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.

Dell Technologies -- DELL-NYSE Outperform -- $121.27 on Jan. 8 by Evercore ISI We had the opportunity to meet with the Dell investor-relations team during CES 2025 in Las Vegas. We continue to view Dell as an attractively positioned stock in calendar-year 2025, as the company should see revenue acceleration across its entire portfolio, which should help drive not just revenue but also earnings per share and free cash flow ahead of Street expectations.

We maintain our Outperform rating and $150 price target. We think that Dell should sustain its rerating as the company gains traction with not just Tier 2 cloud solution providers but also enterprises as related to artificial-intelligence infrastructure deployments.

Twilio -- TWLO-NYSE Outperform -- $109.82 on Jan. 8 By Mizuho We're upgrading [cloud communications company] Twilio to Outperform with a $140 price target (about 4.5 times enterprise value/next 12 months revenue and 28 times enterprise value/next 12 months free cash flow) ahead of its Jan. 23 investor day for three reasons: 1) meaningful top-line stabilization, improved revenue visibility (provided a preliminary 2025 top-line outlook for 7% to 8% year-over-year growth), and an opportunity for acceleration to double-digit growth in 2025 and beyond; 2) significant operating margin improvement, and the expectation that management will provide a 2025 non-GAAP operating margin guide ahead of consensus and raise longer-term target to 22%-plus, prompting positive revisions to operating income and free cash flow; and 3) potential new share buyback announcement.

While the shares appreciated about 50% in 2024 (vs. Nasdaq about 30%), we believe that greater clarity on the drivers of the top-line stabilization and acceleration opportunity, along with a refreshed midterm growth outlook, and margin and free-cash-flow upside, will support share outperformance.

Tradeweb Markets -- TW-Nasdaq Outperform 2 -- $130.99 on Jan. 8 by Raymond James Tradeweb [an international financial-technology company] continues to post strong volume growth, albeit slowing somewhat from the elevated results in recent quarters. Fourth-quarter organic average daily volume growth was 20%, down from the 43% organic growth last quarter, but certainly still quite solid.

A number of key products continue to see year-over-year market share gains, including U.S. Treasuries and fully electronic U.S. corporate bonds, in particular. Relative to consensus estimates, the two major volume categories (rates, credit) both finished below consensus estimates in the quarter, while pricing was trending mostly below consensus estimates, as well. Target price: $141.

Primoris Services -- PRIM-NYSE Buy -- $78.02 on Jan. 8 by Guggenheim We believe that the potential for continued improvement in Primoris' business [specialty construction and infrastructure], particularly as the company returns to a more organic growth profile in 2026, merits a higher valuation. We think that the company's focus on improving free cash flow is an important driver of multiple expansion. With that in mind, we are initiating coverage of Primoris with a Buy recommendation and a price target of $102. At $102, the stock would be trading at 14 times our 2025 Ebitda estimate and 12.5 times our 2026 Ebitda estimate. The 2025 and 2026 free cash flow multiples at our price target are 23.5 times and 20.5 times, respectively.

NioCorp Developments -- NB-Nasdaq Buy -- $1.58 on Jan. 7 by Maxim Group We believe that NioCorp's Elk Creek project in Nebraska will create a new U.S. supply chain for multiple critical minerals, including dysprosium, neodymium, niobium, scandium, terbium, and titanium. Military companies and manufacturers, among others, need these critical minerals for multiple products, and the majority of these minerals are produced outside the U.S., e.g., in China and Russia.

We believe that a positive catalyst for NioCorp is releasing an updated feasibility study that will include both minerals (niobium, scandium, and titanium) and rare-earth elements (dysprosium, neodymium, and terbium) products.

We forecast that NioCorp ends fiscal second-quarter 2025 with $2.9 million of cash after a fiscal second-quarter 2025 cash burn of $2.8 million. We anticipate that NioCorp next raises capital in fiscal-year 2026 to further develop the Elk Creek project. NioCorp is prerevenue, and we forecast initial revenue in calendar-year 2030. We initiate coverage with a Buy rating and $4 price target.

Compass Therapeutics -- CMPX-Nasdaq Buy -- $1.43 on Jan. 8 by H.C. Wainwright Compass' valuation presents multiple points for upside, in our belief. With a market cap of $197 million, we believe that Compass is trading well below its upside potential. The company's bispecifics and antibodies are in later-stage studies for biliary tract cancer and colorectal cancer, where the populations being treated have very low bars to success; product profiles, to date, allow for increased confidence in study outcomes. Compass is expected to report imminently on an important top-line readout from its Phase 2/3 study of tovecimig in biliary tract cancer, potentially gearing up to go pivotal shortly thereafter. Price target: $10.

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January 10, 2025 19:12 ET (00:12 GMT)

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