Here are the biggest analyst calls of the day: Apple, Alphabet, Coca-Cola & more

Published Wed, Oct 23 20198:24 AM EDT

Key Points

UBS is upgrading Coca-Cola to buy from neutral.
J.P. Morgan is upgrading Snap to overweight from neutral.
J.P. Morgan is downgrading Walgreens Boots Alliance to neutral from overweight.
Nomura Instinet is initiating CrowdStrike from buy.
Evercore ISI is downgrading Kohl's to in line from outperform.
Guggenheim is upgrading Biogen to buy from neutral.
Credit Suisse is raising its price target on Alphabet to $1,700 from $1,500.
Bernstein is raising its price target on Apple to $225 from $205.
BMO is raising its price target on Amazon to $2,280 from $2,250.
Guggenheim is raising its price target on Alphabet to $1,525 from $1,425.
Morgan Stanley is raising its price target on Apple to $289 from $247.

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: UBS upgraded Coca-Cola to 'buy' from 'neutral' UBS said the company has hit an "inflection" and that it expects profits to climb higher. "We upgrade KO to Buy from Neutral as we believe a sustainable fundamental inflection will drive 3 years of above-algorithm earnings growth and cash flow generation. The company is effectively navigating aggressive US price increases, digesting a transformational deal, completing a global refranchising and demonstrating strong innovation capabilities while reinvigorating growth in high-margin sparkling." Read more about this call here . J.P. Morgan upgraded Snap to 'overweight' from 'neutral' J.P. Morgan said the stock was now "increasingly compelling" following a pullback and the company's earnings report. "We believe Snap shares are increasingly compelling following a 20%+ pullback from recent highs and after delivering 3Q results that we believe showed more encouraging trends. Importantly, we believe that Snap's platform and business have both improved dramatically over the past several quarters." J.P. Morgan downgraded Walgreens Boots Alliance to 'neutral' from 'overweight' J.P. Morgan said it believed there were better opportunities for "upside" in its coverage universe. "Based on our relative rating methodology, we believe there are better opportunities for upside in other companies within our coverage universe at the current time. With WBA expected to provide FY20 guidance with F4Q19 results on Monday 10/28, we believe adjusted operating profit growth will continue to remain challenged in the near term, after a high-single digit decline in FY19E (based on our current estimate)." Nomura Instinet initiated CrowdStrike from 'buy' Nomura said in its initiation note of the cybersecurity company that it had "superior" proprietary technology among other things. "With its intelligent, lightweight agents and proprietary Threat Graph database, CRWD has developed a high-velocity cross-selling juggernaut that allows frictionless adoption of additional cloud modules by leveraging significant amounts of reusable, high-fidelity data, driving one of the most attractive land-and-expand models in the enterprise software space, in our view. Superior proprietary technology, rapid customer adoption, and CRWD's open architecture will continue to drive greater adoption both within security and beyond." Evercore ISI downgraded Kohl's to 'in line' from 'outperform' Evercore said its downgrade of Kohl's was more a reflection on a "positive" outlook on Nordstrom. "Although are a little skeptical of KSS 's bold and oft-discussed Amazon returns partnership, our downgrade of Kohl's to In Line from Outperform reflects more our increasingly positive outlook on Nordstrom than a more negative view on the Wisconsinbased retailer. We simply believe that Nordstrom is further along when it comes to digital and technology investments and capabilities, and because of its higher end positioning and high-fashion quotient, has much more to gain." Guggenheim upgraded Biogen to 'buy' from 'neutral' Guggenheim upgraded the stock after Biogen said it was seek FDA approval for the company's Alzheimer's drug. "We are upgrading BIIB following the unexpected but positive development that BIIB's key Alzheimer's asset aducanumab is back in play following a a new analysis of Phase III dataset. A BLA for Alzheimer's is planned for early 2020, and while the robustness of the data will continue to be debated by the Street, we believe there is more than an even chance of FDA approval, thus we expect BIIB shares to outperform heading into the FDA decision." Credit Suisse raised its price target on Alphabet to $1,700 from $1,500 Credit Suisse said recent checks show ongoing resilience in search and YouTube budget growth for Alphabet . "After the product-driven changes and gyrations to 1H19 results, we are looking forward to more straightforward reports for 2H19. While we may be tempted to believe that some of the new products Google announced at Marketing Live recently will exert an influence on ad budgets, we continue to believe it is the ongoing release of products from years past that are driving the strong growth of search and YouTube today." Bernstein raised its price target on Apple to $225 from $205 Bernstein raised its price target on Apple and said it is "confident" in Apple's ability to deliver upside to consensus revenues. "We underscore that (like last year) near-term investor sentiment is likely to be shaped by iPhone revenues, where we estimate that Apple will face a high single digit (perhaps 8%+) headwind to iPhone ASPs in FY 20 due to lower pricing and a mix shift to the iPhone 11, deferred revenue reallocations from iPhone to Apple TV+, and the rumored release /resultant mix shift to a new iPhone SE." BMO is raising its price target on Amazon to $2,280 from $2,250 BMO said it thinks Amazon Web Services and advertising will "support" margin expansion in to the future. "We look to 3Q results to begin to reflect a better balance of top-line improvement relative to the levels of one-day shipping investment represented in estimates. We are raising our ad estimates slightly in light of the continued positive feedback on the ad market." Guggenheim raised its price target on Alphabet to $1,525 from $1,425 Guggenheim said it saw "significant" opportunity for the company in video and targeted advertising. "Despite regulatory uncertainty, Alphabet continues to be viewed as a relatively safe, affordable way to invest in multi-year growth of technology and connectivity monetization by global businesses and consumers. Confidence in the company's advertising and cloud growth potential continue to underpin the bull case while regulatory uncertainty and maturing search growth (including competition from Amazon) are the primary concerns." Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Apple to $289 from $247 Morgan Stanley said it sees Apple TV+ boosting services revenue growth. "The market is skeptical that Apple TV+ will be an NPV+ investment. Our in-depth analysis tells a different story with TV+ accelerating Services growth to 20% in FY20 and becoming accretive to EPS in FY21, assuming just 1 in 10 AAPL users subscribe by FY25. Increasing PT to $289; Remain OW."

James Quincey

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Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday:

UBS upgraded Coca-Cola to 'buy' from 'neutral'

UBS said the company has hit an "inflection" and that it expects profits to climb higher.

"We upgrade KO to Buy from Neutral as we believe a sustainable fundamental inflection will drive 3 years of above-algorithm earnings growth and cash flow generation. The company is effectively navigating aggressive US price increases, digesting a transformational deal, completing a global refranchising and demonstrating strong innovation capabilities while reinvigorating growth in high-margin sparkling."

J.P. Morgan upgraded Snap to 'overweight' from 'neutral'

J.P. Morgan said the stock was now "increasingly compelling" following a pullback and the company's earnings report.

"We believe Snap shares are increasingly compelling following a 20%+ pullback from recent highs and after delivering 3Q results that we believe showed more encouraging trends. Importantly, we believe that Snap's platform and business have both improved dramatically over the past several quarters."