Nvidia's Stock Soars as Wall Street Analysts Remain Bullish

Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Gap, Exxon, Apple, Block, Toast, Allstate, AMC, Chipotle, Dollar Tree & more

Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Wolfe reinstates Exxon as outperform Wolfe reinstated coverage of the stock and said it sees more growth potential. "We resume coverage of ExxonMobil at outperform and a $146 PT. XOM is at the mid-point of a 2018-27 strategy that plans to double cash flow, with the bulk of growth still ahead." Mizuho reiterates Amazon as a top pick Mizuho said it's standing by the e-commerce giant ahead of earnings later this month. " AMZN ad tracking modestly ahead of expectations, indicating strength for commerce. Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy Bank of America said it's sticking with its buy rating on Nvidia and that investors should "focus on fundamentals." "So we understand the rotation away from AI/data-center semis towards industrial/auto/consumer, but it's not supported by fundamentals and is likely short-term positioning driven." Goldman Sachs reiterates Apple as buy Goldman said it's bullish heading into Apple earnings on Aug. 1. "Expect EPS beat with key debates surrounding iPhone demand, AI investment, Mac/iPad refresh, and valuation." UBS initiates Frontier as buy UBS said the cable company is emerging as a "growing fiber provider." "We are initiating on Frontier with a Buy rating and $33 PT." Baird upgrades e.l.f. Beauty to outperform from neutral Baird said it sees an attractive entry point for the beauty supply company. "With healthy brand momentum (including positive FQ1 checks), ongoing distribution expansion, and significant international whitespace, ELF appears poised to sustain market share gains and premium earnings growth even in a choppier consumer backdrop." Morgan Stanley upgrades Gap to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said shares of Gap are compelling. "This, alongside room for positive EPS revisions in 2H ( & possibly long term), lead us to upgrade the stock to Overweight with a $29 price target." Mizuho upgrades Toast to buy from neutral Mizuho said the restaurant tech company is well positioned. "We believe the premium is warranted given TOST's improved profitability and gross profit growth prospects on the potential for lower processing costs in the medium term." Citi upgrades VF Corp to buy from neutral Citi said the risk/reward is compelling for the owner of Vans and North Face. "We are upgrading VFC from Neutral to Buy." Wells Fargo initiates Grocery Outlet Holding as overweight Wells called Grocery Outlet Holding a "defensive growth story." "Choppy execution and poor sentiment yield an attractive entry point in this defensive, growth story." BMO upgrades Allstate to outperform from market perform BMO said it sees growth potential for the insurance company. " ALL's growth risk/reward stars are better aligning today because the coast is much clearer." TD Cowen upgrades Fortinet to buy from hold TD Cowen said it sees a slew of positive catalysts ahead for the cyber security company. "We are upgrading FTNT to Buy." Deutsche reiterates Alphabet and Meta as buy Deutsche raised its price target on Meta to $525 from $500. The firm also raised its price target on Alphabet to $195 from $190. "Sentiment for the digital ad industry remains strong, with upcoming tailwinds from the political cycle as well as the Paris Summer Olympics. AI-based advertising tools continue to be the driver of growth, working to simplify, streamline, and optimize ad spend." Benchmark initiates Winnebago as buy Benchmark said the RV manufacturer is an "industry outperformer." " WGO has modest leverage and ample liquidity." Redburn Atlantic Equities initiates TKO as buy Redburn said it's bullish on shares of the entertainment, sports and media company. "The battle between traditional and new media continues to drive up rights values in sports. With combat entertainment becoming more mainstream, TKO has leverage in its upcoming rights negotiations and we see upside to current valuations." William Blair upgrades Block to outperform from market perform William Blair said it sees a re-rating for the payment tech company. "We see accelerating second half 2024 Square GPV [gross payment volume], gross profit, and EBITDA growth as driving a significant positive re-rating for Block." Redburn Atlantic Equities downgrades CrowdStrike to sell from buy and Palo Alto Networks to neutral from buy Redburn downgraded several cyber security stocks on Thursday due to "elevated valuation." "Early indicators of this include slowing dollar growth, declining insurance premiums and peak penetration. Market expectations are overly optimistic, driven by difficult-to-interpret pull-forward effects and potential deflationary pressures from Gen-AI. Elevated valuation multiples leave no room for disappointment. Consequently, we downgrade our prior top picks - CrowdStrike t o Sell and Palo Alto to Neutral." Roth MKM reiterates AMC as sell Roth said it's sticking with its sell rating on AMC. "We are raising our 2Q estimates following a late period box office rally. Sequential improvement is anticipated in 3Q and a return to y/y growth is forecast for 4Q." Morgan Stanley reiterates Taiwan Semiconductor as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's sticking with its overweight rating following the company's earnings report. " TSMC revised up its 2024 full year revenue to be slightly above 25% Y/Y in USD, better than our expectation of 25%." JPMorgan reiterates Dollar Tree as overweight JPMorgan said the stock is "undervalued" following a meeting with company management. "We rate DLTR Overweight. Multi-year, we see DLTR returning to a double-digit EPS 'compounder' with top- and bottom-line drivers in place at the core DT banner and stabilization at the Family Dollar concept. UBS reiterates Chipotle as buy UBS said it's bullish heading into earnings next week. "We continue to view CMG as well positioned for traffic momentum and sales outperformance through 2024 despite consumer spending pressure impacting the industry." Cantor Fitzgerald initiates Impinj as overweight Cantor said the radio frequency solutions company is well positioned. "We initiate coverage of Impinj with an Overweight rating and $205 price target."

Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Rivian, Nvidia, Apple, Micron, Microsoft, Sweetgreen, Tesla, Netflix & more

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley reiterates Rivian as overweight Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Rivian to $17 per share from $13. "The VW partnership gives RIVN the chance to attempt a 'Houdini-like' escape maneuver from the burden of manufacturing EVs." Susquehanna reiterates Nvidia as positive Susquehanna said it's sticking with its positive rating on shares of Nvidia. "For AI, checks remain robust but continue to believe the bar ratchets higher and upward revisions to prior AI guidance (for NVDA, AMD, AVGO, MRVL, etc.) will be needed to propel shares higher." UBS reiterates Apple as neutral UBS said it sees Apple results as "in-line" when the company reports on August 1. "Although the market is focused almost exclusively on FY25 financial metrics, recent checks and an analysis of demand trends suggest an in-line June print and Sept guide, albeit with some minor adjustments." Jefferies upgrades UnitedHealth to buy from hold Jefferies upgraded UnitedHealth following earnings. "U/G to Buy: 2Q Clean Enough to Focus on Superior '25 Setup." KBW upgrades Progressive to outperform from market perform KBW upgraded the stock following earnings. "We upgrade PGR's shares to Outperform from Market Perform and raise our target price to $245 from $210 following its June 2024 earnings report." Bernstein downgrades Chevron to market perform from outperform Bernstein said in its downgrade of the stock that it's concerned about oil prices. "We reduce our oil price outlook for the next 18 months by a modest $5/bbl. That somewhat modest change results in us recommending an odd rotation from CVX (downgrading to MP) into HES (upgrading to OP)." UBS initiates Sweetgreen as buy UBS said the restaurant chain has "margin potential." "We initiate on SG w/ a Buy rating and $31 PT." TD Cowen downgrades Charles Schwab to hold from buy TD Cowen downgraded Schwab following earnings on Tuesday. "Cognizant of the 10% drop on 7/16 post 2Q24 (see 7/16) and disappointing Q call, we nonetheless reduce our rating from Buy to Hold; lower '24-26E EPS and decrease our 12- month SOTP price target to $71 vs. $88 prior." Deutsche Bank adds a catalyst call buy on International Flavors Deutsche said it's bullish on shares heading into earnings in early August. "We expect this 'beat and raise' to