Here are the biggest calls of Friday on Wall Street: JPMorgan has upgraded Chubb to overweight from neutral JPMorgan, saying the insurer is defensive. “Our fundamental long-term outlook for the central bank was positive, but we were reluctant to recommend the stock due to concerns about slowing price increases in the commercial lines market and stock valuation.” CFRA’s promotion of Whirlpool to buy out of the CFRA contract said in its stock update that the shares are attractive. “Despite weak demand for devices, we believe WHR shares are attractive as the US market leader.” KeyBanc echoed Apple as overweight KeyBanc said iPhone demand remains “resilient amid macroeconomic concerns.” “We continue to believe that AAPL is one of the best opportunities within our coverage given AAPL’s flexible product/subscriber base, ability to grow key markets such as China and India, strong margin expansion potential, and convenient shareholder capital allocation of AAPL.” Wells Fargo upgrades Warner Brothers Discovery to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its stock update that it sees attractive risk/return. “We threw everything and the kitchen sink into a downside scenario for WBD, and it still drops to 3x in 25E. We now have conviction in FCF to limit the downside, while the stock has an asymmetric upside.” Read more about this call here. Wedush downgraded First Republic to neutral from outperformance, which Wedush said the acquisition could wipe out share value from the bank. “We are downgrading First Republic stock to NEUTRAL from OUTPERFORM because we believe that the sale of distressed mergers and acquisitions could result in minimal residual value, if any, to holders of common stock due to FRC’s significant negative tangible book value after taking into account fair value marks on its loans and securities. Read more about this call here. Citi launched the Bumble initiative with Buy Citi announcing that the dating app continues to gain market share. “Bumble is currently enjoying one of the best growth rates within our internet coverage, with a modest projected EBITDA margin expansion as well.” Read more about this call here. Oppenheimer is upgrading Synchrony to outperform, and Oppenheimer said the consumer financial services company is “a safety game not for the faint of heart.” “We believe liquidity concerns in the banking sector prompted some of the decline in recession valuations, and we expect a quick bounce back before the final lows.” Morgan Stanley Upgrades Nvidia to Overweight From an equal weight, Morgan Stanley said the AI story is “too powerful to remain on the sidelines” for Nvidia. “As we’ve been in the cyber warfare of a large stock move, we continue to see signs of LLM (Large Language Model) enthusiasm translating into stronger spending in the near and long term; we’ve been very focused on data around a positive bigger picture, but the narrative is stronger than to remain on the sidelines.” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan echoes First Republic as overweight JPMorgan said it stands by First Republic stock. “However, with shares trading well below TBV (tangible book value), we see this as a higher risk but potentially very high return name.” Read more about this call here. Echoing Netflix’s assertion that it is outperforming, Quinn said he sees upside in the long term as the streaming giant cracks down on password sharing. “Our ownership survey continues to indicate that NFLX’s paid engagement actions could add significant numbers of paid participants in the US as well as drive new member additions in ’23. In the first quarter of ’23 through February, approximately 40% of respondents would like to Share passwords in maintaining access.” Citi reiterates Nvidia’s assertion as Buy Citi said it was optimistic about Nvidia’s adoption of AI. “We raised TP to $305 from $245 with a bull case of $400 on accelerated AI adoption based on several cloud providers such as AWS, MSFT, Alphabet and Baidu comments this week.” UBS reiterates the emphasis on Alphabet as Buy UBS said it is getting increasingly bullish on shares of the internet giant. “We feel that the cost risks related to integrating generative AI into Google search results are manageable.” Truist started Churchill Downs where Troist said of the horseracing company’s purchase that the horseracing company’s brand was “iconic”. “As sports teams, leagues and high-end brands see record ratings, we see room for CHDN and its famous Kentucky Derby race (or rather, its brand) to rate accordingly.” Canaccord reiterates Rivian’s buy rating. The company acknowledges that its buy rating was inaccurate but says it stands by the electric vehicle company’s stock. “We believe Rivian is on its way to gaining its fair share of the electric vehicle market through a deliberate, vertically integrated strategy.” Bank of America reiterates FedEx’s Buy of Bank of America said it stands by its Buy rating on FedEx after the company’s earnings report on Thursday. “We increased our buy orders to $305 (from $233), at 16x the F24E EPS (from 13x), above the midpoint of its 12x-18x trading range as we believe the F23 represents low earnings.” Stifel downgrades Shopify to retain from Stifel’s purchase Resume coverage of Shopify with the downgrade, indicating that it sees margin pressures. “However, the investments the company is making to expand its platform capabilities are putting pressure on gross margins and driving up capital expenditures in the near term, which is impacting the company’s ability to generate meaningful profit and cash relief in 23/24.” Morgan Stanley echoed Microsoft as the overweight Morgan Stanley said it was optimistic about Microsoft’s opportunity for artificial intelligence. “Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Jared Spataro of CVP of Modern Work and Business Applications hosted a webcast focused on the role AI will play in influencing productive work.” Citi reiterates Meta as Buy Citi said it liked Meta’s improved operating leverage. “Meta is a top pick in 2023, as shown in our deep dive of 11 key Internet trends in which we highlight improved Meta engagement, newer advertising products, such as Advantage+ (which resulted in higher ROAS), and improved operating leverage.” Argus downgrades Bath & Body Works to keep from buying Argus said in downgrading the stock it sees a lot of “economic uncertainty” “BBWI shares have underperformed the S&P 500 over the past quarter, down 16% compared to the 0.1% decline in the index. Due to increasing pressure from online retailers and economic uncertainty, we are downgrading our rating to HOLD.”
Regional banks are among the biggest requests of Wall Street analysts on Friday
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