Bank of America Sends Message With New Palantir Price Target

While we wait for Tuesday morning’s Flash September PMI report from S&P Global and lunchtime comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, let’s review some of the latest comments and thoughts from Wall Street firms in and around the Portfolio’s holdings.

United Rentals Price Target Increases

Shares of United Rentals URI received not one but two price target increases, with Bernstein taking its target to $1,128 from $885. A bit of an odd number if you ask us, but the rationale behind it reflects what Bernstein sees as a re-acceleration of non-residential construction. Increasingly less restrictive Fed policy, paired with data center construction and other re-shoring activities, is likely behind Bernstein’s thinking as well.

We agree with that reasoning, and we’d also add Eaton ETN shares as a beneficiary. Citi also upped its URI target to $1,080 from $1,000. When we get the August Construction Spending report in early October, we’ll look to revisit our current $1,000 target for URI shares.

BofA Ups Palantir Price Target

Last week, we boosted our Palantir PLTR price target to $205, and Bank of America has lifted its target to $215 from $180. That’s a bit of a catch-up, but BofA sees Palantir benefiting from a combination of AI adoption and solving the “most complex problems.”

When we boosted our PLTR target last week, we noted the following:

"As we look across the more than 26 price targets published by various Wall Street firms, the vast majority have not been updated since early August. This suggests we could see some catch-up activity in the coming weeks, a potential catalyst for PLTR shares, similar to what we’ve been seeing for Morgan Stanley MS and Bank of America BAC."

It would seem we are starting to see that catch-up action, and that has us glad we prudently picked up more PLTR shares for the Portfolio in August and early September.

KeyBanc Bullish on Welltower Shares

Very recently, we called up shares of Welltower WELL from the Bullpen to the Portfolio and established an initial price target of $190. It seems Palantir shares aren’t the only ones Wall Street is catching up on. KeyBanc raised its Welltower price target to $210 from $150.

Much like us, KeyBanc sees Welltower being very well positioned to benefit from the "multiyear fundamental tailwinds" in senior housing. Checks by KeyBanc point to strong operating momentum and think that should translate into upside to Welltower’s 2025 outlook. Given the two pain points we identified — the Silver Tsunami and shortage of senior housing — our play with WELL shares should be a long one, but near-term strength could lead to more price target catch-up similar to KeyBanc’s. The current Wall Street price target is just under $185.

Dutch Bros to Meet With Piper Sandler

We are reading that the management of Dutch Bros BROS will meet with Piper Sandler this week, and we think that is a good thing. The reason ties back to one of our only criticisms of Dutch Bros, and it’s one we shared during Monday's Portfolio Office Hours: management needs to be more visible with the investment community, especially given the sharp pullback in the shares. Here’s what I said:

"I will say, at times like this, I do think BROS management needs to be more visible. It would be nice if they announced milestone openings (every 50 new locations, say) so Wall Street and investors have a better handle on the expansion plan."

CEO Christine Barone is a solid operator, but BROS is her first outing as the CEO of a public company. It would be nice if the recent BROS stock pressure reinforces the public-facing nature of being a CEO. As we’ve discussed, the BROS story is a classic West to East expansion one, and some helpful milestone announcements would go a long way to hold investors' hands.

UBS Upgraded LG Display

On Tuesday morning, UBS upgraded the shares of LG Display (LPL), citing an improving organic light-emitting diode outlook and faster-than-expected development on white organic light-emitting diode displays in 2H 2025 and 2026.

While we are not involved in LG Display, it is one of Universal Display’s OLED largest customers alongside Samsung Display, and the improved outlook at LG is another positive data point for us as OLED shareholders. LG has been a customer dating back to 2015, and the current patent license and supply agreement with Universal extends through the end of this year. This means we should be hearing some news on this front before too long, and it’s likely to include white organic light-emitting diodes.

When LG Display reports its quarterly results in late October, we’ll be interested in its comments about organic light-emitting diode adoption across smartphones, tablets and other key end markets, but also its timetable for white organic light-emitting diode displays. To many, that remains the holy grail for this display technology, and it’s a path blazed by light-emitting diodes.

We continue to rate OLED shares a One.

More Pro Portfolio

At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long URI, ETN, PLTR, MS, BAC, WELL and OLED.