be driven by improving volumes across the majority o f IFF's businesses, pricing and productivity actions resulting in more tailwinds than headwinds in '24." Mizuho upgrades Valero to buy from neutral Mizuho said it sees a slew of positive catalysts ahead for the petroleum refinery company. "..we believe that amongst the large-cap names VLO offers the best exposure to key themes for the sector, namely: (1) higher exposure to U.S. coastal markets, (2) complexity to modify crude diet, (3) low secondary product and higher gasoline yields.." Morgan Stanley downgrades Five Below to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock following earnings. "Management transition adds uncertainty over unit growth and investments required to reinvigorate sales. Estimates going lower and risks may still be to the downside." Citi adds a negative catalyst watch on Hershey Citi lowered its price target on the stock to $188 per share from $204 and said it's sticking with its neutral rating. "We see risk to HSY's 2H24 sales and earnings outlook, with more challenges in 2025 when high-priced cocoa begins to flow through the P & L. We remain Neutral the shares, but the nearer-term setup seems challenging (hence, the negative 30-day Catalyst Watch)." TD Cowen downgrades American Airlines to hold from buy TD Cowen said it sees downside risk for the airline. "We are downgrading AAL from Buy to Hold. We have been concerned by the carrier's aggressive discounting this summer and believe there is downside risk to 2H24 RASM/EPS [revenue per available seat mile] estimates." Barclays reiterates Tesla as equal weight Barclays raised its price target on the stock to $225 per share from $180 heading into earnings next week. " Tesla approaches its 2Q EPS call with an interesting set-up." Evercore ISI adds AutoZone to its fab five list Evercore added the stock to its fab five portfolio. The firm has an outperform rating on the stock. " AZO remains a favored name, up 10% since we removed it in February, while comps look set to improve in coming quarters and the stocks trades at just 17.5x 2025 estimates." Citi adds a positive catalyst watch on MasterCard Citi said it's bullish heading into earnings next week. "We look for in-line-to-better June-24 quarter results for Mastercard with modest upside possible." Oppenheimer downgrades Morgan Stanley to perform from outperform Oppenheimer downgraded Morgan Stanley following earnings mainly on valuation. "Solid Quarter But Downgrading Shares to Perform as They Outstrip Target." Bank of America initiates Axon as buy Bank of America said the safety tech company is well positioned for upside. "We initiate coverage of Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ: AXON) with a Buy rating and price objective of $380." HSBC downgrades Qualcomm to hold from buy HSBC said it sees a lack of catalysts for Qualcomm . "Smartphone concerns remain while AI PC narrative is less bullish than expected. Downgrade to Hold; raise TP to USD200 (from USD190)." Guggenheim reiterates Netflix as buy Guggenheim said it's sticking with its buy rating on Netflix heading into earnings Thursday. "We see the company as well-positioned for sustained operating margin expansion well into the mid-30% over the next five years, which underpins our bullish long-term outlook and BUY rating. We raise our price target to $735 (from $700) as detailed within." UBS reiterates Micron as buy UBS said it's sticking with its buy rating on shares of Micron. "We remain bullish on the stock as HBM [high bandwidth memory] creates the potential for a much more durable cycle and the path of least resistance remains upward as gross margin moves higher through C2025." Bank of America reiterates Microsoft as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $510 per share from $480. "We concluded a round of Microsoft partner calls ahead of Q2FY24 results, to be reported on July 30. Most partners tracked above or in line with expectations, largely consistent with Q3." Needham reiterates Amazon as buy Needham raised its price target on the stock to $210 per share from $205. "Our AMZN investment thesis is that: a) it is a Services company with rapidly expanding margins, and a warrant upside on GenAI; and b) AMZN' s track record of building large businesses from scratch (eg, Cloud and Advertising) lowers its reported operating margin and hides value creation in the shadows."

