TM Editors' note: This article discusses a penny stock and/or microcap. Such stocks are easily manipulated; do your own careful due diligence.

Image Source: Pixabay

What was Wall Street buzzing about this past week? Here are the top 5 buy calls made by Wall Street’s best analysts during the week of Dec. 26-30, 2022.

Netflix (NFLX) – CFRA Double Upgrades the Stock to Buy, Raises Price Target to $310

On Dec. 29, CFRA analyst Kenneth Leon double upgraded Netflix to Buy from Sell with a price target of $310, up from $225. The analyst believes it "will be difficult for competitors to catch" Netflix, noting it is one of the few profitable streaming providers with global scale.

New original content should support Netflix's subscriber trends, while its advertising tier and new paid sharing efforts to better control the sharing of accounts should serve as near-term catalysts, Leon tells investors in a research note. The analyst expects new original content like "Emily in Paris," "Glass Onion," and "Blood Origin" to benefit subscriptions and reduce churn.

Shift4 Payments (FOUR) – Piper Sandler’s Michael Yee Assumes Coverage of the Stock With a Buy

On Dec. 29, Piper Sandler analyst Clarke Jeffries assumed coverage of Shift4 Payments with an Overweight rating and $69 price target. Shift4 provides a payments acceptance and processing platform that serves 200,000-plus customers across the food and beverage, hospitality, retail, gaming, and sports/ entertainment industries, Jeffries tells investors in a research note.

The analyst believes the company has been successful in converting customers to its end-to-end payments offering, thus moving away from lower-yield payment gateway volumes. The end-to-end strategy is a "powerful driver" of Shift4's economics and could continue to fuel faster-than-industry growth, despite macroeconomic headwinds, Jeffries writes.

SWK Holdings (SWKH) – Lake Street’s Mark Argento Assumes Coverage of the Stock With a Buy, $18 Price Target

On Dec. 28, Lake Street analyst Mark Argento assumed coverage of SWK Holdings with a Buy rating and $26 price target.

SWK, which is focused on life sciences and related companies as a first-lien lender or purchaser of existing royalty and revenue streams, has "built a reputation as a strong underwriter and high-quality partner," said Argento, who believes SWK has "significant room to grow as its target market remains ripe and will likely remain so."

Generac (GNRC) – Janney Montgomery Started Coverage of the Stock With a Buy, $16 Fair Value Estimate

On Dec. 28, Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Sean Milligan initiated coverage of Generac with a Buy rating and $160 fair value estimate. The core residential home standby, or "HSB," generator business is in the early stages of a downturn, but with shares down about 80% from their peak Milligan feels this "has already been discounted in the share price," he tells investors.

The shares have recently been trading at a discount to industrial peers, which presents a "free option" on clean energy growth, argues Milligan, who also sees consistent free cash flow generation and buyback potential providing support for the stock and balancing out near-term concerns for residential HSB market trends.

Ideaya Biosciences (IDYA) – Capital One’s Zegbeh Jallah Started Coverage of the Stock With an Overweight, $29 Price Target

On Dec. 28, Capital One analyst Zegbeh Jallah initiated coverage of Ideaya Biosciences with an Overweight rating and $29 price target. Ideaya has "strong precision medicine capabilities," inclusive of a Synthetic Lethality Platform, said Jallah, who thinks the SL program IDE397 in Phase 1 development "could be a blockbuster."

Ideaya also has a Phase 3 ready program, darovasertib for metastatic uveal melanoma, or MUM, which "seems to have a clear market advantage," though the market size for "daro" remains limited with only limited data in the larger neoadjuvant setting, Jallah added.

The analyst foresees "large revenue-generating opportunities" for daro and has positive expectations for the SL programs IDE397and IDE161, the analyst concluded.

More By This Author: