** Shares of grocery delivery firm Instacart CART.O, formally known as Maplebear, up as much as 5.2% at a nearly two-month high of $46.82 in early trade

** BTIG upgrades stock to "buy" from "neutral" and initiates a PT of $58, cites data that points to strong order growth helping Q4 and 2025, and a "not particularly challenging" valuation of stock

** Mizuho initiates coverage on stock with "outperform" and PT of $55, sees CART defending its leading market share, expects advertising income to fund further growth investments that drives market penetration

** Brokerage Bernstein raises PT by $3 to $55, sees hope from expanding grocery e-commerce sector and sees less threat from peers Uber UBER.N, DoorDash DASH.O owing to long merchant sales cycles being in favor of CART

** 18 of 34 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, 16 "hold"; with a median PT of $52- data compiled by LSEG

** CART rose ~76% in 2024

(Reporting by Neil J Kanatt in Bengaluru)

((Neil.JKanatt@thomsonreuters.com;))