Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America upgrades Ally to neutral from underperform Bank of America said in its upgrade of the auto loans company that it sees signs of upside potential. “We upgrade ALLY to Neutral (from Underperform) and raise our PO to $28 from $24, implying ~8% upside potential.” Truist downgrades Regions Financial to hold from buy Truist said in its downgrade of the regional bank that it has “fewer levers to lower expenses.” “We believe RF has more downside rate protection, but revenue growth is likely constrained through 2024.” UBS reiterates Amazon as buy UBS lowered its price target on the stock to $125 per share from $127, but said it’s standing by shares heading into earnings later this week. “We remain constructive on AMZN shares over a 12-month view and think that line of sight to an eventual AWS stabilization is the focus among investors.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Apple as buy Goldman said in its Apple earnings preview note that “solid iPhone demand to offset Mac weakness.” “AAPL is due to report F2Q23 earnings on May 4, where we expect better-than-anticipated results from iPhone which should more than offset weakness in Mac.” RBC initiates Broadridge Financial as outperform RBC said the financial solutions company is a “classic compounder.” “We are initiating coverage of BR with an Outperform rating and a $169 target price, as we believe BR represents a pair of steady hands in an uncertain market, given its consistent track record of shareholder returns, moat in its proxy business, expected improving FCF conversion, and emerging incremental opportunities in a large addressable market.” Bernstein reiterates Chipotle as outperform Bernstein said there are still several bear case scenarios for Chipotle stock, but that it’s sticking with its buy rating. “After a spectacular +30% YTD rally, our top pick for 2023 is under mounting pressure on whether it can sustain its momentum and if the upside is more limited.” Wells Fargo upgrades Medtronic to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its upgrade of the medtech company that the stock’s valuation is attractive. “We are upgrading MDT to Overweight from Equal Weight because we think (1) MDT will benefit from an improvement in the underlying medtech markets; (2) the pipeline is improving; and (3) valuation appears attractive.” Read more about this call here. Wells Fargo names Disney a top pick in media Wells said in a note on Monday that Disney is the “best opportunity in media.” “We think DIS will use D+, Hulu and ESPN DTC to reach > $100bn in rev. and > $7 in EPS by FY25E. Our $147 price target does not require a rerating. DIS is our top idea.” Citi downgrades First Solar to sell from neutral Citi said the outlook is “challenging” for the solar company. “Solar module supply-demand fundamentals indicate a challenging LT outlook for FSLR and may raise questions around terminal value of the company’s assets. Read more about this call here. Citi adds a positive catalyst watch on Enphase Energy and Sunrun Citi added positive catalyst watches on several solar companies and said it sees further share gains. “We open upside catalyst watches on ENPH and RUN. ENPH should see record high margins, the benefit of strong demand in CA and market share gains.” Wolfe downgrades C3.ai to underperform from peer perform Wolfe said in its downgrade of the software company that it sees too many negative catalysts. “We see significant risks to FY24 revenue growth and believe consensus estimates for revenue growth are ~10% too high. We see AI’s F4Q23 earnings as a potential near-term negative catalyst.” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan reiterates Ford & General Motors as overweight JPMorgan said in an earnings preview note that it’s standing by both automakers heading into earnings tomorrow for GM and next week for Ford . “GM has executed better than Ford in recent quarters, surprising positively vs. Ford which has more often disappointed, although the trend in 1Q we think gives Ford more of an opportunity to beat.” Mizuho initiates Tencent Music Entertainment as buy Mizuho said in its initiation of the China music company that the stock has upside potential. ” TME, 54% owned by Tencent, is the largest online music ecosystem in China with 567m monthly active users, and has high monetization potential from growth in the paying ratio and ARPU, as more labels put tracks behind the paywall and competition rationalizes.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Warner Brothers Discovery as buy Goldman said the media giant is the most attractive stock in the sector. “While we expect investors to continue to debate the long-term outlook for traditional media companies, we see the risk/reward skew for WBD as most attractive vs. its peer group with key execution catalysts (merger milestones, max relaunch, improved franchise management) largely within management’s control.” JPMorgan upgrades PPG Industries to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of the painting and coating company that it sees “year-ahead price performance.” “We think that PPG is underearning as a base case, in excess of $2.00/share. Earnings could be substantially higher as the current level of raw material prices becomes reflected in PPG’s income statement.” Evercore ISI reiterates Nvidia as outperform Evercore said in a note over the weekend that Nvidia is a top beneficiary of AI with more upside. “Overall, breakthroughs such as this only increase our confidence in NVDA’s long-term model and positioning.”
