Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: KeyBanc downgrades J.B. Hunt to sector weight from overweight KeyBanc said it sees weaker freight activity for shipping giant J.B. Hunt . “We are incrementally cautious. Our checks indicate freight activity was seasonally weak through late-September, with limited indication of holiday demand to-date.” UBS initiates Freshpet as buy UBS called the pet food company a “high growth company, on the verge of a profitability inflection, at a discount.” “We initiate coverage of FRPT with a Buy rating and $67 PT. FRPT’s stock is down ~47% YTD as the company had to lower its EBITDA outlook for the third year in a row, fueling investors’ concerns about the LT profitability and cash flow of the business in a rising interest rate environment.” Canaccord initiates CyberArk as buy Canaccord said the identity access management company is a “long-term winner.” “We are initiating coverage of CyberArk, the clear leader in Privileged Access Management (PAM), with a BUY rating and $187 price target.” Cowen initiates Generac as outperform Cowen said the battery backup stock has an “attractive valuation.” “We are initiating on GNRC with an Outperform rating and $229 PT. We believe a slowdown in the housing market and continued macro uncertainty are currently priced in. Valuation is key in determining investor appetite to accrue shares.” Read more about this call here . Truist reiterates Nvidia and Tesla as buy Truist said investors should buy the two stocks for exposure to artificial intelligence. “We believe the industry is still in its adolescence and offers significant growth opportunities for AI’s suppliers and its users alike. We continue to see NVDA as the clear AI technology leader, and see TSLA as both a leading user and a potential emerging provider of AI technology.” Piper Sandler upgrades Voya to overweight from neutral Piper said the financial services company is a beneficiary of inflation. “We are upgrading VOYA to Overweight from Neutral: 1) VOYA’s acquisition of Allianz Global Investors (AGI)’s U.S. funds offers enhanced distribution with limited FX exposure while offering revenue protection from flow leakage; 2) VOYA is an inflation net beneficiary across its franchise due to its product portfolio.” Read more about this call here. Truist initiates MongoDB as buy Truist said investors are underestimating the database cloud company’s growth potential. “Given the significant growth in both applications and data that we stand on the cusp of through the remainder of the decade, we believe that the market expectations for MongoDB are underestimating both the strength and durability of their revenue growth potential.” Wells Fargo names Burlington a top pick Wells said it has increased confidence in the clothing retailer after a meeting with Burlington management. “However, we believe CEO [Michael] O’Sullivan also exuded confidence in the go-forward business—with 1) steps already taken to rectify their branded assortment issues (should see changes as early as next month), 2) an opportunity for trade-down in early 2023, 3) ability to leverage their strong reserve inventory position into holiday/1H23.” Raymond James resumes Microsoft as outperform Raymond James said the tech giant is relatively “insulated” from recessionary challenges. “We are resuming coverage of Microsoft with an Outperform rating as we see a collection of sustainable advantages in the story including: 1) strong positioning in fast-growing, innovation heavy markets including public cloud, gaming, and digital advertising; 2) significant scale advantages from the cumulative effect of years of investment.” Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley reiterates General Motors as equal weight Morgan Stanley said that a potential recession and “a highly ‘Tesla-friendly’ Inflation Reduction Act may be a force vector for possible structural change at GM and Ford.” “We believe GM’ s battery assets could be a beneficiary of taxpayer-accelerated (IRA) US clean energy on-shoring.” Bank of America reiterates Disney as buy Bank of America lowered its price target on Disney to $127 per share from $144 but said it’s standing by the stock. “In our view, DIS remains well positioned within our M & E coverage universe and expect near term fundamentals to prove resilient. However we acknowledge macro headwinds and potential consumer weakness could impact FY23 which is why we contemplate a more conservative forecast relative to consensus expectations.” Barclays reiterates Micron as overweight Barclays kept its overweight rating on Micron after its earnings report Thursday and said it’s the “best positioned name off the cycle rebound.” “The big cut was expected but the reduction in utilization and material capex reset is exactly what the company needed to do to shorten the length of the cycle and rationalize supply/demand.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Nike as buy Goldman said it was standing by its buy rating after Nike’s earnings report Thursday. The firm added that it’s concerned about “margin headwinds.” “Though Nike continues to expect currency-neutral sales growth of +low double-digits for fiscal 2023, the company lowered its gross margin forecast by -200 bps at the midpoint with the lower guide partially due to the need to aggressively discount mis-timed inventory as a result of supply chain challenges.” Read more about this call here. BTIG reiterates McDonald’s as buy BTIG said its recent checks show that sales remain healthy. “Earlier this week we spoke with several McDonald’s franchisees, discussing the current sales environment, plant-based meat, labor, commodities and automation. We came away confident that sales remain healthy in the U.S., despite outsized inflation and the spike in gas prices this summer.” Baird reiterates Chipotle as outperform Baird said its recent checks show Chipotle’ s launch of its garlic steak product is not generating consumer interest. “Our analysis of Google search trends suggests the recent launch of Garlic Guajillo Steak may not have generated as much consumer interest as prior limited-time offerings, and this dynamic could have constrained September same-store traffic against a very tough comparison.” Credit Suisse initiates Allego as outperform Credit Suisse initiated the electric vehicle charging operator and says it has “market leadership” and a “strong backlog.” “We initiate coverage of Allego (ALLG) with an Outperform rating and $10 target price. Allego is a pan-European electric vehicle (EV) charge point operator (CPO) with more than 34k charging points and 18k public and non-public sites in 15 countries across Europe.” Read more about this call here .
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