Investing.com -- Here is your Pro Recap of the top takeaways from Wall Street analysts for the past week.
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Arista Networks
What happened? On Monday, Piper upgraded Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) to Overweight with a $159 price target.
*TLDR: Piper Bullish, Arista thrives quietly amid AI refresh.
What’s the full story? 2026 arrives as the "Year of Refresh," with enterprise mentions and investments finally waking up. Hyperscalers and AI-Titans dominate the exposure story, yet Arista Networks sits in a conservative setup at a valuation that doesn’t yet scream mania. Piper upgrades ANET to Overweight and lifts the price target to $159.
Visibility sharpens from every angle—inventory and purchase-commitment coverage ratios look healthier by the day. The usual suspects fret about share shifts toward whitebox and NVIDIA, and the inevitable AI-capex bubble panic.
But Arista holds its ground with the key hyperscalers, quietly gains with large enterprise accounts across datacenter and campus, and—classic twist—typically rides the capex wave a beat later than the rest of the datacenter circus
UnitedHealth Group
What happened? On Tuesday, Evercore initiated Unitedhealth Group (NYSE:UNH) at Outperform with a $400 price target.
*TLDR: Evercore initiates UNH Outperform. Turnaround drives mid-teens EPS growth.
What’s the full story? Evercore initiates coverage of UnitedHealth Group with a $400 target price, implying roughly 20% upside. The company stands as a diversified managed-care leader with a market capitalization of about $305 billion. The team adopts a long-term perspective on UNH’s fundamentals, confident that the ongoing turnaround under new management will ultimately succeed.
Executing such a transformation in a business of this size and complexity is no small feat. After a challenging 2025, 2026 emerges as the key transition year, with initial progress visible but the most significant improvements likely materializing in 2027 and 2028. Medicare Advantage and Medicaid gains in growth and profitability are poised to drive roughly half of EPS expansion in those later years, while Optum contributes about 40%—also weighted toward 2027–2028.
Strong execution on these fronts would underpin confidence in a mid-teens long-term EPS compound annual growth rate, with potential upside to both estimates and the valuation multiple as the progress becomes increasingly evident.
First Solar
What happened? On Wednesday, Jefferies downgraded First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) to Hold with a $260 price target.
*TLDR: Jefferies remains skeptical on FSLR for 2026. Thin visibility and distant cash flow exhaust upside.
What’s the full story? Jefferies stays skeptical on FSLR heading into ’26. Booking visibility remains thin, and fresh strategic questions emerge like unwelcome house guests. The Section 232 tariff tailwind promises much but delivers little—Germany and others carve out exemptions that dilute pricing power, while developers sprint ahead of duties and FEOC restrictions anyway. International facilities continue to hemorrhage under the tariff overhang.
Free cash flow flips positive, a rare moment of fiscal decency, yet the payoff stretches so far into the future it barely registers in the here and now. Upside from current levels looks exhausted.
Nike
What happened? On Thursday, Needham downgraded Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) to Hold without a price target.
*TLDR: Needham likes Nike’s long-term plan. Short-term risks force sidelines now.
What’s the full story? Needham watches Nike’s new CEO Elliott Hill preach the gospel of sport, innovation, and kissing up to wholesale again—and buys the long-term sermon. But the revival drags on like a bad sermon, visibility stays fogged, and the pews aren’t filling fast enough.
The brokerage smells trouble in the aggressive North American wholesale stuffing (+24% last quarter, +11% before that), a classic channel-stuff move that screams tough comps ahead when brand heat barely simmers. China bleeds, Converse wheezes, recovery timelines look more like wishful thinking, and consensus earnings forecasts remain delusional on speed. Shares rocket nearly 15% off the post-earnings bottom—thank you, Elliott Hill’s $1M buy and Tim Cook’s $3M flex—pushing the ticker right up to Needham’s old $68 target with barely 10% upside left.
So the brokerage steps back to the shadows, cigar in hand, waiting for actual proof the swoosh can still fly straight. Sidelines it is.
Scorpio Tankers
What happened? On Friday, BofA double downgraded Scorpio Tankers Inc (NYSE:STNG) to Underperform with a $53 price target.
*TLDR: BofA double downgrades STNG to Underperform. Peace threatens tanker rates’ peak.
What’s the full story? BofA swings the axe, downgrading STNG to Underperform from Buy and hacking the price objective to $53 from $67. Product tanker rates have already enjoyed their wildest highs; the real menace lurks in a potential Ukraine peace deal that could dump a horde of sanctioned Russian tonnage back into the pool—roughly 8% of MRs, 14.5% of LR2s, and 12% of Handymaxes ready to spoil the earnings party.
STNG itself appears to sense the cycle’s last gasp, quietly locking in fresh five-year time charters on LR2s at $29k/day (following one at $28k/day last fall)—classic top-of-the-market behavior. The report trims 2026/2027 TCE estimates modestly to $26.1k and $23.8k/day, holds 2025 EPS steady at $5.70, but slices 7–10% from the outer years while compressing the multiple to 5.0x 2026 EBITDA.
