Here is a quick roundup of the most newsworthy stock upgrades, downgrades, and initiations for Friday, April 24.
Oracle (ORCL)
- Action: Initiated at Outperform
- Wall Street analyst ratings: 34 Buys, 8 Holds, 1 Sell
- Consensus long-term earnings growth estimate: 23.1%
Wedbush’s Dan Ives initiated coverage on Oracle (ORCL) with a rating of Outperform (equivalent of Buy) and a $225 price target, which implies 28% upside from the previous close.
“We believe Oracle is on a path to become a foundational infrastructure provider for the AI Revolution, and the market is fundamentally misinterpreting the company’s aggressive, contract-backed investment cycle as speculative risk,” he says. “Oracle, long known as a database and enterprise software leader, is now leveraging its decades of expertise to build a highly differentiated, next-generation cloud that is winning over the world’s most demanding AI workloads.”
ORCL shares are down roughly 50% since peaking in September 2025, in large part because of its high capital expenditures and high concentration risk via its massive OpenAI contract.
“We argue this view is backward-looking and fails to appreciate the scale of contracted demand underpinning the investment. The most critical metric is the relationship between capex and Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO). Oracle’s RPO has swelled to $553 billion, driving its capex-to-RPO ratio to approximately 9.0%, compared to the group average of ~45.6%. This demonstrates that spending is not speculative but is deployed to service a massive backlog.”
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CSX Corporation (CSX)
- Action: Downgraded to Underweight
- Wall Street analyst ratings: 15 Buys, 7 Holds, 2 Sells
- Consensus long-term earnings growth estimate: 10.1%
Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker downgraded CSX Corp. (CSX) to Underweight (Sell) from Equal Weight (Hold) on valuation concerns.
“We appreciate that the mgmt. team is doing a commendable job of extracting productivity savings and improving operational efficiency CSX should also benefit from the rising tide of the cycle in addition to the mgmt. team going out to fill the new capacity with 600 new projects in the pipeline,” Shanker says. “However, this appears to be more than reflected in numbers and the stock price in our view, and risk-reward looks skewed to the downside to us.”
Morgan Stanley did upgrade its earnings estimates for the next three years (2026: to $1.87 per share from $1.86; 2027: to $1.98 from $1.94; 2028: to $2.09 from $2.04). It also maintained its $30 price target on CSX shares, implying 35% downside from current levels.
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Wingstop (WING)
- Action: Price target reduced
- Wall Street analyst ratings: 27 Buys, 4 Holds, 1 Sell
- Consensus long-term earnings growth estimate: 19.75%
UBS analyst Dennis Geiger, who has a Neutral (Hold) view on Wingstop (WING) shares, sharply reduced his price target to $210 from $295 previously, which still implies 11% upside from Thursday’s close.
Ahead of the company’s April 29 earnings report, Geiger said he expects that pressured sales trends continued in the first quarter, with a risk of 2026 reduction in same-store sales (SSS) guidance.
“WING has been the most topical name in our coverage for the last several weeks, with sentiment mixed, including more negative sentiment focused on continued SSS challenges and a more cautious sales outlook, while the recent trough valuation was too compelling to ignore for many investors given a likely still strong store growth outlook and opportunities to improve comp trends,” he says. “WING’s long-term growth outlook remains compelling, but we reiterate our Neutral rating and look for evidence suggesting a positive inflection in SSS trends despite the difficult macro and a return to outsized sales growth before getting more constructive on shares.”
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Bread Financial Holdings (BFH)
- Action: Price target raised
- Wall Street analyst ratings: 7 Buys, 8 Holds, 2 Sells
- Consensus long-term earnings growth estimate: 9.56%
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts upgraded their price target on Bread Financial Holdings (BFH) to $115, from $100 previously, following a strong first-quarter earnings beat. The new price target implies 25% upside from the previous close.
“BFH’s solid beat across the board validates our thesis that the company remains strongly positioned to show continued improvement in credit,” KBW’s analysts write. “Additionally, inflecting loan growth, positive [net interest margin] trajectory, and a strong capital position all support potential for upside to estimates this year outside of any meaningful macro baseline changes.”
KBW raised its 2026 and 2027 estimates to $12.09 per share (from $10.50) and $14.34 (from $12.50), respectively.
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Sportradar Group AG (SRAD)
- Action: Downgraded to Hold
- Wall Street analyst ratings: 18 Buys, 2 Holds, 0 Sell
- Consensus long-term earnings growth estimate: 31.2%
Jefferies’ David Katz downgraded Sportradar Group AG (SRAD) to Hold on Friday due to short-term uncertainty as the company’s business practices come under scrutiny.
“Over recent months, the Street’s debate around SRAD’s revenue quality has widened, driven by unsubstantiated questions regarding customer management and controls,” he writes. “More recently, Callisto Research and Muddy Waters have raised broader claims about the company. Meanwhile, SRAD has issued a press release indicating these reports contain several factual inaccuracies.
“Our view on the veracity of these claims (which we largely do not believe) does not drive our view on the shares. Regardless of the source credibility of the claims, given the persistence of the questions, we expect the overhang on SRAD shares to persist as well. In our view, similar historical circumstances suggest that questions of legality can persist for long periods, perhaps years, which could limit recovery and valuation upside.”
Katz also significantly reduced his price target on SRAD shares, to $14 from $30 previously. That number still implies roughly 8% upside over Thursday’s close.
Note: Analyst ratings and consensus long-term earnings growth estimates provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Long-term earnings growth estimates represent expectations for the next three to five years; exact length varies from broker to broker.
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