Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Evercore ISI adds Livent to its best ideas list Evercore said it’s bullish on the lithium company. “This month our Energy & Materials team is adding Livent Corp (LTHM), whose announced merger with Allkem creates scale and relevancy in global lithium chemicals that makes them an increasingly viable play on the battery materials supply chain.” HBSC upgrades Emerson Electric to buy from hold HSBC called the stock a “completely transformed automation pure-play.” “Recent trading remains strong: Emerson reported its Q2’FY23 numbers on 3 May. Underlying orders increased 7%, driven by strong demand across process/hybrid industries and moderating discrete orders.” Bernstein reiterates Target as outperform Bernstein said investors should buy the weakness in Target shares. “And the stock is down 15% for the month, and that includes a ~4-pt rebound yesterday. To all this we say: buy the stock here.” Mizuho reiterates Coinbase as underperform Mizuho said it sees worsening retail trading trends for Coinbase. “Analyzing April volume data points to worsening share losses in retail crypto trading for Coinbase relative to Robinhood.” Bank of America initiates S & P Global and Moody’s as buy Bank of America called S & P and Moody’s resilient. ” S & P provides credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow solutions to the capital, commodity, and auto markets. … Own Moody’s for credit cycle, also get Analytics’ resiliency We initiate with a Buy. Moody’s has high exposure to the likely credit issuance revival via its ratings business (49% of sales), but also a very resilient Analytics business.” Citi adds a negative catalyst watch on American Express Citi said its travel checks show slowing travel spend which negatively impacts American Express . “Our proprietary Citi Credit Card Data spending trends have slowed and as we drill down into Travel & Entertainment (T & E) categories, growth has slowed more sharply from recent strong double-digit growth rates.” Guggenheim reiterates McDonald’s as buy Guggenheim said McDonald’s shares are compelling. “The stock has mostly traded sideways over the past two months, but we think it is difficult to ignore the magnitude of earnings upside to consensus and the reasonable current valuation of shares.” RBC reiterates Alphabet as outperform RBC raised its price target on the stock to $145 per share from $132 and says it sees “fundamental upside.” ” GOOGL still at the head of the class where ongoing payback period scrutiny remains a tailwind for lower-funnel players.” Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy Bank of America said the company continues to gain market share and is well positioned for AI. “Our $500 PO is based on 50x CY24E PE ex cash, within NVDA’s historical 26x-69x forward year PE range, justified given stronger growth opportunities ahead as gaming cycle troughs and data center demand potentially faces strong, long-term demand dynamics.” UBS reiterates Chipotle as buy UBS said the Mexican chain is “well positioned w/ drivers to support transaction and sales growth.” “We believe CMG is positioned for continued traffic & sales momentum and market share gains, supported by medium to LT growth catalysts.” Morgan Stanley names T-Mobile a top pick Morgan Stanley named the cellular company a top pick and said patience investors will be reward. “Until recently, T-Mobile’ s stock had been range-bound for months, after performing strongly for much of 2022, but has recently broken below a c. $140- 150 trading range, falling to the lowest levels in almost a year on the back of rising competitive concerns.” Read more about this call here. Goldman Sachs downgrades Diageo to neutral from buy Goldman said it sees limited positive catalysts right now for Diageo . “In May/June, we surveyed US Spirits Wholesalers across the US to gauge their expectations of senior sales executives and management. The results of our 7th proprietary bi-annual survey (here) were the most cautious since 2020.” Read more about this call here. Wells Fargo initiates CubeSmart as overweight Wells said it sees an attractive risk/reward for the storage company. “We are initiating coverage with Overweight / $50 PT, as CUBE’s high-quality portfolio of population-dense markets, favorable leverage / liquidity, and potential to partake in consolidation create attractive risk/reward.” RBC reiterates Tesla as outperform RBC raised its price target to $305 per share from $212 and said it’s bullish on Tesla’s autonomy future. ” Tesla’s leading FSD (Full Self Driving) software should offset margin dilution from lower-priced models and also position the company well as it transitions into a software business. Reiterate Outperform, PT to $305 on new valuation methodology.” Oppenheimer downgrades SoFi to perform from outperform Oppenheimer downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. “Given SOFI’s stock is trading at the top end of our high range, we are moving to the sidelines as investor sentiment could shift on credit/other existing narratives, creating a better entry point.” Mizuho reiterates Uber as a top pick Mizuho reiterated Uber a top pick and says it sees robust EBITDA growth. “We ran a deep dive on UBER’s metrics across key business segments. Post analysis, we are incrementally bullish on the EBITDA outlook against the FY24 target.” Deutsche Bank upgrades Allegiant to buy from hold Deutsche Bank said it sees “significant improvement” on capital returns in the years ahead for the company. “In conjunction with the release of the 2023 edition of our Value Creation Primer, we are raising our ratings on the shares of Allegiant (ALGT) and SkyWest (SKYW) from Hold to Buy based on what we think will be a significant improvement in both companies’ return on invested capital (ROIC) over the next 2 – 3 years. JPMorgan reiterates Microsoft as overweight JPMorgan raised its price target to $350 per share from $315 and says it’s well-positioned for AI. “We reaffirm our bullish-outlier viewpoint on Generative AI and continue to see it driving a resurgence of confidence in key software franchises.” Jefferies reiterates Block as buy Jefferies said it’s bullish on shares of Block. “As the broader e-Commerce and BNPL market grows, SQ sees strong growth and adoption.” TD Cowen reiterates Netflix as outperform TD Cowen raised its price target on the stock to $500 per share from $440 and says it’s well positioned. “Our survey data suggests that NFLX is well positioned as paid sharing measures roll out broadly. More than 1/3 of ‘borrowing’ respondents across US, UK, & DE plan to maintain access to NFLX via either (i) becoming a new member or (ii) the existing member paying an extra fee.” TD Cowen upgrades Kohl’s to outperform from market perform TD Cowen said the stock is in the midst of a “makeover.” “We upgrade shares of KSS to Outperform as we expect new home decor & gifting product, improved fashion execution, a simplified promotional strategy, and pragmatic store layout revisions to drive healthier and more consistent traffic and faster inventory turns.” Stifel upgrades Domino’s to buy from hold Stifel said it sees an attractive entry point for the pizza delivery giant. “We are upgrading DPZ to Buy and raising our TP to $350. The stock has performed poorly since 2021 as delivery sales have declined, franchisee profitability has fallen, and unit growth has slowed, causing management to reset its long-term top-line guidance.” Read more about this call here . Citi upgrades Corning to buy from neutral Citi said it sees “profitability improvements” for the glass company. “We are upgrading shares of Corning to Buy from Neutral. Our upgrade is based on: 1) greater conviction in margin expansion targets following recent Display price increases, amidst a more tighter supply demand environment; 2) improved productivity enhancements in Optical offsetting a more tempered demand outlook in optical.” Read more about this call here . UBS reiterates Chevron as buy UBS said it sees “balance sheet strength & dividend growth” for Chevron. “A key strength of CVX is its balance sheet that’s at 4% Net Debt/Cap with $15.7Bn of cash on hand (1Q23).” RBC reiterates Meta as outperform RBC raised its price target on the stock to $330 per share from $285 and said it’s bullish on Meta’s advertising prospects. ” META’s progress remains directionally positive, with broad-based conversion improvements and new ad formats being anticipated positively.”
