / CY26 revenue)."
Analyst: Kirk Materne
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Evercore ISI Maintains In Line Rating on $PATH, Raises PT to $15 from $11
Analyst comments: "PATH delivered solid F1Q results, headlined by ARR of $1,693mn (+12%) vs. our/Street expectations of $1,682/1,689mn, revenue of $357mn (+6%) vs. our/Street expectations of $333/333mn, and op. margins of 20% vs. our/Street expectations of 13% as the company’s prior business model transformation and operational efficiencies materialized. Mgmt. cited similar variability in the macro environment when looking ahead to F2Q as seen in F1Q, but mgmt. now expects favorable timing and mix of deals between the second and third quarters. The public sector continued to see some moratoriums in place though the tone was slightly more positive q/q. Bottom Line: F1Q demonstrated PATH’s ability to deliver solid results even in a choppy backdrop, though the company continues to take a cautious tone given the variable execution environment. While there are some positives worth calling out in terms of favorable deal timing and early traction with PATH’s agentic offerings, we believe stringing a couple quarters together of outperformance, a flattening of NRR, and further proof points around the agentic strategy are likely needed to shift investor sentiment in a more positive direction. But this was a solid start to FY26. Maintain In Line and move PT to $15 (~4x EV / CY26 revenue)."
Analyst: Kirk Materne
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BMO Capital Maintains Outperform Rating on $GEV, Raises PT to $522 from $381
Analyst comments: "Still see upside from even current elevated levels. We took time out this week for a gut check of our conviction on GEV shares given the recent outperformance (+49% vs SPX) while updating our outer year estimates in our model. We believe even after adjusting our 2028-2030 EBITDA estimates by increasing assumptions to our gas power equipment pricing and service margin assumptions our estimates could still prove conservative. GEV's added over 12 GWs in slot reservation agreements since YE 2025 bringing slot reservations to over 21 GWs. We estimate slot reservations alone could drive another $60+ billion in backlog (equipment+service) that's additive to Power's current $76 billion backlog. Our current 2028-2030 estimates imply EBITDA margins of 16.3%, 18.5% and 19.9% after increasing our turbine pricing and service margins assumptions in the power segment. Scale of data centers continues to grow. We are increasingly constructive that power demand from data centers is actually scaling up based on the upward drift in average data center IT capacity. For instance, the average current data center operates around at 20 MWs of IT capacity, projects coming online this year will be around 50 MWs on average but later stage projects globally are on average >200 MWs. In addition, we see megaprojects beyond what's been announced in the U.S. (Stargate 4.5 GWs) already potentially being eclipsed (5 GWs in Abu Dhabi) which support gas generation pricing and eventually additional capacity expansion as CCGT pricing has increased by 3x since end of 2023 (see our note). We have rolled forward our base valuation year to 2028 and now ascribe ~$11/ share of value to GEV's SMR pipeline not currently reflected in our earnings estimates reflecting increasing global support for nuclear expansion with smaller publicly traded SMR peers equity values in $7.4 to $9.4 billion area."
Analyst: Ameet Thakkar
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BMO Capital Maintains Outperform Rating on $GEV, Raises PT to $522 from $381
Analyst comments: "Still see upside from even current elevated levels. We took time out this week for a gut check of our conviction on GEV shares given the recent outperformance (+49% vs SPX) while updating our outer year estimates in our model. We believe even after adjusting our 2028-2030 EBITDA estimates by increasing assumptions to our gas power equipment pricing and service margin assumptions our estimates could still prove conservative. GEV's added over 12 GWs in slot reservation agreements since YE 2025 bringing slot reservations to over 21 GWs. We estimate slot reservations alone could drive another $60+ billion in backlog (equipment+service) that's additive to Power's current $76 billion backlog. Our current 2028-2030 estimates imply EBITDA margins of 16.3%, 18.5% and 19.9% after increasing our turbine pricing and service margins assumptions in the power segment. Scale of data centers continues to grow. We are increasingly constructive that power demand from data centers is actually scaling up based on the upward drift in average data center IT capacity. For instance, the average current data center operates around at 20 MWs of IT capacity, projects coming online this year will be around 50 MWs on average but later stage projects globally are on average >200 MWs. In addition, we see megaprojects beyond what's been announced in the U.S. (Stargate 4.5 GWs) already potentially being eclipsed (5 GWs in Abu Dhabi) which support gas generation pricing and eventually additional capacity expansion as CCGT pricing has increased by 3x since end of 2023 (see our note). We have rolled forward our base valuation year to 2028 and now ascribe ~$11/ share of value to GEV's SMR pipeline not currently reflected in our earnings estimates reflecting increasing global support for nuclear expansion with smaller publicly traded SMR peers equity values in $7.4 to $9.4 billion area."
