Last week's hottest upgrades: Meta, Palo Alto, Activision

By Sarina Isaacs and Senad Karaahmetovic

Investing.com - Here are the most head-turning upgrades notched in last week, as first reported on InvestingPro+.

Itau BBA upgraded Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) on its plans to cut its operating expenses. For Itau BBA, the selloff has created an attractive buying opportunity in Meta shares. “While we have been bearish on the story for more than a year, we believe that the current price reflects an extremely bearish scenario, making it worth at least a small position (maybe medium size),” the analyst said in a client note. “The right price has finally come,” Kapulskis added after being very negative on Meta stock. Shares bounced 19% higher for the week after a sharp recent fall.

Oppenheimer upgraded DoorDash Inc (NYSE:DASH) from Perform to Outperform with a price target of $70.00. The analyst commented, "Increased disclosure shows improving US restaurant margins, and we're now able to size Int'l. and US non-restaurant losses." Shares jumped 17.8% for the week.

Deutsche Bank upgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (NASDAQ:WBA) from Hold to Buy with a price target of $50.00 (from $41.00). The analyst said they held a recent meeting with senior management and that "we came away from the meeting with increased faith in the company’s ability to execute on its care delivery strategy, which should lead to positive revisions and multiple expansion for WBA shares." Shares were up some 9% for the week.

Raymond James upgraded Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) from Market Perform to Outperform with a price target of $95.00. The analyst said that in the nine months since the announcement of Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) agreement to acquire ATVI, "trends in the core business have improved significantly, making a price drop on a deal break less precipitous for a standalone ATVI share price. As we still believe the deal will close as proposed, we see risk/reward as having shifted solidly to the positive." Shares climbed 3.7% for the week.

Loop Capital analyst Yun Kim upgraded Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) from Hold to Buy with a price target of $200.00. The analyst said, "Overall, in our view, PANW continues to execute its plan to become the industry's most comprehensive cybersecurity platform. Our new $200 PT is supported by higher free cash flow estimates in out-years (FY25 and beyond) in our DCF model." Shares jumped some 15% for the week.

Gordon Haskett upgraded The TJX Companies (NYSE:TJX) from Hold to Buy with a price target of $80.00 (from $68.00). Shares gained 3.4% for the week.

OTR Global upgraded Macy's (NYSE:M) from Mixed to Positive. Shares rose 6.6% for the week.

Evercore ISI analyst Michael Montani upgraded Kroger (NYSE:KR) from In Line to Outperform with a price target of $56.00 (from $49.00). The analyst said, "We see a favorable risk-reward for KR as our view is increasingly that food inflation will be higher for longer with trade-down into food at home categories." Shares ticked 1% higher for the week.

Deutsche Bank upgraded Dave & Buster’s (NASDAQ:PLAY) from Hold to Buy with a price target of $48.00. The analyst said the setup for Dave & Buster's "seems pretty decent" and that "at current share price levels, we have PLAY trading at sub ~6.0x our 2023e adjusted EBITDA estimate of ~$526 million. We note that said adjusted EBITDA estimate is below current consensus estimates for 2023e." Shares added 4.4% for the week.