Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan raised its price target on Apple to $190 per share from $175 and says it’s bullish heading into earnings on May 4. “We see a divergence of the upcoming earnings print in relation to estimate revisions and share price implications, as fundamental weakness in the hardware categories, driven by a pullback in consumer spending, will drive consensus estimates lower, but the magnitude of the downward revision being limited to a couple of percentage points will reinforce positioning of the shares for resilience.” UBS upgrades Exxon to buy from neutral UBS said in its upgrade of the oil and gas giant that it likes the company’s balance sheet. “For XOM , our positive outlook is driven by high margin upstream volume growth 2%/3% above 2024/25 Consensus that are paired annual Downstream/Chemicals capacity additions, while maintaining capex at $20-25Bn/yr.” Read more about this call here. KeyBanc initiates Peloton as sector weight KeyBanc said in its initiation of the exercise company that there’s too much uncertainty. ” PTON has addressed NT going concern debates with necessary/timely actions taken by the McCarthy administration. However, we think the concoction of a macro turbulence, financial distress, and unproven/margin dilutive initiatives pressures the NT growth rate of the subscriber base and the brawn/uniqueness of the brand. Baird upgrades Global Payments to overweight from neutral Baird said in its upgrade of the payment solutions company that the pricing environment is attractive. “We think GPN is maintaining share, Q1 industry trends seem quite good (could mildly beat as US issuer data/UK Barclaycard mildly accelerated, yet the Street models GPN mildly decelerating), and a mid-2024 valuation could be ~$156.” Guggenheim reiterates Tesla as sell Guggenheim says it’s standing by its sell rating on the stock heading into earnings on Wednesday after the bell. “As with any quarter, investors remain focused on gross margins as both a sign of unit economics, but also TSLA exceptionalism vs. automotive peers.” Jefferies initiates Bowlero as buy Jefferies initiated the bowling alley company with a buy and says it sees “strong growth and robust free-cash flow opportunity.” “We believe Bowlero’s strong brand, large and growing center footprint, and leading entertainment experience are likely to further bolster its competitive positioning in the large and highly fragmented bowling industry, driving margin expansion and substantial FCF generation over time.” Bank of America reiterates Meta as buy Bank of America says it likes “self-help stocks in an uncertain macro.” The firm also raised its price target to $250 per share from $230. “While we think ’23 recession uncertainty is likely to keep a lid on sector revenue estimates, we like Meta’s revenue set up for potential acceleration aided by Reels & messaging monetization, AI/ML targeting benefits.” UBS upgrades Netflix to buy from neutral UBS upgraded the streaming giant after its mixed earnings report on Tuesday and says it sees upside to subscribers and pricing power. “We see Netflix as the main beneficiary of easing competition in DTC as peers focus on profits. We believe this will drive upside to subs/pricing power in the coming yrs while also keeping a lid on content costs, one of the biggest swing factors for profits/FCF.” Read more about this call here. RBC downgrades Rivian to sector perform from outperform RBC said in its downgrade of the electric vehicle company that it sees “limited” near term catalysts. ” RIVN is well positioned to capture market share as the industry shift towards electrification, and we continue to believe its clean-sheet approach and vertical integration will allow for higher margins at scale.” Guggenheim names Tapestry a top pick Guggenheim says the stock is just “too cheap to ignore.” “Anchored by the resilient, highly profitable, and very well managed Coach brand, we believe TPR shares are just too cheap to ignore, trading at just 10x our new FY24E EPS of $4.20.” Bank of America upgrades Azek to buy from neutral Bank of America said in its upgrade of the building products company that sales are tracking ahead of guidance. “Trex’s and Azek’s guidance imply double-digit % declines in sell-out for 2023. Our channel checks indicate that sell-out trends have been resilient year-to-date” Daiwa initiates Mobileye as buy Daiwa initiated the autonomous technologies company with a buy and says the valuation is “reasonable given strong growth.” “We are launching coverage of Mobileye with a 1/Buy rating and a $50 TP for 16% potential appreciation with a 45x PE on our 2025 EPS est. Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the AI beneficiary to $340 per share from $310. “Our positive view on Nvidia is based on its underappreciated transformation from a traditional PC graphics chip vendor, into a supplier into high-end gaming, enterprise graphics, cloud, accelerated computing and automotive markets.” Piper Sandler initiates GE Healthcare as overweight Piper says the company, which spun off from General Electric, is a “mature healthcare equipment bellwether.” “But we do see the recent spinoff from parent GE as affording GEHC the independence and focus to transform the organization into a more nimble, faster-growing, and more profitable entity, and one that should boast significant FCF each year that we could envision being deployed in a variety of shareholder-friendly ways.” Wedbush upgrades Western Alliance Bancorporation to outperform from neutral Wedbush upgraded the regional bank due to rebounding deposits. “We’re upgrading WAL to OUTPERFORM and adding it to the Wedbush Best Ideas List as deposit outflows in March have partially reversed and WAL’s higher level of insured deposits at 73% should help support deposit levels going forward, in our view.” Wedbush adds Regions Financial to the best ideas list Wedbush says it likes the regional banks strong deposit franchise. ” RF’s deposit base is 75% insured or collateralized, which is the highest among regional bank peers.” Bank of America downgrades CDW to neutral from buy Bank of America downgraded the technology products company after its disappointing earnings report on Tuesday. “After market close, CDW negatively pre-announced F1Q23 where revenue came in at $5.1bn vs. our/Street $5.5bn/$5.6bn. CDW saw weakness at its large commercial customers and across transactional products.” Oppenheimer names Visa a top pick Oppenheimer says the credit card giant is a “flight to quality.” ” Visa our top pick across our entire coverage due to an expected continued flight to quality among investors in highly profitable, geographically diverse businesses and less exposure to the banking sector.” Wolfe reiterates Meta as outperform Wolfe says Meta is a top pick heading into earnings and that its valuation is compelling. “We think 1Q results and 2Q guide should reflect relatively stable demand environment and progress on growth initiatives / cost savings.” Evercore ISI initiates BridgeBio Pharma as outperform Evercore called the biotech company one of the “best midcap names to own in biotech.” ” BBIO epitomizes our ‘business of biotech’ theme with its drug development approach.” Wolfe reiterates Amazon as outperform Wolfe says it’s standing by its outperform rating on the stock heading into earnings next week. ” AMZN’ s 1Q results should be largely within the prior guidance ranges. Retail margins should improve nicely, but focus is on AWS growth trajectory, which we expect to decelerate.”
