Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Amazon, Apple, GameStop, T-Mobile, Skechers, Lowe's and more
Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday. Wells Fargo initiates Amazon as outperform Wells Fargo said in its initiation of Amazon that the firm sees a margin inflection sooner than investors realize. "Top pick AMZN on North American Retail margins inflecting ahead of expectations, reaching 2019 levels in 2025, one year ahead of Street expectations." Read more about this call here. Jefferies downgrades Las Vegas Sands and Wynn to hold from buy Jefferies downgraded several casino stocks, mainly on valuation. "We are downgrading WYNN, LVS to Hold from Buy because we believe the upside/downside is more balanced than at our upgrade." Read more about this call here . Citi opens a positive catalyst watch on Wayfair Citi said it sees "improving demand trends for Wayfair. " "We also open up a 90-day positive catalyst watch on the improving demand trends." Oppenheimer initiates Zscaler as buy Oppenheimer said in its initiation of the IT security company that it has a "large and expanding total addressable market." " Zscaler offers secure user access to the Internet, SaaS, and internal-hosted applications, through its network of 150 data centers. Its product suite also includes real-time user monitoring and cloud workload/application security." Jefferies reiterates Apple as buy Jefferies said it stands by its buy rating on the Mac maker but is concerned about the lack of social experience with Apple's virtual reality technology. "We have long believed VR has two issues. 1) technology — Apple simply solved this. 2) loneliness: Apple tried to make the case it can solve this with its spatial awareness. Yet — in every demo — there is little to no sharing. … This worries us for now, considering every trend we see in our coverage is about social experiences with others." Jefferies reiterates GameStop as hold Jefferies said the revolving door of GameStop executives is "more of the same" for the company. "It's hard to have an opinion with no earnings call, little-to-no investor communication, and lack of consistent strategic vision. One consistency remains, changes at the top. Over the last 5 years, GameStop has had 5 CEOs and 3 CFOs." Wolfe upgrades T-Mobile to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said in its upgrade of the cell service provider that the "outlook for intrinsic value growth per share remains fairly bright." "After 21% YTD underperformance and with 26% upside to our PT of $160, we upgrade TMUS to Outperform." Read more about this call here. Goldman Sachs reiterates Salesforce as buy Goldman said Salesforce is a key artificial intelligence beneficiary. "We reiterate our Buy rating (CL) and $325 PT as Salesforce begins what we expect to be a slew of generative AI product innovations over the coming months that can support revenue re-acceleration past FY24." Wolfe upgrades Aptiv and Visteon to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said in its upgrade of Visteon that it's a "key enabler of consolidation of compute within the car." The firm also upgraded Aptiv and said it keeps "racking-up wins in Smart-Vehicle Architecture." "We believe that Investors have largely bought-in to APTV' s growth narrative, currently running 8-10 points greater than overall production growth. Indeed, Aptiv's outgrowth has been in the 9-10+ ppt range since 2018. … At a high-level, we see Visteon as a key enabler of consolidation of compute within the car." Citi upgrades Rio Tinto to buy from neutral Citi said in its upgrade of the metals and mining company that it sees upside potential. "All that said, we see clear upside risks regarding potential China stimulus and there has been 3 months of underperformance by the iron ore names. We upgrade our rating on RIO.L to Buy from Neutral." UBS reiterates Amazon as buy UBS raised its price target on the stock to $150 per share from $130 and said it sees the shares moving higher. "We see room for AMZN shares to move higher as AWS reaccelerates in 4Q as Bedrock expands." Morgan Stanley downgrades Carrier Global to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said in its downgrade of the air-conditioning company that it sees a lack of near-term catalysts. "We believe CARR's portfolio transition will ultimately create a faster growing, purer HVAC company and remain constructive on the business longer term, but view the lack of near-term catalysts and relative resilience vs. other HVAC names as an opportunity to focus elsewhere for the next few quarters." Read more about this call here. UBS reiterates Skechers as buy UBS said the stock is underappreciated. " Skechers is the world's 3rd largest footwear brand and an underappreciated growth stock, in our view." Bank of America reiterates Lowe's as a buy Bank of America said investors should buy the stock "when the market is fearful." "We believe a healthy consumer backdrop (and particularly strong homeowner balance sheets) will provide support to LOW in the medium term, particularly as it continues to see the benefits of its restructuring initiatives over time." Goldman Sachs initiates NextEra Energy and Xcel Energy as buy Goldman initiates several utility and clean energy companies Thursday and says it sees an "attractive investment opportunity." "Buy NextEra Energy (NEE) for Renewables growth. Buy Xcel Energy (XEL) and American Electric Power (AEP) for Grid Reliability investments." Bernstein initiates Lufax as outperform Bernstein initiated the China financial services platform company at an outperform and says "higher risk yields higher returns." " Lufax stock tells what happened in China in the past 3 years — macro weakness, Covid downturn, geopolitics uncertainty, and regulatory tightening on the fintech industry — a fatal blow to profitability in 2023E." Barclays reiterates FedEx as overweight Barclays said it sees a "significant alpha opportunity for long-term investors" heading into earnings later this month. " FedEx 4QFY23 results likely challenged by fundamentals, but we see air capacity reduction potentially exceeding 15%, which could equal over $1.5bn in annual savings."