Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Deutsche adds a catalyst call buy on Honeywell Deutsche named Honeywell as a short-term buy idea and said it’s getting more constructive on the company’s execution. “Moreover, the company is in the midst of a CEO transition that could bring a more active portfolio management story. In the short-term, we also expect a 1% 1Q23 EPS beat vs. consensus, 2Q23 guidance positioned in line with the Street, and perhaps a raise to the low end of full year guidance, at a minimum.” UBS upgrades Goldman Sachs to buy from neutral UBS said in its upgrade of the banking giant that it’s “resilient.” “We are upgrading GS to Buy from Neutral as the firm appears well positioned to outperform amidst elevated levels of market volatility.” Read more about this call here. Barclays reiterates First Republic as equal weight Barclays said the regional bank remains “structurally challenged.” “While FRC appears to be managing short-term liquidity and deposit outflows may have slowed, a jump in its funding costs coupled with fixed rate assets will likely weigh heavily on its NIM (net interest margin.)” Morgan Stanley upgrades MongoDB to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said in its upgrade of the developer data platform that it has “share gain opportunities.” “With our AlphaWise survey pointing to the majority of optimizations already underway and cloud growth expectations reaccelerating in 2024, we upgrade MDB to OW given market leadership in the ~$45B operational database market, multiple share gain opportunities and a pivot to profitability.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley names Box a top pick Morgan Stanley named the cloud content management company as a top pick and says it sees more margin upside ahead. “Not only has Box expanded operating margins by ~22%, from 1% in FY20 to 23% in FY23, but Box is expecting another 10- 12% operating margin expansion in its long-term targets to reach 32-35%.” Roth MKM initiates Las Vegas Sands as buy Roth said in its initiation of the casino company that it’s bullish on a Macao recovery. “We initiate coverage on LVS with a Buy rating and bullish outlook on Macau.” JMP upgrades Shopify to market outperform from market perform JMP said in its upgrade of the e-commerce company that helps businesses that it’s a “leader in commerce enablement.” “After analyzing the OpEx structure across the website builders, assessing third-party website traffic data, and speaking to professional website developers across these platforms, we are reaffirming our view that Shopify is the leader in commerce enablement and continues to take share as we upgrade Shopify to Market Outperform from Market Perform and establish a $65 price target.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley upgrades Evercore to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the investment bank has “underappreciated resiliency.” ” EVR trades at one of the lowest multiples in the Midcap Advisors space, despite having solid ‘pay for performance’ comp ratio management and a resilient revenue base, ⅓ of which comes from non-M & A sources.” Citi reiterates Netflix as buy Citi said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock heading into earnings next week. “Relative to most quarters, 1Q23 may be confusing given: 1) an incipient ad tier, 2) slower rollout of password sharing enforcement, and 3) questions around NFLX’s sharply lower prices in ~100 smaller, lower penetration markets.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as buy Goldman said it’s standing by its buy rating heading into earnings next week. “We remain positive on Tesla shares, although we modestly lower our 2023/2024 EPS estimates and our 12 month price-target reflecting the lower US vehicle pricing the company instituted on 4/6/23 (mostly offset by our updated assumptions including for higher vehicle unit volumes, higher storage revenue, and lower input costs).” Goldman Sachs upgrades Global Payments to buy from neutral Goldman said investors should buy the dip in the payment solutions company. “We are upgrading shares of GPN to Buy with an $127 price target for ~20% upside. Shares have been weak year to date and, in particular, in recent weeks following the stress in the regional bank space in March and the increased uncertainty this caused as it relates to the macro environment.” Wolfe upgrades Raytheon to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said it has more long-term clarity on the stock. “Our prior hesitation on shares of RTX has rested on two primary issues: more attractive relative valuation elsewhere in commercial aero & continued downside EBITDA pressure from underperforming defense businesses. Both of these items plus a couple others (improved outlook for munitions/missiles long-term, clearer path on the F-35 sole-source engine position) prompt our rating upgrade.” Baird downgrades Lockheed Martin to neutral from outperform Baird downgraded the stock due to growth concerns ahead of earnings next week. “LMT (Apr 18) 2023 guide intact, but downgrading to Neutral as LMT stock is within 3% of price target, and we remain concerned on growth and margins going forward.” KeyBanc upgrades Becton Dickinson to overweight from sector weight Key said in its upgrade of the med tech company that it’s ready for a “breakout.” “After 5 years of being fully range-bound, we believe BDX is finally capable of sustaining a breakout given more consistent execution toward LT financial targets and a reasonable valuation.” Argus downgrades Abercrombie & Fitch to hold from buy Argus said in its downgrade of the stock that it’s concerned about consumer spend weighing on sales growth. ” Abercrombie has struggled to expand margins amid inflation and currency headwinds, and cautious consumer spending has weighed on sales growth.” Piper Sandler upgrades Dow Chemical to outperform from neutral Piper said in its upgrade of the stock that it sees earnings upside. “The most significant changes come for DOW, LYB, WLK and EMN, which are each being upgraded to Overweight (OW) from Neutral (N) based on the earnings upside we see being generated by the reduced feedstock costs, lower utility costs and the improving operating rates generated, in part, by export opportunities.” Bernstein reiterates Hyatt as a top pick Bernstein said the hotel chain is its top luxury pick for 2023. “Hyatt is our top pick for the year, as it’s well exposed to the most attractive areas of travel in 2023.” Read more about this call here . Truist reiterates Amazon as buy Truist said the e-commerce has a “best-in-class” logistics and delivery network. “We’re incrementally constructive on AMZN and are tweaking our ests and PT to $144 from $142 given our expectations for 1Q23’s NA eCommerce growth to be slightly ahead of expectations.”
