Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Home Depot, Salesforce, Wayfair & more

Published Wed, Aug 19 20208:01 AM EDT

Key Points

Stifel downgraded Darden to hold from buy.
KeyBanc upgraded XPO Logistics to overweight from sector weight.
Bank of America upgraded Home Depot to buy from neutral.
Guggenheim initiated Wayfair as buy.
Morgan Stanley downgraded J.M. Smucker to underweight from equal weight.
Jefferies raised its price target on Salesforce to $235 from $220.

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: Stifel downgraded Darden to hold from buy Stifel downgraded the restaurant hospitality owner of chains like Olive Garden and said it sees a risk/reward that's "balanced." "We are downgrading DRI to Hold from Buy as we believe the risk/reward looks fairly balanced at the current valuation, especially in the context of a continued challenging sales environment for casual dining restaurants. Although we remain confident in Darden's long-term competitive position, we are not confident the pace of sales recovery will match Street estimates, which we believe is necessary to show meaningful upside from the current level." KeyBanc upgraded XPO Logistics to overweight from sector weight KeyBanc upgraded the multinational shipping and logistics company and said it sees a "cyclical recovery" and more upside for the stock. In our view, multiple expansion has lagged peers, with our updated sum of the parts analysis suggesting upside in a cyclical recovery. Further, we expect improving endmarket demand, including within less-than-truckload, to be more fully realized in coming quarters, while recent executive appointments suggest additional cost actions intermediately. ... .In our view, XPO realized less of a benefit in 2Q20 from improving fundamentals relative to peers given customer shutdowns in logistics, as well as greater auto and industrial exposure in less-than-truckload." Bank of America upgraded Home Depot to buy from neutral Bank of America upgraded the company after its strong earnings report on Tuesday and said it still sees more upside ahead for the stock. "We are upgrading HD to Buy from Neutral and raising our price objective to $330 from $290 after HD's record 2Q results, which we believe will not be the last of HD 's strong run. Our PO is based on 28x our 2021 EPS estimate. Although home improvement spending in the coming quarter may decelerate amidst sequentially declining government stimulus/ unemployment benefits, we believe that the longer-term tailwinds for the home improvement industry are generally favorable, as we've discussed in our Home Work series, due to wallet share shift into the home and urban exodus Guggenheim initiated Wayfair as buy Guggenheim initiated the e-commerce company that sells furniture and home-goods and said it has a "leading" industry position among other things. "Bottom line, we believe the combination of 1) a large addressable market, 2) significant new and existing customer opportunities, 3) a leading industry position, strengthened by technology and innovation, 4) a mutually beneficial supplier partnership structure, centered around a democratized platform, 5) global expansion potential with a proven, profitable operating model, 6) an under-utilized yet superior supply chain network, 7) an improving US segment ROIC profile, with several potential margin "unlocks", and 8) a modest valuation positions W shares for outperformance." Morgan Stanley downgraded J.M. Smucker to underweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley downgraded the maker of jam and other food products and said Smucker was a "relative underperformer" in its coverage. "We see it as a lesser beneficiary of elevated Packaged Food demand given large exposure to Pet (~37% of sales), inconsistent investment in marketing/innovation & share losses in key categories. We see risk to consensus EPS forecasts." Jefferies raised its price target on Salesforce to $235 from $220 Jefferies raised its price target on the stock to a Street high ahead of the company's earnings report on August 25 and said the setup looks "attractive" "Our survey of 50+ partners indicates 42% saw their CRM pipelines improve over the past three months; however, we are still not back to normal levels as 32% of partners were below plan (19% above and 51% below). The setup for F2Q looks attractive given the improving pipelines combined with a conservative guide."