Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Citi reiterates Apple as buy Citi said it’s standing by its top pick status on Apple shares. “While concerns around iPhone sales in China have been around since Huawei resurgence, recent supply chain checks don’t show production cuts for Dec and Mar quarters.” Jefferies reiterates Tesla as hold Jefferies said that Elon Musk’s threat to develop AI outside of Tesla “raises the risk of near-term de-rating and further volatility.” “Elon Musk just opened a can of worms by threatening to develop AI expertise outside Tesla unless his current c.13% voting stake is raised to 25%.” UBS downgrades Ford to neutral from buy UBS said it sees limited upside to estimates. “We are downgrading F to Neutral seeing the stock as more fairly valued. Our PT remains $12. We see more limited upside to estimates over 2024 and 2025 than prior.” TD Cowen downgrades Fisker to market perform from outperform TD said it sees too many growing pains for Fisker. “A shift in distribution strategy, continued delivery issues, missed timelines and an overall softening in the overall EV market have taken the luster off of this once shiny new vehicle manufacturer, in our view.” JPMorgan downgrades Morgan Stanley to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said Morgan Stanley has limited upside at current levels. “Downgrade to Neutral: Fairly Valued with limited stock specific catalysts ahead.” BTIG upgrades Marathon to buy from neutral BTIG said it’s bullish on shares of the bitcoin mining company. “On the back of the weakness in the miners and Marathon’s decision to pivot into infrastructure late last year, we upgrade to Buy from Neutral.” Bank of America names Dutch Bros a top pick Bank of America said the coffee chain has top notch management and likes Dutch in 2024. “We believe that arrival of new management at companies with strong – but arguably undermanaged — brands can create significant value. We expect the marketing, real estate and operational strategies brought to bear by CEO Christine Barone and her new team will serve as catalysts for accelerating same store sales.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Twist Bioscience to buy from neutral Goldman said it sees margin expansion for the biotech company. “However, we are starting to see early signs of a recovery in biotech funding as seen in Exhibit 5 and while this does not necessarily represent a bottom and it remains difficult to time the recovery in small cap biotech funding environment, we believe TWST would be a key beneficiary once this turn becomes clear.” DA Davidson downgrades Teladoc to neutral from buy DA said in its downgrade of Teladoc that it sees a more balanced risk/reward. “All considered, we like the market and the category-leader pieces of the thesis, but are balanced towards growth and execution for now.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Polaris to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley upgraded the recreational vehicle company and said it sees an attractive risk/reward. “We reshuffle the deck a bit and upgrade PII to OW while downgrading MAT to EW.” KeyBanc initiates Rocket Lab as overweight Key said it sees upside for the rocket satellite company. “We initiate coverage on Rocket Lab USA (NASDAQ: RKLB) with an Overweight rating and $8 price target, reflecting ~50% upside.” Goldman Sachs initiates Aramark as buy Goldman said the concessions company is well positioned. “We view Aramark as well positioned to deliver on consistent ~mid to high single digit organic revenue growth over the medium term, given a well-defined runway to benefit from continued moves towards outsourcing, retention rates > 95% and a significant addressable market.” Evercore ISI initiates Lithia Motors and AutoNation as outperform Evercore initiated two auto companies with outperform ratings on Wednesday and says they have “defensive growth.” “As 2024 begins in earnest, the Autos team is proud to bring a new Auto sub-segment under coverage: Franchise Auto Dealers Lithia (LAD; Outperform, $400 target), and AutoNation (AN; Outperform, $185 target).” Susquehanna downgrades Spirit to negative from neutral Susquehanna downgraded the stock after the JetBlue Spirit deal was blocked on Tuesday and says it sees an uncertain future. “We are downgrading SAVE to Negative following yesterday’s court filing from a US district court judge that blocked the current JBLU/SAVE deal (i.e., the proposed merger as agreed on 7/28/22).” Deutsche Bank downgrades Rivian to hold from buy Deutsche said it sees “downside risk” for the EV company. “Despite the improved 2023 exit rate production cadence, we see downside risk to Street’s 2024 deliveries estimates, in the context of large downtime planned by Rivian in 2Q24 and particularly slow ramp back up in 3Q24.” Wolfe upgrades Instacart to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said it sees an “attractive” risk/reward for Instacart. “We are upgrading shares of CART to Outperform from Peer Perform with a $35 PT (~50% upside).” Piper Sandler upgrades Burlington to overweight from neutral and names Target a top pick The firm said stocks like Target and Burlington are the “most actionable” this year. “Within this bucket, we think that TGT, BURL , and RVLV are the most actionable within the next 12 months as all three have visible gross margin expansion opportunities.” Barclays downgrades SolarEdge to underweight from equal weight Barclays said in its downgrade of the stock that it’s “too early” for residential solar. “We think consensus estimates for both companies will need to be revised down, although we estimate the magnitude to be larger for SEDG , and believe ENPH is better positioned for the road to recovery from a top line, margin, and market share perspective.” UBS upgrades Visteon to buy from neutral UBS said in its upgrade of the auto manufacturer that growth concerns are already priced in. “We are upgrading VC to Buy, seeing mid-term concerns over a slowdown in growth as more than priced in.” Citi initiates Spirit AeroSystems as buy Citi said the company is a “show-me, turnaround story.” “We rate SPR Buy. We recommend building positions in the company in light of our positive view on: 1) The aerospace cycle given large backlogs at the major OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] as airlines seek more fuel efficient aircraft; 2) Improved earnings visibility given a recent contract modification with Boeing and the potential for a similar modification with Airbus.” Mizuho names Amazon and DoorDash as top picks Mizuho said Amazon and DoorDash are its top ideas in 2024. “Our top US picks are AMZN and DASH.” Bank of America reiterates Netflix as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock and said Netflix has “won the steaming wars.” “We reiterate our Buy rating and raise our price objective (PO) to $585 (from $525). Our PO is based on 23x our revised CY25E EBITDA forecast.” William Blair upgrades Nutanix to outperform from market perform William Blair said it’s bullish on the cloud software company. “In particular, a platform like Nutanix combines the simplicity and automation of the cloud operating model with the flexibility and cost efficiency of on-premises—especially appealing for always-on, inelastic, production workloads.”
This story originally appeared on CNBC
