By Davit Kirakosyan
Investing.com -- In today's Pro Recap of the biggest upgrades since yesterday's session, AGNC climbed on a JPMorgan Overweight rating, and Vertex was bumped up after surging on earnings.
AGNC Investment upgraded at JPMorgan, shares rise
AGNC Investment (NASDAQ:AGNC) shares rose more than 2% yesterday after JPMorgan upgraded the company to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $12.50.as headwinds from rising rates begin to abate.
"We expect AGNC's primarily Agency MBS portfolio to drive book value recovery as MBS prices recover and offer investors credit protection in a deteriorating economic environment," said the firm.
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Vertex upgraded at BofA following the Q4 beat
BofA Securities upgraded Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) to Neutral from Underperform and raised its price target to $20.00 from $16.00.
Shares jumped more than 23% yesterday after the company reported a Q4 EPS/revenue beat and provided a better-than-expected outlook.
VICI Properties upgraded to Overweight at KeyBanc
KeyBanc upgraded VICI Properties (NYSE:VICI) to Overweight from Sector Weight with a price target of $36.00, highlighting the company's favorable internal growth profile, with potential upside during the year as 55% of revenue is tied to annually escalating rents by the greater of 2% or CPI.
Other reasons for the upgrade include the robust capital deployment program that allows management to invest at an accretive spread to the cost of capital (implied cap rate of 5.8%), and a healthy balance sheet with no maturities until mid-2024.
Last month, the company reported its Q4 results, with both EPS and revenues coming in better than the consensus estimates.
3 more upgrades
Barclays upgraded Hilton Worldwide (NYSE:HLT) to Overweight from Equal-weight and raised its price target to $168.00 from $151.00, noting it considers the company to be a best-in-class Lodging C-corp. with the highest and most resilient net unit growth (NUG) among the asset-light peer set.
The firm believes Hilton's outstanding NUG will become more dear to investors as Global RevPAR decelerates in these later stages of post-COVID recovery. "NUG should reaccelerate faster than peers, based on pipeline chain-scale positioning and a material boost from layering in early success with its recently launched Spark conversion brand," said the firm.
Citi upgraded EnLink Midstream (NYSE:ENLC) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $13.00.
The company reported its Q4 results last month, with EPS coming in better than the consensus estimate, while revenue missed expectations.
BofA Securities upgraded CMS Energy (NYSE: NYSE:CMS) to Buy from Neutral while cutting its price target to $66.00 from $68.00.
