Rivian started as Buy at Stifel, Datadog upgraded: 4 big analyst picks

Investing.com — Here is your Pro Recap of the biggest analyst picks you may have missed since yesterday: a Buy initiation at Rivian Automotive, and upgrades at Datadog, Biogen, and J.B. Hunt Transport Services.

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Rivian Automotive started with Buy at Stifel

Stifel initiated coverage on Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) with a Buy rating and a price target of $23.00. As a result, shares rose more than 2% pre-market today.

The analysts highlighted several positives of Rivian’s story, including the impact of their R1S/R1T models in boosting brand recognition, a deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to supply 100,000 electric delivery vehicles (EDVs), along with the recent availability of their commercial van to other fleets, the potential of their R2 platform in the dominant U.S. vehicle market, which is currently led by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), and various factors that could enhance margins from 2024 onwards, including new technologies like the Enduro motor and LFP battery, improved pricing, the delivery of EDVs, a new zonal architecture, rising production, and impact of new supplier agreements.

However, the analysts also expressed concerns regarding Rivian’s ongoing high expenditure and cash burn, the potential need for more liquidity, the impact of current interest rates on sales and pricing, and the possibility of 2024 production being affected by temporary shutdowns for the introduction of new technologies.

Datadog gains on Stifel upgrade

Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) shares rose nearly 2% pre-market today after Stifel upgraded the company to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $140.00 from $98.00, as reported in real-time on InvestingPro.

The analysts explained that this decision follows the completion of their third survey of Datadog customers (approximately 32 customers, with about 60% spending over $250,000). The survey focused on growth expectations, trends in usage (optimization pervasiveness, severity, timeline), security adoption, and GenAI interest.

The results showed a notable decrease in optimization within the installed base (around 38% compared to 50% in previous surveys). Additionally, about half of the customers who were still optimizing reported nearing the completion of their optimizations, a significant improvement from only 8% in the last survey. “Clearly this is in line with current consumption commentary and bodes well for CY24 growth,” mentioned Stifel.

Two more upgrades

Raymond James upgraded Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $283.00.

UBS upgraded JB Hunt Transport Services (NASDAQ:JBHT) to Neutral from Sell and raised its price target to $205.00 from $176.00. Shares rose more than 1% pre-market today.

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