Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Baird initiates Academy Sports as outperform Baird said it sees a significant growth runway for the sporting goods company. ” ASO is a leading sporting goods/outdoor recreation retailer, with a broad/diversified assortment, value-oriented pricing strategy, best-in-sector store productivity, and significant unit growth runway.” Truist upgrades Krispy Kreme to buy from hold Truist said it sees expansion and volume growth for the doughnut company. “First, we believe DNUT is one of the few packaged good companies that will post meaningful volume growth in 2023.” Barclays reiterates Charles Schwab as equal weight Barclays said Street estimates are too high for Charles Schwab. “Our revisions are most material at Schwab, where we think ongoing cash outflows will result in a meaningful need for short-term financing and will prevent the company from being able to recycle maturing assets into higher-yielding securities.” Guggenheim upgrades Spotify to buy from neutral Guggenheim said Spotify shares present an attractive investment opportunity. “We believe that the global music industry—including labels, platforms, and artists—has the potential for market-leading financial growth over the next several years. … .Our optimism fuels upward estimate and price target revisions, and we upgrade SPOT and WMG to BUY from NEUTRAL.” Barclays upgrades Nike to overweight from equal weight Barclays upgraded the apparel giant after its strong earnings report on Tuesday. ” NKE’s FY3Q23 significant beat on sales of $12.4B and EPS of $0.79 (consensus of $0.54) is evidence of broad-based brand strength, in spite of a weakening consumer macro backdrop.” Read more about this call here. Jefferies reiterates GameStop as hold Jefferies said it sees “sign of progress” after the company’s earnings report Tuesday. ” GameStop reported its first profitable quarter in 2 years as cost reductions show early signs of progress.” Barclays reiterates Nvidia as overweight Barclays said Nvidia is still the “king” of AI after the company’s GTC conference event Tuesday. “Clearly expectation were very high going into GTC, but this is the biggest secular tailwind in Tech and NVDA remains well ahead of the competition.” Read more about this call here . Goldman Sachs downgrades Luminar to sell from neutral Goldman said it sees margin headwinds for the auto tech company. “We downgrade Luminar stock to Sell from Neutral, to reflect what we believe is margin risk and a premium valuation, with 35% downside to our unchanged 12-month price target of $5 vs. our coverage group median of 14% upside.” Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as buy Bank of America said it’s standing by its buy rating on the stock. “We continue to see strong data and technology advantages for Google, and expect stable search metrics.” Wells Fargo names PNC and U.S. Bancorp as top picks Wells said it sees more upside in regional banks like PNC and U.S. Bancorp. “To us, catalysts for large-cap banks include both the elimination of the “bank crisis discount” and, at some point, the ‘recession discount.’ We see more near-term upside for PNC and USB, which we now rank ahead of BAC.” KeyBanc upgrades Meta to overweight from sector weight KeyBanc said it likes Meta’s cost cutting initiatives. “We believe companies making aggressive cost cuts while investing judiciously in future growth opportunities are well positioned for the cycle.” Wolfe upgrades PulteGroup to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said the homebuilder has one of the healthiest balance sheets around. “However, we find little boring in this story as we believe: 1) PHM can potentially generate $2.3B+ in ’23 Op Cash Flow, driving a $2 per share Net Cash position by year-end after $750M of share repo.” Loop upgrades Ross to buy from hold Loop said it sees a long-term buying opportunity for the discount fashion retailer. “We see improved brands and values in the company’s stores. We think the company’s outlook provided in February looks conservative as spending seems to be holding steady.” Jefferies initiates Howmet as buy Jefferies said the aerospace company is an industry leader. ” HWM is a tech leader w/ 85% of sales from 1st/2nd market share positions, capable of net price realization that supports mid-20% adj. EBITDA margins and ~100% FCF conversion in out years.” Susquehanna upgrades Enphase to positive from neutral Susquehanna said the recent pullback in shares makes the stock more attractive. “We believe the setup for ENPH has become much more attractive since we downgraded the stock to Neutral in mid-December.” Bernstein reiterates Apple as market perform Bernstein said it thinks Warren Buffett will cut his position in Apple. “We believe Buffett is more likely trim his position in AAPL than add to it. We also note that AAPL is trading at a higher multiple than Google (19x) and Facebook (17x) – and modestly below MSFT – 29x. We see risk-reward on AAPL as relatively neutral and rate the stock Market-Perform.” Credit Suisse reiterates On Holding as outperform Credit Suisse said the shoe company is the next $1 billion brand. “We see multi points of growth opportunities for ON over the near and medium term across new categories expansion, new retail formats, converting licensed markets to owned (Korea is the biggest NT oppy), and a big product pipeline.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as buy Goldman said Tesla is a key beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act. “For home-grown companies, we prefer Tesla and FREYR who are getting ready for mass production.”
