These reports, excerpted and edited by Barron's, were issued recently by investment and research firms. The reports are a sampling of analysts' thinking; they should not be considered the views or recommendations of Barron's. Some of the reports' issuers have provided, or hope to provide, investment-banking or other services to the companies being analyzed.
Affirm Holdings -- AFRM-Nasdaq Positive -- $75.97 on Jan. 14 by Susquehanna We remain constructive on Affirm Holdings as a differentiated credit platform with a diverse buy now, pay later product suite benefiting from expanding merchant acceptance and rising consumer adoption. The scaling of the Affirm Card and durable partnerships such as Amazon.com reinforce the network model and support sustained gross merchandise value growth. While regulatory and macro risks remain, Susquehanna Financial Group believes that Affirm is positioned to take share from revolving credit over time.
Price target: $105.
SharkNinja -- SN-NYSE Buy -- $126.22 on Jan. 13 by TD Cowen Our key takeaways from the recent 2026 ICR Conference: 1) The 2025 holiday season was robust for SharkNinja, driven by the breadth of products and innovation at competitive price points; 2) a robust pipeline of innovation in 2026 with key disruptions focused on major existing categories; 3) direct to consumer and TikTok Shop present attractive growth opportunities, but management will remain balanced to be where customers are; and 4) international remains a key growth driver.
Target Price: $135.
Palo Alto Networks -- PANW-Nasdaq Outperform -- $190.11 on Jan. 14 by Evercore ISI We recently held our pre-quiet-period investor-relations catch-up as the company closes out the fiscal second quarter. Commentary indicated that trends remain consistent with expectations, and fiscal second-quarter guidance was reaffirmed. Nothing emerged from our conversation that would lead us to change our current outlook or narrative.
At a high level, we discussed the pending CyberArk Software and Chronosphere acquisitions, post-close margin impact (150 basis points to free-cash-flow margins in fiscal-year 2026), broader demand trends, Fed sector momentum, and recent secure access service edge, or SASE, competitive wins. The key takeaway from the call was additional clarity on DRAM pricing dynamics and the potential implications for firewall vendors, a topic of growing investor focus.
Following our discussion with Palo Alto Networks IR and further analysis, we sought to quantify the potential implications. While this analysis incorporates several assumptions and isn't an exact science, it is intended to provide a framework for how we are thinking about the pricing impact.
Target price/base case: $250.
Lifeway Foods -- LWAY-Nasdaq Buy -- $22.58 on Jan. 14 by Benchmark Equity Research Exiting the ICR Consumer conference, we believe that Lifeway Foods has a portfolio uniquely well positioned in an evolving landscape of health- and wellness-minded consumers and GLP-1 users seeking beverages vs. snacks, probiotics, high protein, and functional foods.
We believe that Lifeway shares reflect a subdued valuation following a 2025 in which the market focused on Danone's unsolicited offer and a noisy activist campaign, but believe that both dynamics have overwhelmingly moved in Lifeway's favor and that the strong fundamentals and powerful portfolio can shine in 2026 and drive alpha from current levels.
Price target: $35.
Bank of New York Mellon -- BK-NYSE Buy -- $122.93 on Jan. 13 by Seaport Research Partners Bank of New York Mellon reported adjusted fourth-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $2.08, above our $1.99 and consensus of $1.98. Revenue upside was broad-based across net interest income (4% above forecast and 13% year over year), clearing and collateral management, issuer services, foreign-exchange trading, SEC lending, and investment management -- more than offsetting lower-than-expected fees in Pershing. Also, a $43 million investment loss more than offset a reserve release benefit of $24 million, making for a relatively clean beat.
Target price: $131.
FLEX -- FLEX-Nasdaq Outperform $64.27 on Jan. 14 By Raymond James We are upgrading [electronic manufacturing services company] FLEX to Outperform from Market Perform and initiate a $75 price target. While we admittedly have missed much of the recent rise in shares, we view the recent modest pullback as a compelling entry point -- particularly given the company's exposure to cloud/artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
We had the opportunity to travel with management last month, which provided us a much clearer view into the key growth drivers in the near term. In particular, the company's unique power portfolio is proving to be an increasingly important factor in hyperscale data center builds -- and drawing greater interest from the industry, as even traditional industrial companies are repositioning portfolios to address growing demand.
With the already-accretive margins of that business expected to trend meaningfully higher, we see opportunities for upside revision to estimates. Further, with a potential catalyst coming from an upcoming investor meeting in May, we are taking the opportunity for a constructive stance on the stock.
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January 16, 2026 20:57 ET (01:57 GMT)
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