Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley reiterates Eli Lilly as overweight Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $1,083 per share from $1,023. “Given we are ~2x consensus ’25 US Zepbound estimates (~$18bn vs. ~$9bn) we note that LLY can deliver revenues well ahead of consensus even with pricing at lower levels than we model, due to our views regarding the volumes that will come to market in.” Rosenblatt initiates Ribbon as buy Rosenblatt said the telecom company is “positioned to grow.” “We are initiating RBBN with a Buy rating and $5 price target because the investment thesis has significantly improved.” Rosenblatt reiterates Broadcom as buy Rosenblatt raised its price target on the stock to a Street high $2,400. “We take our 12-month PT for AVGO to $2,400 from $1,650 based on a low 30s P/E multiple ahead of the 10-for-1 share split next week.” Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy Bank of America said it sees a “strong refresh cycle” for Apple. “We are raising our PO on Apple (AAPL) to $256 (from $230) on increased confidence of a multi-year iPhone upgrade cycle driven by an aging installed base and GenAI features that should provide a boost to customers’ intentions to upgrade.” JPMorgan reiterates Amazon as a top pick JPMorgan said it’s sticking with Amazon as a best idea following the AWS Summit. “As expected, Generative AI was the primary focus at Amazon’s AWS Summit in NYC on Wednesday, w/ AMZN emphasizing that its full-stack capabilities, large amount of customer data, & security-oriented approach provide a differentiated offering.” Goldman Sachs initiates Nvidia as buy Goldman said Nvidia is a top pick for autonomous technology. “The bottom-line is that we believe improved AI technology will help the industry reach higher levels of performance, although we also believe that wide scale AV adoption is still at least a few years away as a base case.” Mizuho initiates Equinix & Digital Realty as buy Mizuho initiated several real estate investment trusts and said they are data center beneficiaries. “For EQIX (initiate Outperform), we believe its ability to achieve consistent revenue growth and AI benefits are underappreciated at current valuation. For DLR (initiate Outperform), we see a new path to high single-digit earnings growth sustaining elevated multiples after several years of disappointing results.” Truist upgrades Republic Services to buy from hold Truist said the waste company’s shares are attractive. “We upgrade Republic Services (RSG) to Buy from Hold and increase our PT to $220 from $192.” Wells Fargo reiterates Advanced Micro Devices as overweight Wells raised its price target on the stock to $205 per share from $190. ” AMD announced a $665M (all-cash; 2H’24 close) acq. of Silo AI, the largest private AI lab in Europe. We view this as a positive tactical / strategic move focused on deepening AMD’s internal open-source AI software expertise; up-the-stack capabilities.” Morgan Stanley downgrades Microchip to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said the semis company has a “lofty” valuation. “We think MCHP’s valuation reflects lofty expectations, while a deeper trough with a heavy balance sheet will slow the pace of deleveraging.” KBW downgrades Interactive Brokers to market perform from outperform KBW downgraded the brokerage company mainly on valuation. “And today we downgrade IBKR to MP from OP after a strong run in the stock, more than doubling in two years and up ~50% YTD, with our downgrade primarily driven by our expectation of slower NII and EPS growth over the next two years with global central banks beginning to cut interest rates.” Guggenheim upgrades Itron to buy from neutral Guggenheim said it’s getting bullish on shares of the water energy and resource management tech company. “We are upgrading ITRI from Neutral to Buy, and establishing a $130 price target.” Bank of America reiterates Costco as buy Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $962 per share from $874 following Costco’s sales report. “Strong June comp and announcement of membership fee increase.” Jefferies downgrades Darden to underperform from hold Jefferies downgraded the owner of Olive Garden as a “potential share shift looms.” “We are downgrading DRI to Underperform as we see risk to NT fundamentals driven by 1). Share loss in a more promotional environment, 2). Lowend weakness persisting…” Jefferies upgrades Spotify to buy from hold Jefferies resumed coverage of the stock and upgraded it to buy. “We are increasingly confident in SPOT’s ability to comfortably deliver sustainable 15%+ rev growth over the next 3 years.” Jefferies downgrades Roblox to hold from buy Jefferies resumed coverage of the stock and says Roblox has a lofty valuation. “However, growth and margin expectations are lofty, with the company and investors already looking for a return to 20%+ bookings growth from FY25-27E (vs. Q2 guide of 11-15% y/y growth) and 30%+ incremental margins in FY25.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Telefonica Brasil to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it’s bullish on shares of the LatAm telecom company. “After meeting management, we upgrade VIV to OW as the stock 1) lost most of its valuation gains post Oi closing and 2) accelerating fixed business adds to continued mobile strength.” Goldman Sachs initiates Daqo New Energy as buy Goldman said it’s bullish on shares of the China solar company. ” Daqo is a leading poly producer (14% of global share by end-2023) with the strongest balance sheet among our China solar coverage.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Uber and Instacart as buy Goldman said it’s sticking with its buy ratings on shares of Uber and Instacart. “Among the stocks under coverage in this sub-sector, we reiterate our Buy ratings on UBER & CART.” Morgan Stanley reiterates McDonald’s as overweight Morgan Stanley lowered its price target on the stock to $300 per share from $312 but says it’s sticking with its overweight rating. “Sentiment and trends still a challenge near term; we’ve maintained that re-establishing value is possible for MCD , but likely not done overnight.”
