Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to learn which companies the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.

Research analysts at Wall Street's largest banks issue recommendations on whether a stock should be bought, held, or sold. The Fly's team of financial market experts scours hundreds of research notes daily to uncover the best trading ideas. Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.

Top 5 Upgrades:

• Erste Group analyst Hans Engel upgraded Costco (COST) to Buy from Hold. Costco Wholesale is showing strong sales growth, has been able to increase its key profitability ratios in recent quarters and the outlook for continued sales and profit growth is good, Engel argued.
• Erste Group analyst Hans Engel upgraded Merck (MRK) to Buy from Hold. Merck is well above the sector average in terms of profitability and offers prospects for sales and earnings growth "significantly above the sector average in 2022," Engel told investors in a research note.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Greg Parrish upgraded Stride (LRN) to Overweight from Equal Weight with an unchanged price target of $45. The analyst sees an attractive risk/reward following the post-earnings pullback and believes the market is under-appreciating the company's growth story.
• BofA analyst Rafe Jadrosich upgraded Dream Finders Homes (DFH) to Neutral from Underperform with a price target of $12, up from $10.50. The company is concentrated in Florida and has high exposure to the build-to-rent segment, which should outperform, Jadrosich told investors in a research note.
• Berenberg analyst James Carmichael upgraded Kosmos Energy (KOS) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $8.50, up from $8.30. Kosmos has "lots of levers to pull" given its leverage to higher gas prices in the first two phases of the Tortue development, Carmichael argued.

Top 5 Downgrades:

• BofA analyst Rafe Jadrosich downgraded Lennar (LEN) to Underperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $82. Lennar has relatively high exposure to the move-up segment and its regional exposure "appears less favorable" compared to D.R. Horton (DHI) or Pulte (PHM) given its West/Mountain region exposure, the analyst notes.
• BofA analyst Rafe Jadrosich downgraded Toll Brothers (TOL) to Neutral from Buy with an unchanged price target of $49. Toll has relatively high concentration in slowing markets, with 38% of deliveries in the West and Mountain regions, and is 80%-85% exposed to built-to-order, which he believes is underperforming spec building, Jadrosich contended. The analyst also downgraded KB Home (KBH) to Neutral from Buy with an unchanged price target of $34.
• Raymond James analyst Bobby Griffin downgraded La-Z-Boy (LZB) to Market Perform from Outperform and removed his prior $32 price target on the shares, noting that his change in recommendation is not a reflection on fiscal first quarter results that were above expectations or second quarter guidance that will benefit from backlog relief. His view is that forward estimates are coming down as there is more uncertainty than his prior expectations on the backlog delivery given inventory positioning in the wholesale business as well as the uncertainty surrounding recovery in written trends post-summer.
• Deutsche Bank analyst Lucia Kwong downgraded GDS Holdings (GDS) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $32.80, down from $52.50, following the "weak" second quarter results.
• H.C. Wainwright analyst Scott Buck downgraded Akerna (KERN) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of 15c, down from $1.50. The company's second quarter revenue came in below expectations and its challenges will likely to continue near-term, Buck told investors in a research note.

Top 5 Initiations:

• Piper Sandler analyst James Fish initiated coverage of Nice (NICE) with a Neutral rating and $236 price target. The company should benefit from the conversion of on-premise to cloud seats and shareholder value should be created by a potential split/spinoff of the FCC business, but current trends suggest Nice's win-rates and net-new business have come down, and the cloud business model transition impact is slowing, the analyst argued.
• BofA analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith resumed coverage of Bloom Energy (BE) with a Buy rating with an unchanged price target of $34 following a 15M share equity raise.
• Wells Fargo analyst Neil Kalton initiated coverage of Nuscale Power (SMR) with an Equal Weight rating and $17 price target. NuScale's small modular reactor technology appears to be several years ahead of the competition, the analyst noted.
• Morgan Stanley analyst Robert Kad initiated coverage of Kinetik Holdings (KNTK) with an Equal Weight rating and $46 price target. The analyst believes Kinetik's valuation is full and already reflects its favorable attributes.
• Credit Suisse analyst A.J. Rice initiated coverage of Enhabit (EHAB) with a Neutral rating and $19 price target. The home care industry is positioned to benefit from the aging U.S. population, as well as the current push to drive healthcare into the home, Rice contended.