Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday: Roth MKM names Chewy a top pick Roth named the stock a top idea and says recent traffic data is encouraging. “We see more than +50% potential upside for Chewy (CHWY) over the medium term, and install Top Pick status within our Consumer Growth & eCommerce coverage.” Wells Fargo downgrades Fox to equal weight from overweight Wells said it sees too many negative headwinds for the media conglomerate. “We liked FOXA when EBITDA was growing, sports betting seemed promising and for its relative balance sheet appeal when rates were going higher. Looking ahead there’s a lot less to get excited about, so we downgrade to Equal Weight, new $35 target.” Read more about this call here. Bernstein reiterates Apple as market perform Bernstein said Apple’s valuation is reasonable at current levels. “On net, our analysis makes us more comfortable with Apple’s valuation, particularly relative to consumer companies, but we caution that Apple is still cyclical (revs and EPS declining this year), is not immune to regulatory pressures, or changes in technology.” Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said that, after a series of channel checks on Amazon , the “battle is on for AI and machine learning services.” “For AWS, the experts specialize in back-end enablement for the transition from on-prem to Cloud, as well as using AWS on the front-end for products to resell analysis tools, which now includes Generative AI. Experts were constructive on Cloud migration, described it as still in early stages, while suggesting some of AWS’ advantages have narrowed over time.” Mizuho downgrades Twilio to neutral from buy Mizuho said it sees too many near-term challenges for Twilio. “Without any near-term catalyst, we downgrade TWLO to Neutral and lower PT to $55 from $90.” Wolfe downgrades Disney to peer perform from outperform Wolfe said “direct-to-consumer subscriber and linear TV outlooks keep deteriorating” for Disney. “The Parks growth, cost cuts, and DTC ARPU growth we’ve forecast are in consensus, while the DTC subscriber and linear TV outlooks keep deteriorating. DTC plan for > subs, > prices and < cost seems like cognitive dissonance. We cut F’24E OI by 5% & downgrade to Peer Perform.” RBC upgrades Barclays to overweight from sector weight RBC said the banking giant’s valuation is attractive. “Our calculations suggest that BARC will be the biggest beneficiary of a structural hedge tailwind, the magnitude and duration of which, we think, are underappreciated by the market.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley upgrades Pearson to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it sees a compelling entry point for the education tech company. “We argue the value of Pearson’s data and content will likely go up when combined with generative AI models. We expect evidence to support this to build from H2 2023. With the shares reflecting elevated disruption risk, we see an attractive entry point.” Read more about this call here. Truist initiates SoFi as buy Truist said in its initiation of SoFi that the “future of banking is now.” “We see SoFi as the future of US banking: digital, nimble and always on.” Bank of America upgrades Green Plains to buy from neutral Bank of America said a transformation is underway for Green Plains. “The stock is down ~12% since the 5/4 earnings release, too steep of a sell-off in our view, with valuation attractive relative to our PO and on a ’24-25E EBITDA basis Argus downgrades Estee Lauder to hold from buy Argus said it’s concerned about a slowdown in China for Estee Lauder . “We are concerned about the slow pace of recovery in China and in the travel retail segment in Asia, where inventories are rising.” Deutsche Bank names Walmart a top pick into earnings Deutsche said Walmart is its top idea heading into earnings next week. ” WMT = sales momentum and ability to start growing EBIT margin through a multi-year time frame.” Baird reiterates Home Depot and Lowe’s as outperform Baird said it’s staying bullish heading into the home improvement retailers later this month. “Decelerating demand indicators and a delayed onset of spring have us lowering our 1Q comp and EPS estimates for HD / LOW .” Mizuho reiterates Microsoft as buy Mizuho said Microsoft is “best positioned” for AI. “Our belief remains that the impact of Generative AI on the economy should be significantly positive over the next 5-10 years, and with MSFT unquestionably one of the best positioned vendors in this space.” Jefferies downgrades Diageo to hold from buy Jefferies said it sees a slowing U.S. market for the beverage maker “We downgrade from BUY to HOLD to reflect a slower near term outlook for the key US market, where we look for 1% org sales growth in F24 vs cons 4.5%. Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley said Tesla competitors have a lot of work to do to keep up with the automaker. “Expectations around Tesla’s pricing strategy have changed materially over the past year. We see Tesla’s pricing posture both as a part of Elon’s ‘master plan’ and a reflecting of the big changes in supply/demand in the global EV market.”
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