Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street:
KeyBanc reiterates McDonald’s as overweight
Key said it’s bullish heading into the fast food giant’s earnings report next week.
“Based on our industry conversations and our Key First Look Data, we believe McDonald’s is poised to report another quarter of industry-leading SSS growth fueled by operational excellence, strategic price increases, and cut-through marketing programs.”
Truist reiterates Amazon as buy
Truist said it’s bullish heading into Amazon earnings on Aug. 3.
“We remain bullish on AMZN with our proprietary tracking of NA (North American) eCom biz showing resilient demand, inline to slightly ahead of consensus ests thru 7/12 (including a solid Prime Day event), and with the ads biz likely outperforming.”
Piper Sandler downgrades Discover to neutral from overweight
Piper said in its downgrade of the credit card company that it sees too many negative catalysts.
“DFS unveiled a ‘misclassification’ issue with the fees charged to merchants dating back to 2007 and subsequently took a $365M charge in 2Q23.”
Piper Sandler downgrades Carvana to neutral from overweight
Piper downgraded the online used car company mainly on valuation.
“We upgraded CVNA last September on the basis the company was trading at a significant discount to intrinsic value due to bankruptcy risk – which we thought was unlikely. Now that the bankruptcy scare has abated, and the stock has risen to $47, we believe CVNA is approaching a fair valuation.”
JPMorgan downgrades Blackstone to neutral from overweight
JPMorgan downgraded the stock mainly on valuation.
“At 18x the 2024 consensus of $6, we see Blackstone appropriately valued at its current $107/share. For the multiple to expand further, we’d want to see organic growth supported again by perpetual fund growth, which is currently weighed down by a depressed sentiment for real estate investing.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates Eli Lilly as overweight
Morgan Stanley raised its price target on shares of Eli Lilly to $560 per share from $551 and says Eli Lilly is a leader in the “next generation of obesity medicine.”
“We expect Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to remain diabesity leaders despite increasing competition, with a combined 82% share of the obesity market long-term.”
BMO downgrades Sunnova to market perform from outperform
BMO downgraded Sunnova mainly on valuation.
“Good execution in tough market owing to differentiated solar platform, but positives increasingly reflected in share price.”
DA Davidson upgrades Harley- Davidson to buy from neutral
DA upgraded the motorcycle company and said recent channel checks indicated strong dealer feedback.
“We are upgrading HOG shares to BUY ($47 PT) from Neutral after our most recent HOG checks revealed better than feared 2Q23 U.S. retail, strong progress with MY22 inventory clearance and positive dealer feedback on new product introductions.”
Bank of America upgrades Consolidated Edison to buy from neutral
Bank of America said in its upgrade of the utility company that it has “double digit return potential.”
“ED is executing a $1B buyback in 2023 with proceeds from its unregulated renewables sale which closed in 2022, using cash left over after reducing its parent debt load.”
Deutsche Bank downgrades SiriusXM to sell from buy
Deutsche downgraded the stock mainly on valuation.
“Sirius’ stock price has more than doubled over the past month and increased 42% yesterday alone. This puts the stock 25% above our 12- month PT.”
Oppenheimer initiates Live Nation as outperform
Oppenheimer said in its initiation of the entertainment concert company that it sees upside potential.
“We see LYV’s leading concert scale disproportionally benefiting from music streaming advancements that are enhancing global distribution and artist discovery to boost fan engagement and create more latent demand opportunities for the platforms with the largest inventory breadth.”
Oppenheimer reiterates Nvidia as outperform
Oppenheimer said Nvidia remains a top pick and top AI beneficiary.
“NVDA is clear industry leader in AI with full stack hardware+software ecosystem for training/inferencing LLM (large language models).”
Baird reiterates Alphabet as outperform
Baird raised its price target on Alphabet to $130 per share from $123 and says it’s bullish heading into earnings next week.
“Primarily as a function of higher sector/comparable multiples and our generally stable field checks for Q2, we are increasing price targets for four of our online advertising covered companies:
Wedbush reiterates Roku as outperform
Wedbush said it’s standing by its outperform rating on the stock.
“Once macroeconomic trends improve, Roku is poised to return to meaningful profitability as a platform and FAST channel leader. We think the inflection point will arrive by year-end, assuming no major economic shifts before then.”
Goldman Sachs reiterates Microsoft as outperform
Goldman raised its price target on Microsoft to $400 per share from $350 and says it’s bullish heading into earnings next week.
“Although investors are concerned that capex intensity may reach $45bn+ next year, we see ~$30-35bn being more likely. We expect $2-5bn to be dedicated to supporting Gen-AI services. Nevertheless, investors may overlook these investments given the outsized revenue potential.”
