(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 retail giant and a bank were among the stocks being talked about by analysts on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised its price target on Walmart to $75, reiterating its outperform rating on shares. Jefferies, meanwhile, upgraded Capital One Financial to buy from neutral. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:31 a.m.: Goldman maintains buy rating on ASML, says company is ‘irreplicable’ in AI buildout Bank of America is increasingly confident on ASML’s revenue outlook for next year. Analyst Didier Scemama reiterated his buy rating on ASML — the world’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer — and kept his roughly $1416 price target on the stock, which implies about 25% potential increase for shares. This year, the stock has advanced 37.6%. Scemama lifted his estimates for 2025 and 2026 revenue and also hiked his earnings estimates to reflect higher confidence in higher demand for ASML’s EUV lithography systems as well as higher gross margin. “ASML remains irreplicable in the buildout of AI infrastructure with all AI processor and DRAM companies using EUV technology to manufacture their chips,” the analyst said in a Thursday note. “While some concerns remain about foundry orders through the end of this year, we believe that the pace of investment from all leading hyperscalers and enterprise customers in AI infrastructure leaves very doubt that significant capacity needs to be added at the leading edge.” — Pia Singh 6:19 a.m.: Nvidia continues to be ‘industry standard’ with long-term growth potential, Goldman says Goldman Sachs remains bullish on Nvidia’s future competitive advantage. Analyst Toshiya Hari maintained his buy rating on the stock, which is also on the firm’s North America conviction list, after he attended a group meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during this year’s Computex tech exhibition in Taiwan. Although he walked away from the meeting with positive sentiment on the stock, his 12-month price target of $1,200 implies a 2% decrease from its latest close. Shares have skyrocketed about 147.2% this year. NVDA YTD mountain NVDA year to date “We continue to view Nvidia as the industry standard and key enabler as it pertains to accelerating computing required for Gen AI development/deployment, and we see significant upside potential to Street consensus estimates,” Hari said in a Wednesday note. He noted Nvidia’s shift towards being an accelerated computing provider rather than a chip provider and the company’s scale advantage as catalysts for the stock. — Pia Singh 6 a.m.: United Airlines could climb another 32%, according to Redburn Atlantic Redburn Atlantic analyst James Goodall upgraded United Airlines to buy, choosing the airline as its top pick among peers as the overall outlook for airlines becomes disparate. “The growing divergence in performance of the US carriers suggests differences in strategy, markets and customer mix will continue to favor certain players,” Goodall said in a Thursday note. “While falling fuel prices favor all, exposure to the most resilient pockets of demand and a better supply/demand balance should enable both Delta and United to outperform expectations.” Goodall’s $70 price target implies 32.3% potential upside for the stock, which has advanced 28.2% this year already. He attributed his bullish investment thesis to his updated earnings forecast, combined with lower capex that he thinks should drive strong free cash flow generation for United. — Pia Singh 5:42 a.m.: Jefferies upgrades Capital One Financial Capital One Financial is a “win-win” investment by itself or when combined with Discover Financial, according to Jefferies. Analyst John Hecht upgraded the banking stock to buy from neutral. His price target of $165, up from $145, implies upside of nearly 22% over the next 12 months. “Standalone, we see upside given forward-thinking strategic positioning, which has resulted in COF being ahead of the curve in credit performance and in a position to lean into markets such as auto,” Hecht wrote. “The DFS opportunity is transformative, accretive, and provides optionality adding to the potential upside.” Capital One announced in February it will acquire Discover Financial for more than $35 billion. The deal is expected to close late this year or early 2025. Shares of Capital One have lagged this year, rising just 3.3%. COF YTD mountain — Fred Imbert 5:42 a.m.: Oppenheimer hikes price target on Walmart, supports premium valuation for shares Walmart shares are still positioned for steady outperformance, according to Oppenheimer. Analyst Rupesh Parikh reiterated his outperform rating and lifted his price target by $6 to $75, which suggests shares could climb 11.8%. This year, the stock is up 27.7%, outperforming the S & P 500 by a wide margin. “We expect a multi-year profit boom to continue driven by strong management execution, momentum in WMT’s core geographies, and further scaling of higher margin alternative revenue streams (media, membership, marketplace, etc),” Parikh wrote in a Thursday note. Walmart already proved these efforts successfully in the first quarter, during which they had sales growth of 6% and operating income growth of roughly 14%, Parikh added. Moving forward, he expects the retailer to continue posting strong levels of profit growth, supporting a premium valuation for shares. Parikh also expects a continued positive tone from Walmart’s management on driving alternative revenue streams and margin expansion, using the benefits of automation, for example. Coupled with grocery store gains and increasing international footprint, the analysts expects Walmart to boast about 4% sales growth on average and operating income growth of more than 4% over time. WMT YTD mountain WMT year to date — Pia Singh
