(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Wednesday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A software giant and a shoe stock were among the stocks being talked about on Wall Street. Analysts reacted to Oracle’s latest quarterly figures as well as some announcements made around artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs downgraded Birkenstock to neutral. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:01 a.m.: Piper Sandler opens overweight rating on Valvoline Piper Sandler came out of the gate with an optimistic call on Valvoline . Analyst Peter Keith initiated coverage of the automobile lube service provider with an overweight rating and a $49 target. At that level, Keith predicts shares will climb 20.7% over Tuesday’s close. “After divesting its Global Products business in early 2023, VVV is now a pure-play quick lube service provider with an attractive growth outlook,” Keith told clients. “Considering a fragmented industry landscape with share gain potential, a multitude of comp sales drivers, and majority of its 7-10% growth coming from franchisee growth – we are comfortable with VVV’s algo for top-line growth of 14-16% and EPS growth of 20%+.” Keith lauded the company’s five-year growth algorithm, while noting the stock is a risk in the next 25 to 30 years as the prevalence of different types of cars shake up the business model. He also pointed to the fact that lube hasn’t seen the same interest from private equity as other after-market services within the auto industry. His call comes amid a respectively weak year for shares. The stock has added around 8% in 2024, underperforming the S & P 500’s gain of more than 12%. — Alex Harring 5:44 a.m.: Wells Fargo gives Skechers ‘the respect it deserves’ with overweight initiation Wells Fargo began coverage on Skechers , saying the footwear maker has earned admiration. Analyst Will Gaertner initiated the stock with an overweight rating with an $83 price target. Gaertner’s target implies shares can rise 12.4% over the next year from Tuesday’s closing level. “We believe it is time to give SKX the respect it deserves,” he told clients. “SKX is a compelling growth story that is underappreciated w/ go-fwd rev & EPS growth tops among softlines. Despite the stock’s recent run, there is more room for upside.” Gaertner called the company’s growth outlook on both lines both attractive yet underappreciated, while he said its margin drivers are sustainable. Meanwhile, he said Skechers is improving its operational discipline. Shares added about 0.5% before the bell on Tuesday. The stock has jumped 18.5% in 2024, propelled by a second-quarter rally of more than 20%. — Alex Harring 5:40 a.m.: Wall Street reacts to Oracle earnings, AI announcements Despite a tough quarter on the surface, analysts and traders found nuggets to like out of Oracle’s earnings report. The software company posted $1.63 in adjusted earnings per share on $14.29 billion in revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter on Monday. That was below the consensus forecasts from analysts polled by LSEG of $1.65 a share and $14.55 in revenue. However, shares popped more than 8% on the back of cloud deals with Google and Open AI. Firms such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan raised their price targets on the stock following the report, citing reasons for excitement like newly announced artificial intelligence deals. Here’s what some on Wall Street had to say: JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy (neutral rating, price target raise of $5 to $110, 11.2% downside ahead): “Stepping back, while we see this one quarter differently and do not sense investors using the most intellectually-robust framework at the moment, we continue to respect what Oracle has accomplished in terms of margin structure, developing OCI and positioning the business to reaccelerate, and we continue to apply a high growth-adjusted PT multiple to reflect these merits.” Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss (equal-weight rating, price target increase by $10 to $125, 0.9% upside ahead): “The positive of signing 30 OCI customers driving $12.5B in AI bookings outweighed the negatives of revs and EPS missing in Q4, with notable decelerations in SaaS apps. In an environment rewarding hardware vendors participating in the AI build-out, this likely supports positive momentum in ORCL.” Piper Sandler analyst Brent Bracelin (overweight rating, price target hike by $10 to $150, sees upside of 21.1%): “The $12.5B of new AI contract signings reaffirms that ORCL is one of the few software titans (alongside MSFT) that appears to be capitalizing on the generative AI wave now underway”. — Alex Harring 5:40 a.m.: Goldman Sachs downgrades Birkenstock It might be time to cash in on Birkenstock gains, according to Goldman Sachs. Analyst Louise Singlehurst downgraded the German shoe stock to neutral from buy. Singlehurst raised her price target to $58 from $54.20, but the new forecast implies nearly 2% downside from Tuesday’s close. Share have been on fire this year, rising more than 21%. BIRK YTD mountain BIRK year to date “We like the investment thesis at Birkenstock, supported by share gains in a highly fragmented market, new product launches with additional production facilities to ease supply constraints, positive price mix and best in class levels of operating profitability,” the analyst wrote. “However, since listing in October 2023 the shares have outperformed the broader luxury peer group by c.43%; the S & P 500 +24%; and Stoxx 600 +32%, and we now view the shares as fairly valued,” she added. Birkenstock shares were down more than 3% in the premarket following the downgrade. — Fred Imbert
