Barclays Bets Big on Airlines

Barclays analyst Brandon Oglenski upgraded both UAL and LUV to Buy on Friday. The calls came with aggressive new price targets.

United Airlines got a $175 target. That is up sharply from $150 before. Southwest received a $65 target, jumping from $56.

The airline upgrades stand out as the most decisive moves of the day. Both names carry modest short interest. United sits at 4.6% SI % of FF. Southwest is at 6.0%.

Barclays appears to be positioning for a summer travel recovery trade. High availability readings on both stocks suggest short sellers are not crowding in.

Elsewhere, custodian banks drew fresh attention. STT, NTRS, and BNY all saw target price increases today. State Street's average target rose to $166.32. Northern Trust moved to $172.85. Bank of New York Mellon climbed to $147.31. The trio benefits from higher-for-longer rate expectations.

DRI also got a target bump. Darden Restaurants now carries a $227.64 consensus target, up from $226.42. The casual dining group has held up better than feared this year.

On the downside, LMT and PEP both saw targets trimmed slightly. Lockheed Martin's average slipped to $624.11. PepsiCo fell to $167.23.