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A growing chorus of voices on Wall Street are bullish on Wayfair (NYSE:W) amid cost-savings efforts, boosting the stock to a stark gain on Monday.
In addition to JP Morgan’s flip from bear to bull, Bank of America double-upgraded the name and Wedbush stepped from the sidelines to upgrade the stock on Monday. Each of the analysts cited belt-tightening efforts and apparent sales improvements for the change in outlook.
“The latest round of savings will go a long way in better aligning W’s cost base with current and forecasted demand levels, weak (but improving) customer unit economics, and higher levels of advertising as it seeks to drive demand during a period of lower direct traffic levels,” Wedbush analyst Seth Basham told clients on Monday. “We now see W comfortably reaching break-even EBITDA as early as 2Q23 and reaching a low-single-digit adjusted EBITDA margin for the full-year based on projected savings, margin tailwinds and modest sales growth.”
The potential liquidation of Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is seen as another potential tailwind for the company. Basham raised his price target on the stock to $60 from $38 alongside the upgrade to Outperform from Neutral.
Bank of America’s Curtis Nagle echoed much of that sentiment while also highlighting recovering sales and web traffic trends.
“Wayfair revenue trends appear to be hitting an inflection following nearly two years of disappointing results,” he advised. “4Q revenue improved each month and we estimate Wayfair will outperform competitors on average for the first time since early COVID. This is consistent with Web traffic trends for Wayfair (98% correlated with W US revenues since 4Q20) which steadily improved through 2022 and were up YoY in Jan. 2023 (as of the 16th) for the first time since mid-2021.”
As such, he followed JP Morgan’s lead in shifting from bear to bull, upgrading to Outperform from a prior Underperform on Monday. Nagle also more than doubled his price target to $65 from $30.
Shares of Wayfair (W) rose 25.48% shortly after Monday’s market open. That jump extends the gain over the past month to north of 70%.
Read more on the cost-cutting plans for the company in 2023.