(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Tuesday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A tech giant and a major pharmaceutical company were among the biggest analyst calls Tuesday. UBS hiked its price target on Nvidia , citing an attractive valuation and strong demand for its chips. Elsewhere, Citi upgraded shares of GSK, citing several “commercial and pipeline ‘wins.'” Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:29 a.m.: Piper Sandler upgrades Trimble to overweight Technology solutions provider Trimble has several growth catalysts ahead, according to Piper Sandler. The firm upgraded shares to overweight from neutral and upped its target price by $17 to $68, which implies 24.3% potential upside. Shares are up 2.8% so far this year. TRMB YTD mountain TRMB year to date “TRMB could at last be in a place where a software-centric bull case could emerge where recurring revenue rises beyond 55% of mix, growing double-digits organically, capable of delivering mid-teens EBIT growth,” analyst Clarke Jeffries said in a Monday note. He noted the company’s fourth-quarter revenue and profitability beats, positive guidance for fiscal year 2024, its $1.1 billion debt paydown and up to $800 million worth of share repurchases this year as catalysts for the stock. — Pia Singh 6:04 a.m.: Benchmark initiates coverage of Block with a buy rating Financial technology giant Block is on track to achieve sustained profitability, according to Investment banking and research firm Benchmark. Analyst Mark Palmer initiated coverage of Block with a buy rating and $89 price target, which suggests shares could gain more than 29% over the next year. “While shares of SQ have rallied sharply during the past two three months, we believe the stock’s upward price momentum is likely to continue thanks in large part to management’s enhanced focus on profitability,” Palmer wrote in a Monday note. The stock is down 11% for the year so far, but has gained about 3.6% in the past month after Block announced hundreds of layoffs in late January. Its CEO is aiming to cut 1,000 jobs by the end of this year. According to Palmer, the company’s cost-cutting efforts should allow Block to achieve higher adjusted operating margins by 2026 and an expanded stock multiple. The stock’s price-to-forward sales ratio “fails to reflect the growth prospects of its Cash App and Square ecosystems,” he added. — Pia Singh 5:47: a.m.: Citi upgrades GSK, says pharma giant is finally in a ‘stronger position’ Biopharma company GSK is in an attractive spot after recently successful data of one of its therapies, according to Citi analyst Andrew Baum. He upgraded shares to buy from neutral and increased his price target from £17 to £21. U.S.-listed shares of GSK have gained 10.8% this year. “GSK’s recent commercial and pipeline ‘wins’ put GSK in a stronger position to attract both external talent and pipeline assets,” Baum wrote in a Tuesday note. According to Baum, his new rating is primarily based on the under-appreciated revenue potential of GSK’s Blenrep, a medication for adult patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. He pointed to DREAMM-7 data released on Feb. 5, which showed substantial reduction in risk of disease progression or death in patients with Blenrep. The therapy could generate £2.5 billion in revenue as a “new standard of care,” Baum said. The analyst also increased his earnings per share forecasts up to 50%, reflecting peak Blenrep revenue numbers and GSK’s anticipated share of the RSV market, among other catalysts. — Pia Singh 5:47 a.m.: UBS hikes Nvidia price target UBS is getting even more bullish on Nvidia ahead of the chipmaker’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report. The bank hiked its price target on the stock to $850 from $580. The new forecast implies upside of 17.6% from Monday’s close. “Customer discussions confirm NVDA’s lead times have come in substantially over the past few months (now ~3-4 mos), meaning shipment slots are still available in C2H:24,” wrote analyst Timothy Arcuri. “Normally, this is bad, but demand for AI compute capacity is still so strong, in the near term, we think this just points to significant upside potential to shipments/revenue, such that we think NVDA beats on data center by ~$2.5-3B.” Nividia, which is slated to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings next week, has been on a tear in 2024, gaining nearly 46%. That’s on top of the stock’s 238.9% surge in 2023. Despite these gains, Arcuri said Nvidia’s forward price-to-earnings ratio is toward “low-end of where NVDA has historically traded.” Despite the price target increase, Nvidia shares were down 1% in the premarket. — Fred Imbert