Jim Cramer's 10 Things to Watch in the Stock Market on Tuesday - ExBulletin

My Top 10 Things to Watch Tuesday, July 16 1. UnitedHealth reported adjusted EPS of $6.80 for the second quarter, compared with an analyst estimate of $6.66, despite the worst hack ever. A data breach in February at the company's Change Healthcare unit forced it to shut down its massive billing and payment processing business. UnitedHealth said Tuesday it has spent more than $9 billion so far in advance financing and interest-free loans to support health care providers and has restored most of its services. The total impact of the cyberattacks in the second quarter was $0.92 per share. Reputational risk? 2. Morgan Stanley reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analyst estimates. The investment bank improved. Earnings: $1.82 per share, compared with $1.65 estimates. Sales: $15.02 billion vs. $14.3 billion estimate. We'll send out our full analysis of Club Holding's report after its post-earnings call with analysts later this morning. 3. Barclays cut estimates for Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet because of strange depreciation expense issues, saying the Street is incorrectly modeling this "not-so-hidden cost of AI." 4. Shopify was upgraded to a buy from a hold at Bank of America. The bank said the company had turned a corner after years of declining margins. The company is the leader in e-commerce for SMBs (small and midsize businesses). Shares of the company were up 3% in premarket trading. 5. Wells Fargo cuts price targets on the casino group. Macau has lost some momentum. Is it hopeless for the Wynn Resorts club name? I discussed a way out for the casino stock in my Sunday column. 6. Starbucks was downgraded from "buy" to "hold" at Evercore ISI, citing weakness in China and the U.S. This portfolio stock is turning into an intractable situation. 7. Club Ford name saw its price target raised by a dollar to $17 at Barclays, which cited stable prices and potential guideline gains. 8. Evercore added Vertiv to its "Tactical Outperform" list ahead of the company's second-quarter results before the open Wednesday. The company cited moderate data center upside. Super Micro tells me things are looking great. 9. The GOP's official stance on crypto: Defend the right to own bitcoin and free it from government intervention and control. 10. Reddit's price target was raised from $57 to $67 at JPMorgan, reiterating its buy rating. The company said the internet stock was benefiting from strength in digital advertising. Loop Capital, on the other hand, downgraded Reddit to a hold from a buy, citing its large valuation relative to its peers. Sign up for my free email newsletter Top 10 Morning Thoughts on the Market (See here for a full list of stocks in Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you'll receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after sending the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INFORMATION ABOUT THE INVESTMENT CLUB IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY, AS WELL AS OUR DISCLAIMER. NO OBLIGATION OR FIDUCIARY DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY REASON OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTMENT CLUB. NO SPECIFIC RESULTS OR PROFITS ARE GUARANTEED. 1. United Health UnitedHealth reported adjusted EPS of $6.80 for the second quarter, compared with consensus of $6.66, despite the worst hack on record. The February data breach at the company's Change Healthcare unit forced it to shut down its massive billing and payment processing service. UnitedHealth said Tuesday it has spent more than $9 billion so far in advance financing and interest-free loans to support healthcare providers and has restored most of its services. The total impact of the cyberattacks in the second quarter was $0.92 per share. Reputational risk? 2. Morgan Stanley Club Holdings reported second-quarter earnings and revenue that beat analysts' estimates. The investment bank outperformed. Earnings: $1.82 per share vs. $1.65 estimated. Sales: $15.02 billion vs. $14.3 billion estimated. We'll send our full analysis of Club Holding's report after its earnings call with analysts later this morning. 3. Barclays cut its estimates for Amazon, Meta And Alphabet on odd questions about depreciation expense, claiming the Street is incorrectly modeling this "not-so-hidden cost of AI." 4. Shopify Bank of America upgraded its rating from hold to buy. The bank said the company had turned a corner after years of margin declines. The company is a leader in e-commerce for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Shares of the company were up 3% in premarket trading. 5. Wells Fargo lowers price targets on casino group. Macau has lost some momentum. Is it hopeless for the club name? Wynn Resorts? I discussed a solution for casino action in my Sunday column. 6. Starbucks Evercore ISI downgraded its rating from "buy" to "hold" due to weakness in China and the United States. This portfolio stock finds itself in an insurmountable situation. 7. Club Name Ford Barclays raised its price target by $1 to $17, citing stable pricing and potential upside. The company reiterated its buy rating. We have a 1 rating on the stock. 8. Evercore added Vertiv to its "Tactical Outperform" list ahead of the company's second-quarter earnings release before the open Wednesday. The company cited a modest increase in data center revenue. Super Microphone he tells me that things are very strong. 9. Official GOP position on crypto: Defend the right to own bitcoin and have it free from government intervention and control. ten. Reddit JPMorgan raised its price target from $57 to $67 and reiterated its buy rating. The firm said the internet stock is benefiting from strength in digital advertising. Loop Capital, on the other hand, downgraded Reddit to a hold rating from $57 to $67, citing its significant valuation relative to peers.