Tuesday's analyst calls: Home Depot gets upgraded, 30% upside for Starbucks?

(This is CNBC Pro's live coverage of Tuesday's analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20 30 minutes to view the latest posts.) Analysts kicked off the week with two big upgrades. Piper Sandler raised its rating on Home Depot, citing an improving outlook for the home improvement market.

Morgan Stanley also upgraded Starbucks, noting that a recent decline in shares has created an attractive entry point. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:38 a.m.: Home Depot to outperform market and Lowe's, Piper Sandler says After more than four years of preferring Lowe's over Home Depot , Piper Sandler is now placing its bets on the latter.

The bank upgraded shares of the home improvement retailer to an overweight rating on Tuesday and raised its price target increase to $400 from $311. The change implies that Home Depot could rally 12% from its current price. Analyst Peter Keith cited a modest increase in big ticket remodels as a catalyst for the upgrade.

"We are taking a more bullish stance on home improvement — and more specifically, large remodel projects — as home equity extraction activity (cash out refi's + HELOC originations) is trending toward improvement in 2024," wrote analyst Peter Keith. Keith added that he believes Home Depot shares could outperform both the market and shares of competitor Lowe's, citing the former's greater exposure to pro customers.

"Home Depot has been building the ecosystem to support their complex Pro customer for several years, but it was only at their June 2023 Investor Day that they quantified the sub category as one of their biggest opportunities with a $200B [total addressable market]," he wrote. Meanwhile, Home Depot has a more favorable margin setup and higher capacity for stronger earnings growth, Keith added.

Shares of Home Depot are up 2.6% this year. — Lisa Kailai Han 5:38 a.m.: Morgan Stanley upgrades Starbucks It's time to buy shares of Starbucks after the coffee chain's recent struggles, according to Morgan Stanley. The bank upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight, raising its price target to $120 per share from $112 per share.

That forecast implies upside of 30.5% from Friday's close. "After recent weakness driven by real headwinds across SBUX's global business, we see interesting risk reward skew here," analyst Brian Harbour wrote. "Out of consensus, weak sentiment, softer data trends, challenging commentary ...

near term earnings risk, China and Middle East exposure — these legitimate headwinds have brought SBUX's stock under substantial pressure after a constructive 4Q23 and investor day," the analyst added. "But we'd rather wade into the controversy perhaps somewhat early, and look beyond the current quarter, as these 'penalty box' periods can be interesting entry points." Starbucks shares are down 4% year to date and 14.2% over the past 12 months.

SBUX 1Y mountain SBUX in past year — Fred Imbert.