Friday’s analyst activity delivered sweeping rating changes across aerospace, industrials, healthcare, and technology, signaling shifting sentiment among major Wall Street firms.
Baird upgraded Humana (HUM) to Outperform from Neutral, raising its price target to $596 from $390, citing greater confidence in the company’s $35-plus of 2028 adjusted earnings per share power.
Oppenheimer upgraded Fastly (FSLY) to Outperform from Perform with a $35 price target, pointing to strong industry checks that indicated growing contract values and early monetization of agentic AI traffic.
Monness Crespi upgraded Elastic (ESTC) to Buy from Neutral with a $120 price target, noting the company has emerged from its “painful” salesforce segmentation adjustment in a stronger position.
Morgan Stanley double upgraded Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) to Overweight from Underweight, lifting its price target to $358 from $258, saying the S&P contract renewal removes a key overhang for the shares.
JPMorgan upgraded VF Corp. (VFC) to Neutral from Underweight with an unchanged price target of $18, citing valuation and a neutral risk/reward at current share levels following recent fieldwork.
On the downgrade side, JPMorgan cut both DuPont (DD) and Illinois Tool Works (ITW) to Neutral from Overweight, citing concerns around decelerating short cycle industrial demand into 2027 for both decisions.
DuPont’s price target was trimmed to $145 from $172, while Illinois Tool Works saw its target reduced to $270 from $350, with JPMorgan also removing DuPont from its Analyst Focus List.
Keefe Bruyette downgraded Voya Financial (VOYA) to Market Perform from Outperform with a price target of $108, reducing estimates due to weaker third-quarter markets across the life insurance group.
Citi downgraded Pershing Square Inc. (PS) to Sell from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $45, citing valuation concerns after the shares rose above the firm’s price target following a recent rally.
RBC Capital downgraded Knife River (KNF) to Sector Perform from Outperform, cutting its price target to $58 from $103 as part of a broader building materials group adjustment ahead of third-quarter earnings.
Barclays initiated coverage of SpaceX (SPCX) with an Overweight rating and a $254 price target, saying the U.S. is in the “early innings of a modern day industrial revolution” as it rolled out aerospace and defense coverage.
Barclays also initiated Overweight ratings on RTX (RTX), Palantir (PLTR), Kratos Defense (KTOS), Karman (KRMN), and Rocket Lab (RKLB), among others, while assigning Equal Weight to Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Underweight to Northrop Grumman (NOC).
Truist initiated IBM (IBM) with a Hold rating and a $240 price target, describing itself as “constructive” on IBM’s structural position in enterprise computing but cautious on near-term execution.
JPMorgan resumed coverage of Trane (TT) with an Overweight rating and a $550 price target, calling the company a “best-in-class HVAC name” as investor focus on energy-efficient infrastructure continues to grow.
