Here are the top Wall Street calls for Thursday: Barclays introduces Jabil as an overweight and Flex as a technology manufacturer. Barclays also introduced several other technology manufacturers on Thursday, citing margin expansion. “We initiate JBL and FLEX, with OW ratings of $134 and 35 PTs respectively. According to our opinion, both companies will benefit from the secular tailwinds of EV, healthcare and renewables, as well as cloud growth. Consumer end markets, however, have bottomed out. Wells Fargo introduces Valvoline to its portfolio as an overweight. Wells stated that Valvoline has plenty of room to grow. VVV has a quality model with category-leading comps and accelerating unit growth. You can read more about this call by clicking here. HSBC buys Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley HSBC bought several banks. It said that it expects “high single-digit to low-double-digit revenue growth” in 2024. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other banks are best placed to take advantage of a rebound in investment banking activity after a decade-long slump. They should see high single-digit and low double-digit revenue growth by 2024. You can read more about this report here. Wells Fargo upgrades McDonald’s from equal to overweight weight Wells stated that McDonald’s was “best positioned” to weather the storm. Shares have fallen and we see a chance to own an operator that is best in class, with a clear comp/margin uplift and looming catalysts NT
from the ongoing Best Burger launch, unit growth acceleration, (in FY24+), and Dec Analyst Day. You can read more about this call by clicking here. Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple is overweight Morgan Stanley has confirmed that it will maintain its overweight rating for the stock going into Apple’s iPhone announcement next week. While the iPhone event is traditionally a “sell-the news” event, we still see upside for Consensus as well as buyside expectations in FY24. Citi launches a positive catalyst on Micron Citi increased its price target for the stock from $75 to $85 and said Micron is still a top choice. Micron is our top pick, as we believe that DRAM pricing has turned around in the 3Q23. We have launched a positive catalyst and raised our price target. Jefferies reiterates Oracle is a top choice Jefferies stated it was bullish going into Oracle’s earnings next week. We maintain ORCL is our value pick for large cap software. Canaccord initiates Kenvue, a consumer wellness company that is a Johnson & Johnson spin-off. Canaccord stated in its initiation for the company’s buy Canaccord said it was “well positioned” to capitalize on self-care. ” KVUE is a global consumer health and wellness company known for Tylenol, Neutrogena, Johnson’s, and Band-Aid, along with a few dozen other consumer-health-focused brands. Kenvue was spun off from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)’s consumer health portfolio in 2023. JPMorgan reiterates Netflix’s status as an overweight JPMorgan stated that it is standing by the shares of Netflix. As we stated in our NFLX Trending Report on 8/11 we remain positive about NFLX shares. However, there are some areas that investors have expressed concern. These include: 1) Paid-Sharing monetization, and the magnitude/timing for revenue and ARM to increase; 2) Core subscriber growth, and NFLX’s future pricing power, and 3) The quality and trajectory of FCF between 2023 and 2024. Bernstein reiterates Tesla’s underperform status Bernstein expressed concern that further price cuts may be required for Tesla. We continue to be concerned that Tesla may need to lower its prices further this year or next year in order to reach its volume targets. This will put pressure on margins. Raymond James introduces Canada Goose to outperform Raymond James, stating that the outerwear company has a “strong growth luxury brand currently on sale.” As a luxury outerwear brand with performance, we believe GOOS is primarily driving growth through new distribution as well as increases from adjacent product categories. Barclays reduces Dell’s stock to equal weight from underweight. Barclays reduced the stock’s valuation. After the recent rise in the price of the stock, we downgrade the shares of Dell to Underweight. Bank of America introduces Akamai to be a buy. The bank said that the stock has a unique opportunity in its initial initiation. We initiate coverage of Akamai as a Cloud Computing vendor and Edge Delivery Networking provider with a Buy Rating and $145 PO, based on our CY24 P/E. Loop downgrades Roku from buy to hold Loop says it is seeing a slowdown in revenue growth. We commend the cost control under the new CFO Dan Jedda and believe that they could set up the company for another beat. However, the recent restructuring indicates the possibility of slower revenue growth in 2020. You can read more about this report here. Barclays initiated LPL Financial as an overweight Barclays stated that the financial services firm is a “solid grower organically at a reasonable valuation.” We view LPL Financial as a strong organic grower that is aligned nicely with the broader trends towards wealth management advisory and recent momentum surrounding recruited assets and enterprise relationship likely to continue. Stifel initiated Lowe’s in the buy Stifel stated that it liked Lowe’s “market-share initiatives” when it commenced Lowe’s. This is what drives our bifurcated strategy to Home Depot and Lowe’s, with Lowe’s initiatives in market share enabling a better performance. B. Riley reduces Crocs from buy to neutral B. Riley believes that consumer sales are slowing down for Crocs. We believe that the current footwear/slowing consumers backdrop will prove to be too challenging and clogged, for CROX, to avoid downward revisions of earnings. Truist upgrades Vail Resorts from Hold to Buy Truist stated in its upgrade that it saw pricing power for Vail. We see several years of pricing power above inflation. Barclays reduces Seagate’s weight to equal from overweight Barclays reduced Seagate’s weight mainly due to valuation. We understand that this name trades on momentum, and we think many will point out ’25. But here at a PT $65 it is clear this is going to take much longer, and the stock is running. Raymond James downgrades Dave and Buster’s from a strong buy to an outperform Raymond James has downgraded after the earnings report of Wednesday. The company’s F2Q result reflected weaker-than-expected comps at D & B. (down 7.1% vs. RJE, down 4%), and tougher comps in F2H could lead to high single digit % declines at D & B. Guggenheim introduces CyberArk to its buy list. Guggenheim stated that the cyber security firm is “a unique asset with a market opportunity that has been underappreciated.” We are initiating CyberArk Software Ltd. with a Buy Rating and a Price Target of $200. This implies a 16% upside potential. Morgan Stanley confirms Meta’s overweight Morgan Stanley stated that it is still bullish on Meta shares. Our bottom-up analysis (Reels Click to Message, and Core) has given us greater confidence in our base scenario 13% ’24 Rev Growth/$18.50 EPS. It also laid the path for $20 of EPS. Bernstein confirms Nvidia’s rating of outperform Bernstein stated that it is standing by its outperform rating for Nvidia. The datacenter opportunity remains enormous and is still early. Material upside is still possible.
