Here are Tuesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: UBS downgrades ChargePoint to neutral from buy UBS said it’s cautious on the EV charging company’s growth outlook. ” CHPT is the share leader in the U.S. for Level 2 charging ports. The company gained share this year and has 44% of the publicly accessible installed base in the U.S. However, the broad customer base could increase its topline correlation with EV deliveries and sales.” JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan said lead times are moderating for Apple’s iPhone. “In Week 11 of our Product Availability Tracker, delivery lead times have flattened out with supply now matching demand, after moderating for eight consecutive weeks, and is now tracking on average to 2 days across the 15 Series.” Citi reiterates Nvidia as buy Citi said it’s sticking with its buy rating on shares of Nvidia. ” NVDA has robust demand backed by start-ups and CSPs [cloud service providers] but is increasingly reaching new customers in the form of sovereign AI clouds, consumer internet companies, enterprise software platforms, enterprise companies as well as industrial firms.” Wells Fargo downgrades Booz Allen Hamilton to equal weight from overweight Wells said investors should wait for a better entry point for the defense contractor. “We still see industry-leading growth for BAH over the next few years, but would wait for a more attractive valuation entry point.” Bernstein initiates Confluent as outperform Bernstein said the software company is an “attractive revenue story.” “We are initiating on Confluent at Outperform with a $34 target price: an attractive revenue story with tailwinds from cloud adoption – a long-duration high-growth megatrend – with a durable competitive position relative to hyper scalers and new entrants.” Raymond James upgrades Crocs to strong buy from outperform Raymond James said it sees an attractive entry point for the show company. “Despite being up in the last month, CROX’s P/E is still < 8x, which we consider highly discounted given our expectation of moderate revenue growth, strong and durable op. margins, and EPS accretion from debt paydown and buybacks.” HBSC initiates Estee Lauder as buy HSBC said it’s bullish on shares of Estee Lauder. “We initiate with a Buy on fundamentals, and also look at options for succession planning and M & A in the event family members were to consider either, or both.” Jefferies upgrades Affirm to hold from underperform Jefferies said in its upgrade of Affirm that it sees the cost of capital stabilizing. “Our decision comes after a 50% decline in shares since February 2022 and given many of the factors driving our Underperform rating have played out. Our upgrade is predicated on recent evidence of stabilizing cost of capital and capital markets activity, stabilizing (if not improving) credit performance, and ongoing momentum in adoption rates for BNPL [buy now pay later]. RBC upgrades Boeing to outperform from sector perform RBC said in its upgrade of Boeing that the outlook for free-cash flow is improving. “Upgrading to Outperform on execution stability, strong demand, improving MAX outlook.” Evercore ISI reiterates Rivian as outperform Evercore said Rivian has “brand, scale economics & vertical integration.” “Ahead of our visit, after Q3, we have updated our model with the latest in management’s comments around the crucial ’24 gross margin bridge which will see substantial architectural/technology improvements during the mid-year shutdown/line transition.” Piper Sandler downgrades Shopify to underweight from neutral Piper said Shopify shares are overvalued. “However, at present shares hold an untenable valuation in our view, as growth & profit assumptions embedded in shares today are too aggressive based on our market understanding. Therefore, we are lowering our rating to Underweight with a $56 PT.” Argus upgrades Mondelez to buy from neutral Argus said in its upgrade of the stock that it sees a growth opportunity. ” MDLZ shares have underperformed over the past quarter, rising 0.4%, compared to a gain of 3% for the S & P 500 and a decline of 3% for the industry.” Piper Sandler initiates LendingClub as outperform Piper said the financial services company is well positioned. “In our view, LC is well positioned to see earnings growth as net interest margin inflects higher in 2024 due lower funding costs, significant cost reductions, and net charge-offs moderating in the back half of 2024.” Canaccord initiates SharkNinja as buy Canaccord said the lifestyle products company is a “rare growth story.” “We are initiating coverage of SharkNinja with a BUY rating and $61 PT. The company is a diversified, global product design and technology company that strives to create 5-star rated lifestyle solutions through innovative products for consumers around the world.” TD Cowen names Datadog a top pick TD said the cloud software company is a top pick for 2024. “DDOG is our Best Idea for 2024. DDOG is a clear leader in observability & we see them as the #1 beneficiary from tool consolidation onto a single platform, a trend that is accelerating.” JPMorgan initiates Lexeo Therapeutics as overweight JPMorgan said in its initiation of Lexeo that the genetics medicine company is well positioned. “Harnessing Its Novel Gene Therapy Platform Towards Unmet Needs; Initiating at Overweight.” Bank of America reiterates Rocket Lab as buy Bank of America said the space company is the “strongest pure-play space name.” ” Rocket Lab is a small-lift launch service provider focused on meeting the demand of small satellite manufacturers and operators with payloads less than 320 kg.” Truist initiates Glaukos as buy Truist said it’s bullish on the ophthalmic medtech company. ” GKOS is one of the few publicly traded ophthalmic MedTech companies focused on the large ($10B+ TAM), under-penetrated glaucoma market.” Bank of America initiates Virtu Financial as buy Bank of America said it sees multiple positive catalysts for the financial services company. ” VIRT is investing in several organic growth efforts such as ETF blocks, cryptocurrencies, options and at-the-market offerings, which together contribute 10% of trading income today.” Wells Fargo reiterates Amazon as overweight Wells said international trends for Amazon remain healthy. “Int’l retail analysis suggest healthier underlying trends, ex-India. AMZN a share taker amid weaker macro in larger, mature markets. Logistics build ~1yr later than US, albeit at smaller scale, suggests forthcoming Int’l retail margin improvement.” Citi reiterates Ingersoll Rand as buy Citi said it sees “mostly good momentum” for shares of Ingersoll. “We anticipate IR could re-rate toward the higher end of Multi-Industry peers (~1.3x the S & P) as the potential industrial compounder proves itself out over time.”
