Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said its iPhone survey checks show that China is a “bright spot.” “The big picture on Apple – iPhone 15 lead times are tracking longer than the iPhone 14 cycle 4 days after pre-orders started, and Services is outpacing our forecast QTD; Contrary to concerns, China is a near-term relative bright spot.” UBS reiterates Nike as buy UBS said the athletic giant is better positioned in China than the Street thinks. “We believe Nike’s investments in product innovation, supply chain speed, and digital will drive a 14% 5-yr. EPS CAGR.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Microsoft as overweight The firm said it sees an attractive risk/reward for top pick Microsoft after it raised its dividend on Tuesday. “Combined with high-teens EPS growth, this supports a durable high-teens total return profile at MSFT, framing an attractive risk/reward.” Needham initiates On Holding as buy Needham said the shoe manufacturer is one of the “fastest growth stories” in retail. “We initiate coverage of ONON with a Buy rating and a $40 price target. As a premium, disruptive brand that is still in the early innings of its growth lifecycle with secular tailwinds of health & wellness, On is one of the fastest growth stories in consumer.” Needham initiates Lululemon as buy Needham said in its initiation of Lululemon that it has “superior growth characteristics.” “We expect double-digit top line growth as accelerating technical innovation drives demand across both core franchises and newer Play verticals.” Oppenheimer downgrades Chewy to perform from outperform Oppenheimer said in its downgrade of Chewy that it sees a “more challenging backdrop.” “Based on our work, we are downgrading to Perform from Outperform and removing our prior $35 PT. We expect a more challenging backdrop to persist for at least a few more quarters, amid recent signs of weakness in the historically resilient pet food category and the potential for more muted inflation benefits in FY24.” RBC initiates IBM as outperform RBC said in its initiation of IBM that the stock is undervalued. “We’re optimistic on the competitive positioning and unique role that IBM plays in the tech eco-system with its value proposition best represented by enabling efficient digital transformation through consulting and software.” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan downgrades Dollar General to underweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its downgrade of Dollar General that the “low-to-middle income macro picture” is too uncertain. “We downgrade DG to Underweight and lower our Dec 24 price target to $116 based on 15x our FY24 EPS or 14x our FY25 EPS.” Read more about this call here . Bernstein reiterates Boeing as outperform Bernstein said investors should buy the dip in shares of the aerospace giant. ” Boeing shares fell 10% in the last month, which we attribute to two issues: concerns about Spirit Aerosystems’ performance and worries that China may not take new 737MAX deliveries. We see neither issue as changing the long-term opportunity for Boeing and see this as a buying opportunity.” Citi upgrades Pinterest to buy from neutral Citi upgraded the social media company after its analyst day and says the firm came away feeling more bullish. “We are upgrading shares of Pinterest to Buy/High Risk as we emerge from its analyst day incrementally confident that engagement can continue to ramp, that ads innovation and its full-funnel approach to advertising can deliver improving monetization trends, and that adj. EBITDA margins can expand going forward.” JPMorgan initiates First Citizens Bancshares as overweight JPMorgan said in its initiation of the regional bank that its “best days” are ahead. ” First Citizens acquired many parts of SVBs business in late March from the FDIC, and while SVB ultimately failed (due to management actions related to placing strong deposit growth into securities), we believe the underlying business at SVB was among the most valuable in the U.S. with SVB the bank of the innovation economy.” Jefferies upgrades Bausch Health to buy from hold Jefferies said it sees several positive catalysts ahead for the pharmaceutical company. “Several dominos have to start falling to make spin pathway viable, and we expect BHC to grind higher as probability of spin increases.” Needham initiates Instacart as hold Needham said in its initiation of the grocery delivery company that it has a balanced risk/reward. “We initiate coverage on CART with a Hold rating. We see a balanced risk reward reflecting slowing growth in the years following a pandemic-driven demand surge and CART’s already scaled advertising business.” Rosenblatt initiates Sonos as buy Rosenblatt said in its initiation of the wireless home audio company that it sees margin expansion ahead. ” Sonos is a category leader in a market that should return to growth, driven by the ease and appeal of multi-room music along with the continued adoption of sound bars as a hassle-free way to improve the home entertainment experience.” Goldman Sachs names Azul a top pick Goldman upgraded the Latin America airline to buy from neutral and says the stock has an “undemanding valuation.” “In this note, we upgrade Azul to Buy from Neutral as we currently see a positive asymmetry between EBITDA expansion going into 2024 coupled with an undemanding valuation, especially after the recent correction.” Morgan Stanley downgrades Zebra Holdings to underweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the turnaround is taking longer than expected for the computer printing tech company. “Downgrading ZBRA to UW given our view that duration of demand turndown would be longer than expected due to overbuild during COVID and ongoing constraints to consumer spending. Post-COVID digestion to reset earnings level, challenging valuation.” Morgan Stanley downgrades nCino to underweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said in its downgrade of the fintech software company that it sees “revenue headwinds.” ” NCNO is trading at a premium to the vertical software universe on numbers that we believe are too high. Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy Bank of America lowered its price target on the stock to $110 per share from $135, but says it’s still best-in-class. ” DIS has a collection of best-in-class premiere assets (in content/IP as well as Theme Parks). Near term catalysts include: (1) additional updates on the strategic outlook for DIS and (2) continued robust theme park demand.” UBS reiterates Apple as neutral UBS said its survey checks show Apple’s iPhone high-end demand is softer as compared with last year. “At the high-end, delivery wait times for the Pro variant across major markets are lower by roughly a week relative to last year including the US, Germany, Great Britain, and France. In China, wait times for the 15 Pro are just 23 days compared to 39 days for the 14 Pro at the same point last year.” DA Davidson initiates Build-a-Bear as buy DA Davidson said the stuffed animal retailer is an “iconic” brand. “We are initiating coverage of Build-A-Bear with a BUY rating as we see BBW as an underappreciated small cap growth idea.” Wedbush upgrades Wingstop to outperform from neutral Wedbush said in its upgrade of the stock that it’s uniquely positioned. “We view fears around WING’s ability to anniversary tough 1H:24 SSS growth comparisons as well understood. Second, WING is uniquely positioned within the industry to deliver transaction growth outperformance over the medium to longer-term beyond 1H:24 in any macro backdrop.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Amazon as overweight Morgan Stanley said Amazon’s Tuesday announcement of seasonal hires is a “bullish leading indicator for expected continued retail share gains.” “Our analyses adjusting this hiring for AMZN’s scale also seem relatively in-line with history as we see strong retail top-line driving EBIT beats ahead.”
