Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday:
Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy
Bank of America said it’s standing by its buy rating on shares of Disney but that it will take time to turn things around.
“While we view Bob Iger as a strong, well-rounded and charismatic leader, there are several big decisions, both operational (1&2) and strategic, to make in the 2-years he is expected to serve as CEO.”
Wells Fargo reiterates Tesla as equal weight
Wells said Tesla’s semi event on Thursday night was “impressive” but that details still remain murky.
“The reveal was impressive though some details remain including the payload (battery may add weight), the available cargo space (battery may take up room), the vehicle charge time, and battery specs.”
Evercore ISI reiterates Ulta as outperform
Evercore called the beauty retailer a “category killer in a killer category” after its earnings report on Thursday.
“Ulta delivered a very solid sales and margin beat in 3Q (6 pt comp beat and 200 bps GM beat), with the beauty category showing incredible resilience and insulation from macro headwinds.”
Piper Sandler reiterates Amazon as outperform
Piper said it’s “more positive on the out-year opportunity” after attending the most recent Amazon Web Services conference in Las Vegas.
“More near-term, our informal discussions suggested some business friction resulting in more reserved cloud spend. But, overall we find ourselves more positive on the out-year opportunity.”
Barclays downgrades Blackstone to equal weight from overweight
Barclays said in its downgrade of the private equity and investment bank that it sees a challenging set-up.
“While we are positive on the longer-term retail opportunity for alternative assets (and BX generally) we think near-term sentiment for both retail and BX shares will be very challenging.”
Cowen names Cloudflare a top pick
Cowen said 2023 should be a year of healthy outperformance for the content networking company.
“We believe NET is positioned to address a potential TAM approaching $135B by 2024.”
RBC downgrades DoorDash to sector weight from overweight
RBC said in its downgrade of the food delivery company that it sees an unfavorable risk/reward.
“DASH’s execution & management are widely considered the class of the sector but approaching ’23, we are uncomfortable with a potentially unfavorable risk/reward given likely hypersensitivity to order deceleration.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight
Morgan Stanley said it’s standing by shares of Apple and that it sees no evidence of demand destruction.
“Despite further headlines about iPhone production in China, we still estimate a 6-7M iPhone production shortfall in the Dec Q, likely to be deferred to March.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates Hostess as overweight
Morgan Stanley said after a meeting with Hostess management that it sees multiple growth drivers for the maker of Twinkies.
“Our meetings reinforced our OW view as they highlighted that TWNK has significant further growth opportunity as it targets the $50 bn snacking category, is investing to support growth through new capacity, innovation, and marketing, and has multiple drivers supporting a gross margin recovery.”
UBS initiates coverage of Zillow as buy
UBS said it sees an attractive entry point for shares of the online real estate company.
“We see the current period of maximum uncertainty as a good entry point for Buy-rated Zillow shares for longer-term investors.”
Wedbush downgrades Cheesecake Factory to neutral from outperform
Wedbush said in its downgrade of Cheesecake Factory that it no sees share gains heading into 2023.
“We view price increases as one of the primary reasons why full service has not seen a recovery to pre-COVID transaction levels, and why the recapture of pre-COVID transactions by restaurants, particularly full service, has not gone as smoothly as expectations entering ’22.”
UBS initiates coverage of IAC as sell
UBS initiated coverage of the internet services company and owner of brands like ANGI and said it sees no near-term catalysts for shares of IAC.
“Consensus optimistic… we see higher probability of the stub derating further.”
Wolfe downgrades Salesforce to peer perform from outperform
Wolfe downgraded the stock after its earnings report earlier this week and said it sees too many missteps.
“We are downgrading CRM to PP as our thesis on the stock has changed with growth materially decelerating following a Covid pull-forward, execution missteps, and M&A misfires creating meaningful idiosyncratic headwinds.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates Rocket Lab as overweight
Morgan Stanley said investors should buy the dip in shares of the space satellite company.
“New Space pureplays have sold off YTD. We think RKLB’s recent performance offers opportunity.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates FedEx as equal weight
Morgan Stanley said it’s staying cautious and has low visibility heading into FedEx earnings later this month.
“After an F1Q23 result to forget, FDX benefits from a cleaner slate and a lower bar in F2Q. However, we caution that visibility is low.”
JPMorgan adds Johnson Controls to the focus list
JPMorgan added the multinational conglomerate to its focus list and said it’s a “defensive growth services story.”
“JCI is our top pick and we are adding to the JPM Analyst Focus List, as a thematically tied defensive growth name in a group that looks overvalued.”
Piper Sandler reiterates Coinbase as outperform
Piper said it expects “right sizing of Coinbase’s expense structure” but that it’s standing by shares of the crypto trading platform company.
“We believe COIN has a very strong cash position and may even capitalize on the FTX bankruptcy upheaval over the long term.”