Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Canaccord initiates Bowlero as buy Canaccord said the bowling company has a “unique growth and profitability story.” “Bowlero has evolved from a single location to become the world’s largest bowling operator over the past 26 years, developing a repeatable playbook that it uses to transform the operations of acquired centers, delivering industry-leading margins and cash flow that is then re-deployed to fund acquisitions, renovations, and new builds in a virtuous growth cycle.” Berenberg downgrades Tesla to hold from buy Berenberg said it sees less upside for the EV maker. “Tesla’s new plants offer multi-year opportunity in capital and labor efficiency. However, we downgrade our rating to Hold now that our Buy thesis – based on misplaced fears of a price war – appears to have been accepted by the market.” Read more about this call here. Bank of America reiterates Meta as buy Bank of America said Meta is well positioned for “revenue acceleration.” “According to various press reports, Meta is preparing for another round of layoffs and could cut thousands of jobs as soon as next week.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Carvana as not rated The firm said Carvana still needs too much capital. “While we think the business still needs capital, a smaller footprint into a growing used car market offers more time to execute.” Baird names Comerica a fresh pick Baird said it sees a compelling risk/reward outlook for the regional bank. “Investor sentiment towards the regional bank group has deteriorated significantly in recent days, creating what we think are better long-term opportunities and we find CMA to be one of the better risk/reward trade-offs in the group.” Deutsche Bank reiterates Adobe as buy Deutsche said it sees Adobe as an AI beneficiary. “We believe generative AI will be a powerful tool in the belt of creative professionals, communicators, and consumers going forward, enabling Adobe to more deeply penetrate its existing TAM by making Adobe products not just essential to creative pros, but to further involve other stakeholders in the content-creation process.” Deutsche Bank reiterates Ulta as buy Deutsche called Ulta “resilient.” “The beauty category’s momentum carried forward into February, albeit slightly moderated (according to Nielsen data through 2/25), but cosmetics and skincare saw an acceleration in 3YR growth.” Oppenheimer reiterates PayPal as outperform Oppenheimer said it sees PayPal as a “15% [earnings per share] compounder.” “Investor sentiment on PYPL isn’t great and that could lead to opportunity. PYPL’s not a safety trade if the market/payment stocks continue correcting.” JPMorgan initiates Scorpio Tankers as overweight JPMorgan said it sees strong upside for the tanker stock. “We initiate coverage on Scorpio Tankers , an operator of product tanker ships used to transport refined oil products globally, with an Overweight recommendation and with our Dec-24 target price of $87 implying c. 50% upside potential.” Read more about this call here. Goldman Sachs initiates Axon as buy Goldman called the Taser company a “leading vertical technology and hardware platform;.” ” AXON’s market leadership with TASER has resulted in deep customer relationships with state and local law enforcement (eg, 17k of 18k US law enforcement agencies) and a highly valuable installed base of law enforcement personnel.” Read more about this call here. Wedbush reiterates Apple as outperform Wedbush said it’s standing by the tech giant. “We are raising our price target on Apple from $180 to $190 reflecting p positive Asia checks on iPhone demand thus far this quarter while maintaining our OUTPERFORM rating and Wedbush Best Idea List name.” Bernstein reiterates Domino’s Pizza as underperform Bernstein said Domino’s is in “growth purgatory.” “The pizza category is challenged and no longer consolidating, making market share gains look difficult in a zero-sum game.” Bank of America upgrades Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure to buy from neutral Bank of America said the renewables infrastructure company a healthy growth profile. “Even still, we highlight the growing renewable opportunity for AY ahead, with 2.0 GW of renewable assets and 5.6 GWh of energy storage development expected, which is concentrated in North America.” Bank of America reiterates On Semiconductor as a top pick Bank of America said the semiconductor company is a top autos pick that has the “right execution.” “We reiterate Buy on onsemi (ON), a top autos pick following management’s confident presentation at a broker event earlier today and yesterday’s news of an EV win with BMW.” Read more about this call here. UBS reiterates Micron as buy UBS said Micron is a key beneficiary of AI. “Despite some potential ‘shock value’ when MU reports FQ2 bits are growing again and MU should be a major beneficiary from generative AI as memory is > 40% of the total data center semis TAM – a number that is likely going even higher as AI servers have > 2x memory content of light load servers in the cloud and > 3x memory content of traditional enterprise servers.” Argus upgrades Nordstrom to buy from hold Argus said it sees supply chains improving for the retailer. “Nordstrom has divested unprofitable businesses and reduced unwanted inventory through discounts and promotions. It has also strengthened its supply chain, lowering SG & A expense as a percentage of sales. The company continues to repurchase stock and pay down debt.” Needham reiterates Alphabet as buy Needham said investors shouldn’t be concerned about any legislative risks for Alphabet. “Our top investment conclusion from our meetings in Washington DC last week is that nothing bad will happen to GOOGL on the legislative, regulatory or litigation fronts during 2023. Based on our conversations, we perceive that headline risks are bigger than substantive risks.”
