Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: JMP Downgrades Peloton on Outperform Market Performance JMP downgraded the stock primarily on valuation. “We are downgrading our rating for shares of Peloton from Market Outperform to Market Perform as Peloton met our previous price target of $16, while leaving our estimates for FY2024 largely unchanged following earnings for FY2Q23A.” Piper Sandler echoes Tesla as overweight Piper said it is behind the automaker’s stock following the release of its annual 10-K report. “Tesla [is] are starting to recognize FSD (fully self-driving) revenue. … It’s taken a while, but TSLA is starting to book rather deferred revenue related to software.” Bank of America downgrades First Solar to neutral from buying Bank of America said in its downgrade of the stock that the “favorable catalysts” are priced in. “We are downgrading First Solar to Neutral after outperforming +50% since August based on the Inflation Reduction Act benefit. FSLR’s manufacturing footprint in the US was an unequivocal IRA winner given the visibility of ~$8Bn+ in manufacturing tax credits.” are upgrading its shares to Buy from Neutral as we believe FedEx is showing increasing signs of cost containment after the 2022 missteps. ) at 13x (was 11.5x) our F2024e EPS, lifting our multiple above the low of its 12x-19x historical trading range as cost-cutting begins to take effect.” Bank of America upgrades Meta to buy from neutral Bank of America said it sees “multiple expansion opportunities” for Meta. and cut ex-spends that could derail earnings per share growth when the advertising market improves.” Read more about this call here. Goldman Sachs repeats Meta as buy Goldman said it appreciates Meta’s “balanced” approach after the company’s earnings report on Wednesday.”In its Q4 2022 earnings report, Meta’s management came out with a much more balanced story than that of just a quarter ago. Read more about this call here. Oppenheimer downgrades Match to better to outperform Oppenheimer said the dating app business is now a ‘let me’ story.”While MTCH unveiled an encouraging product roadmap and evidence of improved a la carte revenue, stock is now a “let me see story” after losing a record number of paid subscriptions, fueling concerns that online dating between the US and Europe is coming of age. Mgmt. suggests dating is not recession proof.” Guggenheim Initiates Darden Buying Guggenheim said the owner of brands like Olive Garden will continue to take share. “We believe Darden is one of the best-run restaurant companies with economies of scale that enable it to create value through M&A, beating full-service peers on price and driving back-of-house synergies.” Needham upgrades Okta to buy from hold Needham said in its upgrade of the identity access management software company that it sees rapid growth “We believe Okta has set conservative guidance for FY24, with revenue growth of only 16%-17%. Guggenheim reiterates Tesla as Guggenheim said there are too many negative catalysts for Tesla at this point.” Seeking a TSLA catalyst prior to the 3/1 investor day; wait times, we believe, will tell the demand story.” Bank of America repeats Costco as buy Bank of America said the warehouse club giant has a “strong value proposition.” “We reconfirm our buy and continue to view Costco as a well-positioned LT given our view on: 1) Equity gains given COST’s strong value proposition and price positioning, 2) potential store growth acceleration given excess demand and strong traffic growth.” rating ahead of the company’s earnings report later this month: “Repeat Buy ahead of NVDA’s FQ4 earnings, though near-term expectations are revised to reflect a possible pause in cloud demand from the US and China.”
