Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Needham upgrades RingCentral to buy from hold Needham said it sees growth stabilizing for the cloud company. “We upgrade RNG to Buy after nearly a year on the sidelines in response to surgical cost cuts and stabilized growth.” Morgan Stanley reiterates American Express as overweight Morgan Stanley said American Express is a “platinum stock at an attractive entry point.” “From here, AXP offers 1) highest revenue growth, 2) strong operating leverage, 3) better credit quality.” Read more about this call here. Bernstein initiates Adyen as outperform Bernstein said the Dutch e-commerce company is a share gainer. ” Adyen will likely continue to gain market share with a single global platform vs. a competitor set of largely legacy providers with decades old technology and platform complexity due to several rollups.” Evercore ISI reiterates Amazon as outperform Evercore said investors underappreciate the e-commerce giant’s “triple trough thesis.” “What is the Triple Trough Thesis? The reality that AMZN currently trades close to a Trough Multiple, the probability that AMZN is currently at a Trough Margin, and the distinct possibility that AMZN is currently at Trough Growth.” Guggenheim names RH a best idea Guggenheim said it’s seeing strong demand for the furniture company. “And, given the concurrent benefits that product and platform innovation can have on underlying demand trends, we are relabeling RH as our ‘Best Idea’ with a $325 price target.” Morgan Stanley initiates Madison Square Garden Entertainment as equal weight Morgan Stanley said it sees “growth potential” in the entertainment and concert company but that it’s already baked into the stock. “We are bullish on the growth potential in live entertainment, but MSGE shares already capture this view, initiate EW.” Citi opens a positive catalyst watch on Marvell Citi opened a positive catalyst watch on the stock and said it has a major AI opportunity. “In FY2023, MRVL estimated its AI revenue to be ~ $200 million, representing a strong uptick from FY22. The company expects AI sales to reach ~$400M+ in FY24 before doubling in FY25.” Cowen reiterates Apple as outperform Cowen said it’s bullish on the company’s launch of an extended reality headset. ” AAPL is expected to launch its highly anticipated XR (extended reality) headset at the WWDC ’23 event on 6/5.” Citi upgrades Guardant Health to buy from neutral Citi upgraded the oncology company and says it sees “multiple expansion.” “We upgrade GH to Buy from Neutral and increase our TP to $40 from $28 previously given the improved path higher along with close peers (primarily EXAS) seeing multiple expansion.” Loop upgrades Paramount to hold from sell Loop said in its upgrade of the stock that “we no longer believe the downside is that much greater than the upside.” “The bull case is that the financial pressure will force PARA to find a buyer and shareholders will achieve private market value. The bear case is that there are no buyers for the cable assets, the streaming business is a work-in-process, and Shari Redstone will not sell just the studio, the only asset that would have multiple highly-interest buyers.” RBC upgrades New Relic to outperform from sector perform RBC upgraded the stock after its impressive analyst day. “We are upgrading New Relic shares to Outperform from Sector Perform and raising our price target to $95 from $75, following an upbeat analyst day packed with new details and metrics.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Rio Tinto to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the metals and mining company has “best-in-class capital return prospects.” “Demand concerns and falling iron ore prices have de-rated Rio Tinto PLC shares, presenting an opportunity to gain exposure to a business with high-quality assets, a growing Copper footprint, improving operating performance and best-in-class capital return prospects.” Wolfe downgrades Snowflake to peer perform from outperform Wolfe said it has less conviction in the company’s growth. “Downgrading SNOW to Peer Perform after another downward guidance revision leaves us with less conviction in near and long term growth and growing competition from MSFT & Databricks creating incremental execution headwinds.” Read more about this call here. Piper Sandler initiates CVS as overweight Piper said it’s bullish on the healthcare and pharmacy company’s M & A strategy. “Ultimately, over the longer-term, we expect CVS to return to its 5-year historical P/E—FY2 average at 9.5x. Initiate at OW; $85 PT.” Piper Sandler initiates UnitedHealth as overweight Piper said the health care company has “best in class” earnings per share growth. ” UNH is a diversified healthcare organization providing healthcare benefits and integrated medical, behavioral and pharmacy care services to millions of Americans.” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan adds ESAB to the focus list JPMorgan added the Swedish industrial to the focus list and says it’s a top value idea. ” ESAB is a story of multi-year share gains, margin expansion, and improvement in FCF conversion driven by ongoing product innovation and momentum in high-growth/high-margin adjacencies.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Microsoft as buy Goldman lifted its price target on Microsoft shares and said AI momentum is building. “We reiterate our Buy rating and raise our 12-month PT to $350 (from $335 prior) after the company’s recent product announcements at its developer-oriented Build conference. Bank of America downgrades Terran Orbital to underperform from buy Bank of America downgraded the aerospace company due to overexposure and liquidity concerns. ” Terran Orbital’s ended the quarter with $57.4mn in cash on hand. The average free cash flow burn of the prior two quarters amounts to roughly $35mn, with the May 25 registered direct offering of ~$37mn essentially buying the company just one more quarter of liquidity.” Evercore ISI reiterates Target as in line Evercore said it thinks Target still has “exciting product(s) at great value to entice customers to return.” “It’s down another ~$10 this week, we believe related to the controversy around their expanded Pride assortment and management adjustments in pulling back on a limited number of those SKUs given their concern for safety of employees.” UBS reiterates Costco as buy UBS said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock after its earnings report on Thursday. “The tone coming out of COST’s 3Q results leaned more positive than negative. Its softer top-line results were of little surprise to the market. Still, the company continued to drive strong traffic & membership retention rates in 3Q.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Salesforce as buy Goldman said it’s standing by its buy rating heading into earnings next week. “Similar to the trends we are seeing across our broader software coverage, CRM is expected to face easier revenue comps in the C2H23.” Oppenheimer reiterates SoFi as outperform Oppenheimer said investors should buy the dip in shares of SoFi. “Bears have been focused on potential unrealistic FV (fair value) assumptions, FV mark impacts, and now cost accounting being forced on the company. Although we can’t predict an accounting change, our underlying industry data suggests SOFI’s FV mark methodology is sound.”
