Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley names Monster a top pick Morgan Stanley said the beverage company has an attractive valuation. “We reiterate our OW on MNST and move it to our Top Pick, with our topline/margin analyses in this report giving us increased conviction in our even higher above-consensus FY23/24 topline/EPS forecasts, a large FY23 EPS growth inflection, and greater LT growth than the market implies in valuation.” Citi names Analog Devices as a top pick Citi said the semiconductor manufacturer is “defensive.” “Given our more defensive nature, we are moving ADI to our top pick, and maintaining our preference on stocks with margin upside such as Micron, ON and Global Foundries.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Amazon as overweight Morgan Stanley said investors should stick with the e-commerce giant, but that the company needs to show better than expected profitability. “We see AMZN needing to guide to and/or deliver better than expected top and bottom line retail profitability in order to regain investor trust…and ensure investors that its structural retail unit economics have not changed.” Cowen reiterates FedEx as outperform Cowen said its bullish heading into FedEx earnings later this month. “Our estimates for FedEx are slightly above consensus for most metrics. FedEx Ground margins are typically higher in fiscal 4Q than fiscal 3Q which could lead to a positive surprise. FedEx may also have benefited from many retailers stocking up on inventory in a shift from just-in-time to just-in-case.” Raymond James upgrades Spotify to outperform from market perform Raymond James said in its upgrade of the stock that it sees a favorable risk-reward outlook. ” SPOT has traded off significantly from all-time highs in early 2021 due to slower than expected scaling of the company’s podcasting business and, most recently, soft margin guidance on its 1Q22 call for the remainder of FY22.” Read more about this call here. Edward Jones upgrades American Express to buy from hold Edward Jones said in its upgrade of the credit card company that it’s well positioned due to its reliance on more affluent customers. “We feel AXP’ s loyal base of affluent customers will be less affected by inflationary pressures, and we expect AXP to be better positioned to sustain strong spending trends relative to credit card peers.’ Bank of America reinstates GoodRx Holdings as buy Bank of America reinstated coverage of the telemedicine platform, saying it has an “appealing valuation.” ” GDRX remains the leading marketplace for prescription transparency, offering cash pay alternative prices with a burgeoning offering for telehealth/manufacturer services to capitalize on its broad market position.” Stifel reiterates Nike as buy Stifel lowered its price target on Nike to $150 per share from $160 ahead of the company’s earnings report later this month due to restrictions in China and strength in the U.S. dollar. “Given multiple compression in the marketplace, estimate revisions, and the steeper ramp for revenue growth to achieve FY25 targets, we are taking a more conservative view on the TP (target price).” Deutsche Bank reiterates Disney as buy Deutsche lowered its price target on the stock to $130 per share from $191 but said it still sees robust earnings growth. “Despite our near term concerns over consensus estimate revisions, we see Disney’ s earnings growth outlook as robust over the next several years.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as buy Goldman reiterated its buy rating on the automaker, but said Elon Musk’s comments about company headcount are “incrementally negative.” “We are Buy rated on Tesla shares to reflect the company’s market and cost leadership position in the fast growing EV and storage industries, and opportunities to monetize the installed base of connected hardware with software and services.” Morgan Stanley upgrades CrowdStrike to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it sees an attractive entry point. “We are upgrading CRWD from Equal-weight to Overweight based on: 1) defensive positioning in uncertain macro, 2) sustained market share gain & growing evidence of TAM expansion.” Read more about this call here. Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America kept its buy rating on Amazon but said that the stock may be “unusually levered.” “As for stock sentiment, for arguably the first time since the Internet bubble in 2000, the company has significant excess capacity, and stock may be unusually levered to the perceived health of the consumer over the next 12 months.” JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan said that its survey checks show that lead times have remained stable for Apple products. “In our second installment of our Global Product Lead Time Tracker, we find that lead times have remained largely unchanged for Apple’s products, which we believe is consistent with continued supply challenges hardware companies are facing, including COVID-related lockdowns in Shanghai and Beijing, though restrictions have eased in both cities in the last few days.” Bernstein upgrades Lululemon to market perform from underperform Bernstein upgraded Lululemon mainly on valuation. “But a lot has changed in two months – lofty multiples on growthy names are long gone. The stock is down ~22% YTD despite positive EPS revisions, as the multiple has de-rated disproportionately vs. the market.” JPMorgan initiates Volaris as overweight JPMorgan initiated the Mexico airline with an overweight rating and said the stock is well positioned going forward. ” Volaris operates under a low-cost model, allowing it to offer competitive fares, focus on developing non-ticket revenues and deliver unmatched unit cost.” Raymond James initiates DoorDash as market perform Raymond James said in its initiation of the delivery company that it sees a balanced risk-reward outlook for DoorDash. “While positive on the fundamental outlook, we believe risk/reward is balanced at current levels and thus we initiate with a Market Perform rating.”
