Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Jefferies upgrades Ball Corp to buy from hold Jefferies said in its upgrade of the glass, jar and lid company that it sees an “attractive” risk/reward for Ball . “With the multiple rebased back to pre-’19 levels, fundamentals at a trough, FCF re-accelerating and the business’s recession resiliency, we believe the risk/reward skews attractive.” Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy Bank of America said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock. “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 strategic priorities for DIS, 2) continued robust theme park demand, 3) likely reinstatement of a dividend by CYE23.” Northcoast upgrades Texas Roadhouse to buy from neutral Northcoast said its survey checks show strong foot traffic. “We believe that traffic is king for restaurants. Based on our recent checks and review of our NCR foot traffic index for Texas Roadhouse , we believe Texas Roadhouse has sustained traffic trend better than we expected through 3Q23 despite a seasonal slowdown that typically occurs during back-to school.” Edward Jones downgrades Berkshire Hathaway to hold from buy Edward Jones downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. ” BRK shares have significantly outperformed financial services peers over the past six months ,supported by a relatively strong earnings outlook.” Loop upgrades Restaurant Brands to buy from hold Loop said it sees strong traffic from the company’s Burger King franchise. “We are upgrading the shares of QSR to BUY this morning following better-than-expected results from our latest Burger King checks.” Read more about this call here . Morgan Stanley reiterates Ford as overweight Morgan Stanley said it’s standing by its overweight rating on shares of Ford despite the UAW strike. “While we expect many investors may disagree with us on this point, we would be a buyer of both F and GM as we believe even a ‘difficult’ labor/strike outcome can catalyze significant changes to strategy around capital discipline.” HBSC initiates FedEx as buy HSBC initiated several shippers on Friday and says it prefers FedEx. “Prefer FedEx to UPS and DHL (Hold) on earnings growth.” Canaccord reiterates Tesla as buy Canaccord said its standing by its buy rating on Tesla ahead of its upcoming delivery numbers report. “Despite potential downside volatility, we are looking past this quarter’s delivery number.” Loop upgrades Bumble to buy from hold Loop said the stock is “de-risked.” “This is the first time we’ve had a Buy rating on Bumble since we launched coverage two and a half years ago. We think the stock is de-risked trading at its 52-week low and down over 30% YTD. We think the company’s cash balance, effective use of interest rate swaps, and FCF generation protect the balance sheet.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Nike as buy Goldman said it’s standing by its buy rating on Nike after the company’s better than expected earnings report on Thursday. “Against a backdrop of negative investor sentiment, we believe the result was better-than-feared, evidenced by: (1) In-line growth in North America and total revenues aligned with management’s guidance; (2) Healthy commentary on retail sell-through trends for 1Q/2Q and back-to-school.” Raymond James initiates AbbVie as outperform Raymond James said it sees strong growth ahead for the pharmaceutical company. “When combined with Immunology, we forecast ABBV will return to solid mid- to high-single-digit top- and bottom-line growth in 2025 and beyond, even with continued pressure on Hem/Onc, [hemophilia/oncology] mainly from Imbruvica, and assuming just very limited pipeline contribution.” Bank of America upgrades Anheuser-Busch InBev to buy from neutral Bank of America said it sees a margin inflection for the beer giant. ” ABI’ s margins are at an inflection point, in our view, as cost of goods sold (COGS) pressures have started to ease, > $1bn profit hit from Bud Light is in the base and a higher cost of doing business, which has weighed on margins in recent years, is now largely in the base too, we believe.” Read more about this call here . Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said it’s standing by its overweight rating on shares of Apple. “As the calendar moves into October, we look to iPhone build reports out of Asia in the next 7-10 days as the next key catalyst to inform us on how this cycle is trending vs. management’s (and investor) expectations.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Amazon as overweight Morgan Stanley said Amazon continues to be the “dominant” player in e-commerce. “In 2Q, over half of Prime member orders across the top 60 largest US metro areas arrived same day or one day, and AMZN expects to double the number of its same-day fulfillment facilities going forward, noting it believes it is far from the law of diminishing returns in improving speeds for customers.” Stifel upgrades Brinker to buy from hold Stifel said in its upgrade of the owner of Chili’s that it sees an attractive entry point for Brinker. “We acknowledge the current consumer backdrop is challenging, and a lower entry-point may present itself, but we recommend starting to accumulate at this valuation given the potential for earnings upside and multiple expansion over the next 2-3 years.” Citi initiates Huntington Bancshares and Zions as buy Citi initiated several regional banks and says it sees “opportunity.” “While we agree that both NYCB and FCNCA are well positioned after very attractive acquisitions, we see better opportunity in ZION and HBAN which is reflective of our view that the regional banks look attractive here and that one should be playing offense, not defense.” Read more about this call here.
