Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Monday:
UBS reiterates Berkshire Hathaway as buy
UBS said it’s standing by its buy rating after Berkshire Hathaway’s earnings report on Saturday.
“We calculate BRK’s shares are currently trading at around a 23% discount to its intrinsic value, which is in line with the 23% average discount since BRK resumed share repurchases in 3Q18.”
Goldman Sachs upgrades Shell to buy from neutral
Goldman said in its upgrade of the oil and gas company that it likes its optionality.
“With this note, we upgrade Shell to Buy (from Neutral), as we believe the company has the highest quality combination of assets in the sector, with a leading global LNG and marketing businesses and strong chemical presence.”
Goldman Sachs upgrades Nomad Foods to buy from neutral
Goldman said it sees an “attractive investment opportunity” to invest in the frozen food company.
“With potential upward revisions on horizon, we see NOMD’s near-trough valuation levels, both in context of its history and relative to broader Food peers as an attractive investment opportunity with favorable risk-reward ahead.”
Telsey downgrades Best Buy to market perform from outperform
Telsey downgraded the stock ahead of earnings later this week, noting it sees a challenging macro.
“Downgrading BBY to Market Perform from Outperform: In the near term, we believe Best Buy’s business is likely to experience a further decline related to the challenging macro trends weighing on discretionary consumer demand, given high inflation and rising interest rates—resulting in our lower 2023 forecasts for both sales and profits.”
Goldman Sachs upgrades Willis Towers Watson to buy from neutral
Goldman said it sees a robust turnaround for the insurance company.
“The company has shown strong progress on turnaround initiatives to date, and we see a material improvement in WTW fundamentals coinciding with abating tailwinds for more concentrated P&C and commission oriented brokers, particularly in the back half of 2023 and into 2024.”
Bank of America upgrades Union Pacific to buy from neutral
Bank of America said it sees share gains for the railroad operator.
“We increase our PO to $241 from $218 on 20x our 2024 EPS of $12.05 (from 20x 2023), given increased confidence in a path to operational improvement, and potential for accelerating gains.”
Barclays reiterates Tesla as overweight
Barclays said it’s standing by its buy rating heading into Tesla’s investor event on March 1.
“Potentially a sell-the-news event given recent rally, but likely to reinforce long-term opportunity – reinforcing our OW rating.”
Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as overweight
Bank of America said it’s bullish on AI opportunities for Alphabet.
“We see AI advantages for Google, and opportunity for AI to increase the value of Alphabet’s platform (search, Cloud and Waymo) and maintain our Buy rating.”
JPMorgan initiates Zillow as overweight
JPMorgan said it likes the online housing company’s business model.
“We prefer Zillow’s large scale, business model, and strong margins in the current volatile environment, but we believe both Zillow and Redfin with solid execution could drive L-T upside from these levels.”
Canaccord initiates Intuitive Machines as buy
Canaccord said the aerospace company is well positioned in the space race.
“Intuitive Machines is a diversified lunar/space services and infrastructure company that is unique as essentially the only publicly traded company that directly focuses on the growing xGEO (beyond geostationary Earth orbit) economy.”
Raymond James upgrades Frontier to strong buy from outperform
Raymond James upgraded the cable company after its “impressive” earnings report.
“We are upgrading the shares of Frontier to Strong Buy from Outperform following impressive 4Q results and continued execution on its post-bankruptcy plan to future-proof itself for a modern customer base.”
Wells Fargo upgrades State Street to overweight from equal weight
Wells said in its upgrade of the financial services company that it should outperform in a recession.
“Upgrade to Overweight from Equal Weight. STT seems like heads “you win” - outperforms in recessions given less credit risk; and tails ‘you win’ - no recession would increase our EPS ests. above base case of 10%+ in each 2023E and 2024E.”
Bernstein reiterates Nvidia as outperform
Bernstein said opportunities abound for Nvidia with AI and ChatGPT.
“Gaming headwinds have normalized, and opportunities around datacenter, software, and auto remain early, and large.”
Wells Fargo upgrades Pulmonx to overweight from equal weight
Wells said in its upgrade of the maker of devices and technology for pulmonary disorders that it has an attractive valuation.
“We are upgrading LUNG to Overweight from Equal Weight. We are raising our price target to $15, which assumes 5.0x our 2024 revenue estimate, from $10.”
Raymond James upgrades Frontier Airlines to outperform from market perform
Raymond James says it sees an attractive risk/reward for the airline company.
“We are upgrading ULCC from Market Perform to Outperform reflecting an attractive risk-reward and increased conviction, from our fare analysis and industry commentary, that seasonality explains the 1Q23 revenue shortfall vs. our pre-4Q22 earnings release forecast.”
Credit Suisse initiates Woodward as outperform
Credit Suisse said in its initiation of the aerospace control solutions company that it’s a “self-help” story.
“We believe that WWD is one of the most severely underearning companies within our coverage, with FY23E EBITDA ~27% below FY19 levels vs. peers tracking toward FY23E EBITDA ~15% above FY19 levels.”
Jefferies reiterates Microsoft as buy
Jefferies said its survey checks show users are unlikely to change their long-term habits away from using Google over Bing.
“Our survey of ~900 consumers was positive for MSFT Bing adoption, but it’s unclear if consumers will actually change LT search habits.”
Bernstein downgrades Williams Companies to market perform from outperform
Bernstein downgraded the energy company due to falling gas prices.
“We upgraded WMB mid-pandemic arguing that gas was defensive and reiterated that argument mid 2022 as fears about recession loomed. However, the setup has changed over the last few months.”
UBS reiterates Apple as buy
UBS said its survey checks show Apple is the preferred brand in both the U.S. and China.
“Apple was named by ~ 23% of respondents in the US as the brand they are most likely to buy, 400 bps above Dell while in China, Apple was cited by 21% of respondents, ahead of Lenovo (19%) for the first time in our survey.”