Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Stephens initiates Portillo’s as overweight Stephens said it sees a “compelling” entry point for the fast food chain. “We are initiating coverage of Portillo’s Inc. with an Overweight rating and $20 target based on our ten-year discounted cash flow analysis.” JPMorgan reiterates Netflix as overweight JPMorgan raised its price target on the streaming giant to $510 per share from $480 and said it’s standing by its overweight rating. “Since 3Q earnings, NFLX shares have recovered to September investor conference levels (closed at ~$435 on Sept 12), and we remain bullish on the company’s ability to accelerate revenue growth in 2024, expand margins, & drive multi-year FCF growth.” Stifel upgrades Henry Schein to buy from hold Stifel said it sees an attractive entry point for the healthcare company. “Additionally, valuation/relative valuation is compelling and distributors seem to outperform manufacturers during times of a weakening consumer.” Canaccord downgrades Illumina to hold from buy Canaccord downgraded Illumina after its disappointing earnings report Thursday. “After the market close on Thursday, November 9, the company reported 3Q23 results that were below ILMN’ s guidance and FactSet consensus.” Citi opens a positive catalyst watch on Bath & Body Works Citi said it’s bullish on the stock heading into earnings next week. “We are opening a 30-day positive catalyst watch ahead of BBWI’s 3Q EPS. We anticipate a 3Q EPS of $0.38, a beat vs cons ($0.35) driven by stronger GM though we expect in-line sales (-3%). We believe the macro remains challenging for BBWI’ s customer, making it difficult to see sales upside.” Wolfe reiterates Nvidia as outperform Wolfe said it’s getting more bullish on the stock over the next several quarters. “Adding NVDA to the Wolfe Alpha List which reflects our confidence in earnings momentum over next several quarters, and long term opportunities from their dominance in AI. We expect street estimates to move meaningfully higher over next few quarters.” BTIG downgrades Freyr Battery to neutral from buy BTIG said it sees too much execution risk for the battery company. ” FREY traded down ~25% on the day following 3Q23 earnings (before market open). As a pre-revenue company, the near-term drivers of the stock remain project execution and bringing a commercial product to market.” Wolfe downgrades Occidental Petroleum to peer perform from outperform Wolfe said shares of the oil company will be range bound. “These factors are likely to keep OXY shares relatively range bound even in a below-consensus commodity scenario, but in a base case, OXY’s total return of capital (including Preferred redemption) is decelerating faster than peers.” Bank of America downgrades FTC Solar to underperform from buy Bank of America said it was wrong about its prior buy rating on the solar stock. “We reduce our PO on FTC Solar (FTCI) to $0.20/sh from $4 and move our rating to Underperform. With the announcement that both the CEO and CFO have transitioned out of their roles under board oversight, credibility of the story is in question.” William Blair upgrades Dentsply Sirona to outperform from market perform William Blair upgraded the dental supply company after its investor day and said it sees 2024 as an inflection year. “We are upgrading Dentsply Sirona to Outperform following the company’s 2023 investor day meeting.” Wells Fargo downgrades Hawaiian Electric to underweight from equal weight Wells said it sees too much risk after the wildfires in Hawaii. “Shares of HE come with a high level of uncertainty with frankly minimal insight into what the investigations are going to say or what elected officials might do.” Baird upgrades Toast to outperform from neutral Baird said the sel-loff in the restaurant tech company is overdone. “We like big market share gainers ( Toast is one of the best companies/products on our list), we like restaurants, we like fintech, and we like Toast at 4x 2024E revenue.” RBC downgrades Plug Power to sector perform from outperform RBC said it has limited visibility into the EV charging company. ” PLUG faced unprecedented challenges in 3Q23 on H2 supply constrains that impacted as much as one-third of the U.S. liquid H2 supply. We are moving to Sector Perform, Speculative Risk and lowering our price target to $5 on more limited visibility and margin pressures.” Bank of America downgrades CommScope to neutral from buy Bank of America trends are worsening for the tech company. “We downgrade CommScope to Neutral, from Buy. The underlying trends have worsened substantially and the debt reduction actions remain uncertain.” Bank of America initiates Weatherford as buy Bank of America said in its initiation of the global energy company that it’s seen a “remarkable turnaround.” ” WFRD’ s new CEO Girish Saligram has refocused the company on its core technology strength with operational rigor & financial discipline while moving ahead on customer focus and digital transformation. Gordon Haskett upgrades BJ’s to buy from hold Haskett said it’s going to “fade this negative bias” on BJ’s shares. “Finally, amidst a wave of negativity on the Sell-Side in recent months (i.e., numerous downgrades, tactical calls, etc.), we are going to fade this negative bias and upgrade BJ’s to Buy-Rated from Hold-Rated and establish a new Price Target of $80, which is based on ~19x our raised FY24 EPS estimate of $4.25.” JPMorgan downgrades Plug Power to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said the risk profile for Plug Power is increasing after the company’s earnings report on Thursday. “Margin Issues Persist, Balance Sheet, Policy Support and Execution in Focus – Downgrading to N on Increased Risk Profile.” Morgan Stanley initiates Arm as equal weight Morgan Stanley Arm’s valuation is full right now. “For Arm , our expectation of subdued royalty rate expansion plus the full valuation drive our Equal-weight rating (PT $55).” Jefferies upgrades Vera to buy from hold Jefferies said it sees robust sales growth for Vera. “Upgrading to Buy & upping PT to $26 (prior $18) anticipating earlier-line use w/ ~$900M peak sales.”
