Here are Monday’s biggest Wall Street calls: MKM downgrades Zoom to neutral from buy MKM said it sees growth stalling for the video-conferencing company. “Given that valuations in tech appear oversold, we are downgrading shares of ZM from Buy to Neutral and reducing our fair value PT to $75. Our previous recommendation centered on post-pandemic normalized growth (10%), transition to enterprise growth from online, international expansion, andadjacent product growth.” Baird adds Tractor Supply as a fresh pick Baird named Tractor Supply as a fresh pick, noting it sees upside to estimates. “Remains a top idea. Our proprietary farm/ranch survey suggests potential upside to 4Q expectations.” Barclays upgrades Qualcomm, Advanced Micro Devices and Seagate to overweight from equal weight Barclays upgraded several chip stocks, noting it companies that have “data center, PC, and handset exposures.” “So surprise, we are more POSITIVE on companies with Data Center, PC, and Handset exposures and are Upgrading AMD, QCOM, STX, and materially raising the PT on NVDA.” Read more about this call here. Barclays downgrades Warner Music to equal weight from overweight Barclays said the music company’s financial performance is too volatile. “While constructive on WMG’s LT growth potential based on structural tailwinds, WMG’s financial performance has been, in our view, too volatile to justify a premium valuation.” Bank of America names Costco, Kroger, BJ’s and Walmart as top 2023 picks The firm said it expects the four companies to benefit from elevated grocery shopping trends. “We expect Food at Home inflation to remain elevated through at least 1H23 and increasingly benefit our top picks – WMT, COST, KR & BJ.” Bank of America double upgrades Wayfair to buy from underperform Bank of America said it’s feeling more confident on the stock. “We upgrade Wayfair to Buy from Underperform and raise our PO from $30 to $65. We are now more confident that Wayfair will achieve breakeven or better EBTIDA this year (first time since 2020) on a significant improvement in revenue trends and over $1bn of expense reductions.” JPMorgan double upgrades Wayfair to overweight from underweight JPMorgan said it sees an earnings inflection for the furniture seller. “We are upgrading Wayfair to Overweight from Underweight given a positive shift in market share trends and management’s newfound commitment to controlling expenses/investments, which combined, should cause a significant inflection in earnings revisions from steeply negative over the past two years to positive, on top of still-attractive valuation.” Read more about this call here. Cowen upgrades Skechers to outperform from market perform Cowen said it sees “meaningful upside” for the stock. “Skechers’ value proposition continues to resonate based on our checks and is gaining preference in our survey for casual/lifestyle footwear from Nike and Adidas.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley names Apple as a top China reopening pick Morgan Stanley said China reopening is a positive for Apple demand. “China accounts for ~20% of Apple revenue and ~95% of production, so the China reopening has important implications for both demand and supply.” Deutsche Bank reiterates Microsoft as buy Deutsche said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock heading into earnings Tuesday. “A tougher IT spending environment isn’t good for any Software company but we see many reasons to believe Microsoft is poised to outperform most and emerge much stronger on the other side.” Canaccord reiterates Amazon as buy Canaccord said Amazon shares remain best-in-class. “Advertiser spend on retail media networks is expected to increase meaningfully in 2023, with Amazon the most obvious beneficiary of (and partially responsible for) this trend.” Jefferies naming Caterpillar a top pick Jefferies said it sees upside to estimates for shares of Caterpillar. The firm also added the stock to its franchise picks list. “Despite CAT’s recent run, we see upside to estimates driven by both mining and energy cycles, low equipment inventories, aged fleets and a significant infrastructure kicker in the coming years.” JPMorgan downgrades Levi Strauss to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said in its downgrade of the stock that it sees a more “balanced” risk/reward for the jeans maker. “We are downgrading LEVI to Neutral lowering our Dec ’23 price target to $17 based on 8x our CY24 EBITDA noting a more balanced risk/reward.” Citi adds a positive catalyst watch on United Rentals Citi said the company is a top beneficiary of infrastructure spending. “Clear to anyone that has seen the array of equipment on a major US highway or big infrastructure project, many companies within the US Machinery / Diversified Industrials segment should benefit from a more robust non-res spending scenario. Buy-rated URI stands out given its (nearly) exclusive North American footprint, and high construction exposure.” Barclays downgrades Tapestry to equal weight from overweight Barclays said it is concerned about a “negative promotional inflection” for Tapestry. “However, we are cautious given that this is the first ‘Deeper’ (or more promotional) quarter stemming from Kate Spade and Coach Outlet that we have noted since the beginning of the pandemic in ten consecutive quarters, as well as the first ‘Deeper ‘ promotional quarter since our upgrade of TPR to Overweight on January 7, 2021.” Deutsche Bank upgrades Shopify to buy from neutral Deutsche said in its upgrade of the e-commerce platform company that it’s the “year of the enterprise” stock. “Our conversations with industry constituents including various Shopify agencies and partners suggest enterprise adoption of Shopify Plus should accelerate in 2023, which should enable Shopify to once again outpace overall US e-commerce growth.” Read more about this call here. Citi reiterates Meta as buy Citi said it sees multiple positive catalysts ahead for the stock. “Meta is our top digital advertising pick for 2023 and while macro limits visibility, we believe the market is stabilizing and given rising engagement rates, newer ad surfaces (click-to-message, reels, explore) and ad products.” Truist reiterates Tesla as buy Truist said it sees “meaningful upside” for Tesla shares. “Near-term fundamentals are still eroding; we are not basing our stock preference on near-term results. As we adopt a constructive sector view we recognize growth stocks are experiencing both expanding multiples and expanding long-term fundamentals. We believe these trends afford meaningful upside potential for TSLA.”
