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(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Thursday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A tech giant and a major coffee chain are among the stocks being talked about on Thursday. Bank of America raised its price target to $630 from $563, implying more than 10% upside. Meanwhile, Bernstein upgraded Starbucks to outperform from market perform. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:55 a.m.: Goldman upgrades Bilibili Goldman Sachs moved off the sidelines on Bilibili , saying the Chinese internet stock is starting a profitable growth cycle that investors don’t want to miss. Analyst Lincoln Kong upgraded U.S.-listed shares to buy from neutral and raised his price target to $22.60 from $16.50. Kong’s new price target implies 23.7% upside from Wednesday’s close. “Bilibili is a highly sticky, under monetized young user based video platform, and is now turning to a more robust and profitable business model driven by higher margin ads/gaming business,” Kong told clients in a Thursday note. Kong said Bilibili should see a net margin between 10% and 15% by the end of 2026 and see positive consensus revisions over the next six to 12 months. That’s due to the following: Better lifecycles for new games. Faster ad growth compared with peers. A favorable business mix and stronger cost discipline. Kong said the market is underestimating the magnitude of new games and the potential for monetization within advertising. Because of this, the analyst said Goldman is above the consensus forecast for earnings per share looking ahead. Shares popped more than 9% before the bell on Thursday. The stock’s price has climbed just over 50% in 2024, putting it on pace to snap a three-year losing streak. — Alex Harring 5:51 a.m.: BofA hikes Meta price target following Connect event Bank of America sees more room for Meta Platforms to run due to its artificial intelligence possibilities. Analyst Justin Post lifted his price target to $630 from $563, now suggesting 10.9% upside from Wednesday’s close. Post also reiterated his buy rating on the Facebook parent. His call comes after Meta unveiled the Quest 3S VR headset and shared a prototype of the Orion AR smart glasses on Wednesday. He argued that the glasses have “much broader market potential” than the goggles. This was part of the technology giant’s “Connect” event, which Post said focused on hardware innovation in the Metaverse and increasing AI possibilities. “While Metaverse spend still seems hard to justify, with glasses long-term investors may have some renewed optimism on Meta’s opportunity to be at the forefront of the next generation of personal computing devices,” he wrote to clients in a Thursday note. “More importantly, the company appears to be successfully innovating around new AI capabilities, driving usage growth which can offset terminal value concerns.” Post also said Meta was the top AI-related pick in the consumer internet space. Shares rose more than 1% in Thursday premarket trading. Shares have surged more than 60% this year. META YTD mountain META year to date — Alex Harring 5:51 a.m.: Bernstein upgrades Starbucks The appointment of Brian Niccol as CEO will continue boosting Starbucks shares, according to Bernstein. Analyst Danilo Gargiulo upgraded the coffee chain to outperform from market perform. He also hiked his price target to $115 from $92, implying upside of 20% from Wednesday’s close. “We believe that Brian Niccol is the perfect CEO to guide the resurgence of today’s Starbucks, leveraging the experience he accumulated at Taco Bell and Chipotle, that were in a similar turnaround mode when he became CEO,” Gargiulo wrote. “The appointment as CEO and Chairman of the Board should free up management to draft a plan aimed at operational stability vs chasing growth at all costs.” Niccol began his tenure as CEO on Sept. 9. Since then, shares are up nearly 5%. SBUX 1M mountain SBUX 1-month chart “The stabilization of store operations, faster throughput, enhancement in brand and value perception (e.g. improved store ambiance, transparent pricing), and purposeful innovation should result in positive traffic growth, even if customization of drinks were to decelerate and pressure same store sales,” Gargiulo added. Starbucks shares are flat year to date, but they have popped more than 20% over the past three months. — Fred Imbert
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