Notable analyst calls this week: Charter, Datadog and Palantir among top picks

The S&P 500 (SP500 [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SP500#hasComeFromMpArticle=false#source=section%3Amain_content%7Cbutton%3Abody_link%7Cfirst_level_url%3Anews]) closed in the green on Friday, while Nasdaq (COMP:IND [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/COMP:IND]) and Dow (DJI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DJI]) fell over 3% and 0.9%, respectively, for the week. Wall Street had a slew of upgrades and downgrades from analysts. Here are some of the major calls for the week:

CHARTER DOWNGRADED FOLLOWING Q3 RESULTS

KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4512983-keybanc-cuts-rating-on-charter-after-q3-results-stoke-fears-about-broadband-growth] Charter Communications (CHTR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/CHTR]) to Sector weight from Overweight following its weak third-quarter results.

The research firm noted that the company missed expectations for all residential revenue figures, adjusted EBITDA, and broadband/wireless net adds in Q3, while highlighting that broadband subscriber growth has underperformed, despite changes in go-to-market and pricing/packaging.

"While we see potential for more capital spending declines thereafter, we believe investors are unlikely to value this FCF with a high multiple unless it is accompanied by broadband subscriber and adj. EBITDA growth, which we are no longer expecting," the research firm said.

DATADOG GETS RATING UPGRADE AT KEYBANC CAPITAL

Datadog (DDOG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DDOG]) was upgraded to Overweight from Sector Weight by KeyBanc Capital with a $230 price target, after third-quarter results [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4517158-datadog-soars-after-q3-beat-raises-2025-outlook] beat estimates and the company raised its full year 2025 outlook.

"We upgrade shares of DDOG to Overweight as the two areas of concern that kept us Sector Weight materialized positively: 1) revenue ex. OpenAI accelerated, and the strength was broad based; and 2) visibility into sustained OpenAI spend for the next several quarters after renewing/expanding its commitment in 3Q," said analysts led by Eric Heath.

NVIDIA RECEIVES STREET HIGH PRICE TARGET FROM LOOP CAPITAL

Nvidia (NVDA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NVDA]) put a new Wall Street high $350 price target [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4512861-nvidia-rises-as-loop-capital-sees-85t-valuation-with-new-street-high-350-price-target], hiked from $250, on the stock. Analyst Ananda Baruah said he believes that Nvidia is about to see a surge in GPU shipments over the next 12 to 15 months, aided by its GB200 NVL72 racks.

Rosenblatt Securities also raised its price target on Nvidia to $240 from $215 and reiterated its Buy rating

HSBC HIKED PT FOR PALANTIR

Palantir (PLTR [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PLTR]) was in focus as HSBC raised [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4515869-palantir-in-focus-as-hsbc-raises-price-target-after-earnings] its price target on the enterprise software giant after it posted quarterly results earlier this week.

“We expect US commercial segment’s revenue to rise at a CAGR of 59.3% over 2025-29 to USD9.3B in 2029,” analyst Stephen Bersey wrote. Bersey kept his Hold rating on Palantir and bumped his price target to $197 from $181 after the results.

“We would, however, flag that we are seeing several anecdotes and reports suggesting that the ROIC on internal AI projects that enterprises are experimenting with (not specific to Palantir) is often disappointing. This may slow the tempo of future contract signings, in our opinion,” Bersey noted.

Bank of America double upgraded [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4517340-digitalocean-jumps-as-bofa-double-upgrades-on-ai-strength] cloud technology company DIGITALOCEAN (DOCN [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/DOCN]) from Underperform to Buy, citing the belief that artificial intelligence inferencing demand is creating a tailwind. The PT was also raised to $60 from $34 following the company’s results and guidance.

Morgan Stanley upgraded [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4517539-morgan-stanley-ups-rating-on-sonos-after-new-ceos-visionary-like-strategy] their investment rating on SONOS (SONO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SONO]) to Equal weight from Underweight after the wireless sound system solutions company reported its fourth-quarter results. The research firm said it was impressed by the company's self-help story since CEO Tom Conrad joined, and its concerns about the impact of rising tariff costs were overblown.

Bank of America Securities downgraded both MARSH & MCLENNAN COMPANIES (MMC [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MMC]) and BROWN & BROWN (BRO [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BRO]) shares, despite the insurance brokers' notable underperformance versus the broader stock market. For Brown & Brown, BofA analyst Joshua Shanker cut the stock to Neutral from Buy, amid a "backdrop of softening property insurance rates and general economic uncertainties".

The brokerage also lowered his recommendation on Marsh & McLennan to Underperform from Neutral on the premise of "a lower outlook for organic growth going forward, with near-term headwinds from softening property rates."

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