Analyst: Ameet Thakkar
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Citi Downgrades $AGCO to Neutral from Buy
Analyst comments: "We see less upside in AGCO shares following a >30% rally post liberation day and move our rating to Neutral from Buy. We see a fairly balanced risk/reward trade off at current levels based on our mid-cycle EPS estimate of $9.65 and mid-cycle multiple of 11.5x. This is a slight discount to CNH, which we think is warranted given its worse market positioning (in our view), a lower credit rating, and our view that Trimble integration and top-line synergies remains more of a 'show-me' story. We also think a likely Europe and SA ag recovery has become better understood by the market at this point. Factors we are paying attention to that could lead us to be more bullish on AGCO shares would include 1) signs of AGCO progressing to its 14-15% mid-cycle margin targets, 2) traction on Trimble synergies, 3) a favorable resolution with TAFE, and 4) a constructive US-EU trade deal."
Analyst: Kyle Menges
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Citi Downgrades $AGCO to Neutral from Buy
Analyst comments: "We see less upside in AGCO shares following a >30% rally post liberation day and move our rating to Neutral from Buy. We see a fairly balanced risk/reward trade off at current levels based on our mid-cycle EPS estimate of $9.65 and mid-cycle multiple of 11.5x. This is a slight discount to CNH, which we think is warranted given its worse market positioning (in our view), a lower credit rating, and our view that Trimble integration and top-line synergies remains more of a 'show-me' story. We also think a likely Europe and SA ag recovery has become better understood by the market at this point. Factors we are paying attention to that could lead us to be more bullish on AGCO shares would include 1) signs of AGCO progressing to its 14-15% mid-cycle margin targets, 2) traction on Trimble synergies, 3) a favorable resolution with TAFE, and 4) a constructive US-EU trade deal."
Analyst: Kyle Menges
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BofA Raises $CPNG PT to $34 from $30 - Buy
Analyst comments: "According to MoTIE, the surveyed retail/e-commerce companies’ April sales grew 7%, with offline declining 1.9% and e-commerce rose 15.8%, broadly in line with the 1Q25 trend. Electronic goods and home appliances were resilient, growing 4.1/7.7%. Grocery grew 21.3%, while Service category rose 50.1% YoY, better than our 2Q25 assumption. A deceleration was expected given the free delivery promotion that started in 1Q24-end, raising the comparative base from 2Q. Eats could continue to gain share in its less-penetrated regions outside of Seoul."
Analyst: Susie Lee
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BofA Raises $CPNG PT to $34 from $30 - Buy
Analyst comments: "According to MoTIE, the surveyed retail/e-commerce companies’ April sales grew 7%, with offline declining 1.9% and e-commerce rose 15.8%, broadly in line with the 1Q25 trend. Electronic goods and home appliances were resilient, growing 4.1/7.7%. Grocery grew 21.3%, while Service category rose 50.1% YoY, better than our 2Q25 assumption. A deceleration was expected given the free delivery promotion that started in 1Q24-end, raising the comparative base from 2Q. Eats could continue to gain share in its less-penetrated regions outside of Seoul."
Analyst: Susie Lee
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Trump’s holding a press conference with Elon Musk this Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET. Here’s what Polymarket expects they’ll say during the presser. https://t.co/X2l5qUgN5W
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Trump’s holding a press conference with Elon Musk this Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET. Here’s what Polymarket expects they’ll say during the presser. https://t.co/X2l5qUgN5W
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TRUMP ADMIN EXPANDS PALANTIR CONTRACTS
NYT reports Trump is leaning heavily on $PLTR to build a cross-agency data backbone — using its Foundry platform to organize personal data across DHS, IRS, HHS & more. Over $113M in contracts since he took office, plus a new $795M DoD award pending. Data access includes everything from bank accounts to medical records.
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TRUMP ADMIN EXPANDS PALANTIR CONTRACTS
NYT reports Trump is leaning heavily on $PLTR to build a cross-agency data backbone — using its Foundry platform to organize personal data across DHS, IRS, HHS & more. Over $113M in contracts since he took office, plus a new $795M DoD award pending. Data access includes everything from bank accounts to medical records.
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Wall St Engine
Truist Securities Downgrades $ABNB to Sell from Hold, Lowers PT to $106 from $112
Analyst comments: "ABNB (Sell): Our 2025E Adj EBITDA projection goes to $4,149M from $4,241M and EPS projection goes to $4.23 from $4.22. Our 2026E Adj EBITDA projection goes to $4,542M from $4,658M and EPS projection goes to $4.95 from $4.80. Our price target of $106 (down from $112) is based on a blended 20.0x (unchanged) multiple on our 2026E Adj EBITDA. ABNB is currently trading at 29.9x/25.0x our 2025E/2026E Adj EBITDA estimates."
Analyst: C. Patrick Scholes
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Truist Securities Downgrades $ABNB to Sell from Hold, Lowers PT to $106 from $112
Analyst comments: "ABNB (Sell): Our 2025E Adj EBITDA projection goes to $4,149M from $4,241M and EPS projection goes to $4.23 from $4.22. Our 2026E Adj EBITDA projection goes to $4,542M from $4,658M and EPS projection goes to $4.95 from $4.80. Our price target of $106 (down from $112) is based on a blended 20.0x (unchanged) multiple on our 2026E Adj EBITDA. ABNB is currently trading at 29.9x/25.0x our 2025E/2026E Adj EBITDA estimates."
Analyst: C. Patrick Scholes
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