Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock. “Maintain Buy on Amazon. Three overhangs on stock have been retail margin cuts, AWS revenue deceleration, and potential TAM saturation. [Thursday’s] letter set a positive framework for discussion of these on the 1Q call.” UBS reiterates Netflix as neutral UBS said all eyes will be on the password sharing crackdown when Netflix reports earnings next week. “We expect 1Q to show continued progress toward re-accelerating growth. We believe subs will come in ahead of mgmt’s outlook for ‘modest’ adds, helped by a slower ramp for paid sharing (shifting potential churn into 2Q).” Goldman Sachs upgrades VF Corp to buy from sell Goldman said in its upgrade of the apparel and footwear company that it sees improved profitability. ” VFC’s revenue and earnings trajectory has underperformed the market, but we believe the stock is nearing an inflection point with the balance of catalysts for the stock now weighted to the upside.” Read more about this call here. Piper Sandler downgrades Rivian to neutral from overweight Piper said it still likes the electric vehicle company but that it needs more capital. “In order for RIVN to justify its cost structure, the company must spread its investment over millions of units (just like Tesla does), and in order to finance such aggressive expansion, RIVN will need capital.” Read more about this call here. Mizuho initiates ResMed as buy Mizuho initiated the medical device maker of sleeping machines like CPAP and says ResMed is the “undisputed king of sleep.” “Our Buy rating is based on: 1) positive feedback from our proprietary Sleep survey that points to healthy underlying US volumes, 2) lingering pent-up demand due to US staffing shortages.” UBS reiterates Amazon as buy UBS said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock but came away from the company’s shareholder letter with less optimism on a “game-changing direction around margins.” ” AMZN’s annual shareholder letter, a defense of investment, underscored the company’s commitment to invest and the breadth of Amazon’s ambitions – from retail and AWS, to content, healthcare, satellite internet, int’l, grocery, and more. A lot to manage. We come away less optimistic on any game-changing direction around margins and still unsettled by a cloudy outlook at AWS.” Citi opens a negative catalyst watch on Harley-Davidson Citi said it sees “increasing credit loss metrics for Harley-Davidson. “Our recent analysis of both securitized receivable delinquencies and used motorcycle pricing point to fewer borrowers making monthly payments and lower recovery values once bikes are repossessed, a recipe for increasing credit loss metrics and eventually a higher loan loss reserve.” Oppenheimer reiterates PulteGroup as a top pick Oppenheimer said the stock is still a favorite idea citing “multiple expansion.” “We expect multiple expansion given a positive backdrop for builders broadly and because PHM likely will have the highest ROE in the space this year.” Cowen reiterates Alphabet as outperform Cowen said it’s bullish heading into Alphabet earnings later this month. “Our 1Q Digital ad expert check call on 4/6 suggests that a resilient US consumer helped drive GOOG 1Q23 Search spend growth near 4Q levels despite NT macro headwinds.” Cowen reiterates Nvidia as outperform Cowen said Nvidia is a leader in AI. ” NVIDIA continues to lead from the front across all the most important AI verticals. Expect continued momentum in results.” JPMorgan upgrades Hello Group to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of the China messaging and social search company and says it sees a “recovery.” “We upgrade MOMO from N to OW (recovery in 2H23 with better social sentiment).” William Blair reiterates Charles Schwab as outperform William Blair said it’s standing by its outperform rating on the stock heading into earnings next week. “First-quarter results should indicate that earnings momentum is slowing as cash sorting continues. Sorting is reducing sweep cash, which Schwab is replacing to a degree with higher cost short-term funding.” Stifel resumes Kraft Heinz, General Mills and Mondelez as buy Stifel resumed coverage of several food stocks like Kraft Heinz, General Mills and Mondelez and says they are at an inflection point. “While investors remain generally cautious on Food stocks after a strong performance in 2022, we believe the margin inflection could be stronger than expected and elasticity should remain stable and low.” Wells Fargo reiterates Estee Lauder as overweight Wells kept its overweight rating on shares of Estee Lauder and said China cosmetics import data signals a return to growth. “With our data tracking in China improving, and following constructive results from LVMH, we think it’s reasonable to assume a turn in China is underway.” Bank of America reiterates PayPal as buy Bank of America said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock heading into earnings in early May. “Given ongoing macro cross-currents, we think the most likely scenario is for PYPL to continue providing top-line guidance one quarter at a time.” Barclays reiterates Disney as equal weight Barclays said it sees slowing streaming growth heading into Disney earnings in early May. ” Disney and WBD are both in another strategy transition phase and focused on taking out costs from the streaming business.” Bernstein reiterates Boeing as outperform Bernstein said it’s standing by its outperform rating on the stock after it a 737Max parts issue surfaced on Thursday. “Yesterday it was disclosed that Spirit Aerosystems identified a manufacturing process issue with a fitting used to attach the vertical fin of the 737MAX to the fuselage.” Stifel reiterates Microsoft as buy Stifel said it’s standing by its buy rating on Microsoft heading into earnings later this month. “Looking forward, a year ago management provided its early FY23 double-digit top and bottom line commentary, but we expect a less granular forward guide focused on OPEX vs revenue growth given the ongoing uncertainties within the global economy.” DA Davidson reiterates Deere as buy DA Davidson said the ag equipment company is a “near term buy.” “Ethanol usage does appear stable in the near term, and the megatrends are likely to take 20+ years to play out, making DE a near-term BUY.”
