Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Oppenheimer upgrades CME to outperform from perform Oppenheimer said that the exchange company has a good defensive play in a bear market. “We are upgrading CME from Perform to Outperform and introducing a price target of $ 223. The upgrade is predicated upon our assumption that no extreme events and recession are imminent, and there is a defensive angle in this call in light of current volatility and uncertain environment . ” Read more about this call here. Compass Point initiates Porch Group as buy Compass Point said in its initiation of the real estate technology company that it has a “unique business model.” “Porch sells software to home services companies, and also receives downstream revenues from attendant service fees along the home purchase process (including premium revenues from its insurance segment).” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan reiterates Charles Schwab as overweight JPMorgan said the financial services company is well-positioned for rising rates. “Investors are starting to go to cash as markets have fallen enough to drive a bit of panic selling. While Schwab will suffer from lower asset management revenue and lower margin balances, we see the potential for cash sorting to be delayed and for cash balances / deposit balances to rise allowing for Schwab to better take advantage of the rising rates. ” JMP reiterates Alphabet as market outperform JMP said it’s bullish on Alphabet’s integration of artificial intelligence into the company’s business. “We reiterate our Market Outperform rating and $ 3,300 price target as we come away believing that AI is improving nearly every segment of Alphabet’s business. Specifically, AI is automating ad creation while improving conversion and optimizing spend across channels, leading to better return on ad spend and attracting more budgets to the platform. ” SocGen upgrades JPMorgan to buy from hold SocGen upgraded the banking giant after JPMorgan’s investor day, noting there is too much negativity in the stock. “With the stock down materially ytd, we think too much negativity is priced in due to recession fears and we upgrade to Buy.” Barclays upgrades Diamondback Energy to overweight from equal weight Barclays said in its upgrade of the energy company that it sees “increasing cash returns” in the second half of this year. “We upgrade FANG to OW from EW based on Q1’22 being the clearing event the stock needed and increasing cash returns in H2’22.” Barclays downgrades Best Buy to equal weight from overweight Barclays downgraded the stock after its disappointing earnings report and said it sees consumer electronics “under pressure.” “We are downgrading BBY shares to EW (from OW), following its 1Q miss and reduced FY22 outlook, which underlined the fact that the macro is slowing and demand for CE (consumer electronics) will likely be under pressure at least through the remainder of FY22. ” Read more about this call here. Loop reiterates Apple as buy Loop said that “while we see risk to June Q iPhone revenue, our work suggests Street remains low on iPhone revenue for the September and December Q’s.” “We believe AAPL could be updating its iPhone builds this coming weekend and we’re taking a look at what it could mean to iPhone units, iPhone revenue and AAPL EPS. We’re also reducing our PT to $ 180 from $ 210 to reflect our changes . ” Evercore ISI adds Dell to the tactical outperform list Evercore said it’s bullish heading into the company’s earnings report on Thursday. “We are adding DELL to our Tactical Outperform List ahead of the company’s Apr-qtr earnings report on Thursday May 26 after market close, while supply chain remains a wild card we think demand trends remain robust enough for DELL to beat and likely raise their FY23 guide (a rarity in this environment). ” Atlantic Equities upgrades Air Products to overweight from neutral Atlantic Equities said that rising energy prices are a “secular tailwind” for Air Products. “We see scope for the shares to reverse recent underperformance as earnings momentum recovers and if confidence in the project backlog improves.” Read more about this call here. Baird reiterates Amazon as outperform Baird lowered its price target on Amazon to $ 2,900 per share from $ 3,750, but said it expects robust growth from Amazon Web Services even in a recessionary environment. “Amazon is right-sizing its fulfillment network, we expect strong growth in AWS capex in order to keep up with demand (Amazon typically operates with a couple of quarters of capacity).” Deutsche Bank reiterates Tesla as buy Deutsche Bank said it was keeping its buy rating on the automaker but that the stock is seeing “technical pressures.” “We believe both the primary EV stocks in our coverage, TSLA and RIVN, are facing considerable market and technical pressures that might be outside of the companies’ control, despite solid operational traction.” Bank of America reiterates Nvidia and Marvell as buy Bank of America said that semi stocks such as Nvidia and Marvell should see “resilient demand” in a downturn. “Our top themes / picks re consistent as the downturn appears to be more about resetting valuation per the new rate regime as opposed to a structural shift in demand drivers. Our favorite ideas exposed to resilient demand in: 1) Cloud computing: NVDA, AMD , MRVL, AVGO; 2) Cars: ON, ADI, NXPI; and 3) Capex: KLAC, GFS, AMAT, LRCX, TER. “
