Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Goldman Sachs upgrades Utz to buy from neutral Goldman said investors should buy the dip in shares of the snacks company. “We upgrade Utz to Buy, as we see an above average top and bottom line growth outlook given the company’s strong position in the attractive salty snack category, which benefits from faster growth, lower private label exposure, and better pricing power and strong in-market execution that, with the benefit of acquired brands and organic initiatives, is driving distribution and market share gains that we believe can continue.” Read more about this call here. Loop initiates CVS Health as buy Loop said in its initiation of the stock that it has multiple levers for growth. “Well-positioned in its core markets, with less debt and stronger earnings growth, CVS can afford more strategic acquisitions and buildout a larger primary care business.” Read more about this call here . Loop initiates UnitedHealth as buy Loop said the health insurer is one of the best-positioned stocks in the firm’s coverage. “UNH is one of the best-positioned managed care names, with leading positions in commercial and government benefits markets, and broad and complementary portfolio of related products and services will continue to deliver superior growth, profitability and returns on capital.” Citi downgrades Dow to neutral from buy Citi said in its downgrade of the chemical company that it’s concerned about the effect rates hikes will have on Dow. “Our call so far was that commodity chemicals outperform in a period of inflation and rising prices and that’s usually true up to a certain point where the strong economy is driving the inflation. But now the Fed seems determined to break the back of inflation with rate hikes.” Read more about this call here. Evercore ISI reiterates Uber and Lyft as buy Evercore said it’s survey checks show an industry recovery. “We are reiterating our long-term Outperform ratings on both UBER and LYFT as more evidence from our 5th Annual U.S. Ridesharing Survey paints a mostly optimistic view around the industry’s recovery.” Truist downgrades Roblox to hold from buy Truist downgraded Roblox on valuation. “Downgrade to Hold as screens least favorable of the group on: 1) revision trend, particularly AEBITDA as we expect the company to continue to invest aggressively; 2) valuation.” Truist reiterates Amazon as buy Truist said it’s getting “incrementally” more bullish on the stock. “We’re turning incrementally positive on AMZN having been tactically cautious exiting 2021, as we believe Street expectations are being reset to more achievable levels, and with the valuation down 38% YTD.” Jefferies adds Nvidia and Boeing to the franchise picks list Jefferies said the stocks have tremendous upside. “These top ideas are underpinned by differentiated analysis, supported by catalysts and sit at valuation levels that suggest upside.” Loop initiates Humana as buy Loop said it likes the stock’s long-term opportunity. “It is early, but whether or not its recent gains hold all year, we believe that HUM’s brand and growing portfolio of services, both at home and in its clinics, will magnify the value investors find in the senior market.” Wells Fargo downgrades Toll Brothers to equal weight from overweight Wells said in its downgrade of Toll Brothers that housing company is a “mid-cycle play, but the current cycle is near end.” “Gross margin/ ROE sustainability will likely be a show-me for investors in a slowdown. Also, its affordable luxury product line resilience will be tested for the first time.” Read more about this call here . Needham reiterates Meta as hold Needham said in a note that Meta Platform’s brand value is sliding. “We believe deteriorating brand value is being driven by data scandals and relentless negative press headlines.” RBC upgrades NextEra Energy to outperform from sector perform RBC said the energy company has multiple avenues for growth. “We view NextEra Energy Partners as a premier YieldCo given their high-quality asset portfolio, strong sponsor, and large backlog of growth opportunities.’ Baird upgrades American Express to outperform from neutral Baird said there’s too much panic selling in the stock. “Relentless panic selling providing opportunity, risk/reward finally looking attractive for banks and card names. From our perspective, the recent crash in banks is providing an opportunity to add exposure to the group, and we are upgrading COF/MTB/FITB/ AXP to Outperform this morning.” Bernstein reiterates Apple as market perform Bernstein kept its market outperform rating on the tech giant but says shares remain “expensive.” “HPQ and AAPL are very transactional ( < 10% of revenues recurring) but have variable costed business models, mitigating deleveraging risk; that said, we believe both may have ‘over-earned’ during the pandemic, and their consumer exposure could be more heavily impacted during a downturn. AAPL also remains expensive vs. its history and FAAMG peers.” Wells Fargo reiterates Disney as overweight Wells said in a note that the recent sell-off in Disney shares is mostly noise. “We see industry-leading content spend and go-to-market flexibility (e.g. bundling, AVOD) re-accelerating DTC sub growth. We think a lot of the recent sell-off is noise whereas it’s ultimately DTC subs that will matter. If net adds don’t look rosier by the December quarter then we may need to re-think our Overweight rating.” Wells Fargo reiterates Netflix as equal weight Wells said it needs a “clearer” view to get more constructive on the stock. “1Q22 results were just a sub slowdown, but also indicated management rethinking the biz model with a lot of wood to chop. We need to have a clearer view of NFLX 2.0.” B. Riley downgrades American Eagle Outfitters and Urban Outfitters to neutral from buy B. Riley downgraded several retailers on Friday, citing promotional risks and inflation concerns. “Downgrading AEO and URBN to Neutral on Promo Risk and Slowdown; Expect ANF to Continue to Trend Towards Industry Margin Levels.” Needham reiterates Apple as buy Needham said that Apple’s brand value is worth $1 trillion and rising. “For consumer-facing companies, we believe brand value is a lead indicator of consumer adoption, churn levels, and pricing power. Higher brand values lead to higher lifetime value (LTV) per user for consumer-facing products, we believe.” Bank of America downgrades Owens Corning to underperform from buy Bank of America double downgraded the roofing and insulation company, saying it has too much new construction exposure. “We downgrade Owens Corning t o Underperform (from Buy) and lower our PO to $80 (from $119). OC has relatively high new construction exposure (estimate over one-third of insulation and 20% of roofing).”
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