Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: BMO upgraded SL Green to outperform the market and BMO said the REIT was “oversold”. “SLG is the third-most shorted US REIT (17.5% of the float) as concerns grow about office demand and banks’ exposure to commercial real estate — along with SLG’s high leverage and lower earnings.” UBS reiterates the emphasis on Apple with UBS buying announcing that the data shows iPhone growth is positive and companies are falling behind for Apple. “Globally, we estimate that iPhone sales in February were down 3% (18.1 million) compared to 11% in January (20.9 million) and approximately 18% in December 22 (22.6 million).” Morgan Stanley started Sunnova as the overweight Morgan Stanley said it sees a 124% uptick for the solar company. “Sunnova (NOVA) is the third largest residential rooftop solar installer in the United States, with 8.5% of annual installations in 2022, behind RUN at 17% and SPWR at 9.5%.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley downgraded First Solar to below weight of equal weight, and Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock primarily based on the valuation. “As a local, integrated solar panel manufacturer, FSLR is one of the largest direct beneficiaries of the IRA, which is valued at approximately $83/shr to the company.” Bank of America has added Lowe’s to its top list for the US Bank of America has added the home improvement giant to its list of top ideas. “We add Lowe’s Cos Inc. (LOW). We renew Thomson Reuters Corp (TRI) after 52 weeks on the list. We remove Wex Inc. (WEX).” Bank of America names Netflix as its top pick in the second quarter Bank of America said it’s bullish on the streaming giant as the second quarter begins. “Backed by its global brand, its leading global subscriber base (>230 million) and its position as a leading innovator, we believe Netflix is poised to outperform driven by four key drivers: (1) password sharing suppression, (2) value-oriented, ad-supported category delivery It expands TAM and monetizes.” JPMorgan upgrades Macy’s to overweight from equal weight JPMorgan said it sees a favorable risk/reward outlook for Macy’s. “The key outcome from our meetings was demonstrated confidence in our top-line/bottom line FY23 plan and multi-year EBITDA margin profile with our 5 ‘self-help’ growth vectors (private label, off-mall store expansion, digital market, luxury brands, and personalization) resulting in a return to higher-than-low single-digit growth and further expansion of EBITDA margin year-over-year in FY24.” Read more about this call here. Credit Suisse downgraded LPL Financial to neutral from outperforming Credit Suisse, and said it sees a dip in the upside for financial stocks. “Reduced LPLA to Neutral (from Outperform) – and lowered SOTP-derived price target to $205 (from $245). The cut thesis focuses on downward adjusted EPS cuts after adjustment.” Goldman Sachs echoed Tesla as Buy Goldman said it stands by a Buy rating after Tesla reported its delivery numbers over the weekend. Tesla reported initial vehicle deliveries in the first quarter of 2013 of approximately 423,000 (up 4% quarter-over-quarter and up 36% year-over-year), and production of approximately 441,000 vehicles. Stevens raises US Bancorp to an overweight of equal weight Stevens said in his update to the bank that he sees attractive risk/reward. “We are upgrading USB from EW to OW with a price target of $47 (from $52). In light of cross-industry concerns about financing and building downside risks, we see USB risk/reward attractive after ~24% sell-off since March 1st (March) “. Morgan Stanley downgrades Marqeta to an equal weight of overweight Morgan Stanley said in its downgrade of the card payment and solutions company that it sees a lot of negative catalysts. “MQ is operating through several headwinds over the next 12 months, including SQ contract renewal, non-SQ recession, gross profit growth uncertainty, and path to profitability.” Read more about this call here. Goldman Sachs upgraded Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta to buy from neutral Goldman upgraded several building materials companies Monday and said the risk/reward is too attractive to ignore. “We see an attractive risk reward for Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta Materials (upgrading both names to Buy) on a mid-cycle and P/B basis. We note that this call may be early as our estimate remains 10% below near-term consensus, but With valuation, volumes, and price/cost closer to mid-cycle rock bottom, we see an attractive risk return. Regional Banks.”Following the bank failures of Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB), Signature Bank (SBNY), and Silvergate (SI), there is an understandable reluctance among US commercial banks to increase exposure to and/or engage with cryptocurrency-related firms. Evercore ISI reiterates that Amazon is outperforming Evercore and said it “maintains patience with the long-running thesis on Amazon.” “We maintain our outperformance over AMZN following several major updates, although we lowered estimates and PT (from $160 to $155) based on a more conservative approach to the AWS segment. William Blair upgraded Allstate to outperform the market, and William Blair said in his upgrade to the insurance company that it is in a good position. “We suggest investors buy Allstate as the stock is poised for a nice rally in the near and long term.” Things are slowly getting better for Intel,” Bernstein said. “But while things still look bad, we think tactically the mid-term setup is getting a little better. Finally, as the company’s issues are known, the numbers (for the first time) may be a while ago) low enough to bear . Bank of America downgraded ADP and Paychex to underperform from a neutral Bank of America, and downgraded several payment solutions stocks, noting that they tend to “lag when unemployment starts to rise.” Our analysis indicates that both ADP and PAYX tend to underperform the S&P 500 during the initial phase of the rising unemployment cycle. The economics team at BofA Global Research expects unemployment to start rising in the third quarter of 2020 and peak in the second quarter of 2020 and also expects it to start rising by only 25 basis points. Raise rate before cuts begin in Q1 of 24.” Raymond James upgraded Alaska Airlines to Strong Buy from Outperform Raymond James said in his update to the airline that it has a “relatively undamaged balance sheet.” “We are upgrading ALK from Outperform to Strong Buy is emerging from its weakest seasonal quarter (generally experiencing a weaker quarter than most of its peers in the US) and is positioned to take advantage of the A320/Q400 fleet transition, which is expected to be completed by May.”
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