Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Tesla, Snap, Apple, Boeing, Coca-Cola & more

Published Thu, Jan 9 202010:01 AM EST

Key Points

Barclays upgraded Starbucks to overweight from equal weight.
Baird downgraded Tesla to neutral from outperform.
DA Davidson initiated Goldman Sachs as buy.
Bank of America upgraded Goldman Sachs to buy from neutral.
Bernstein initiated Spotify as underperform.
Bank of America raised its price target on Alphabet to $1,620 from $1,450.
Mizuho upgraded Advanced Micro Devices to buy from neutral.
Credit Suisse upgraded Coca-Cola to outperform from neutral.
Guggenheim added Best Buy to the best ideas list.
Berenberg downgraded Boeing to hold from buy.
Jefferies raised its price target on Apple to $350 from $285.
Deutsche Bank initiated BlackRock as a catalyst call buy idea.
Buckingham upgraded Goldman Sachs to buy from neutral.
Atlantic Equities upgraded Macy's to neutral from underweight.
Raymond James initiated Shake Shack as underperform.
Jefferies upgraded Snap to buy from hold.
Jefferies downgraded eBay to underperform from hold.
Cowen upgraded Snap to outperform from market perform.
Bank of America downgraded Kohl's to neutral from buy.

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: Barclays upgraded Starbucks to 'overweight' from 'equal weight' Barclays said in its upgrade of the stock that it saw "outsized global fundamental growth" in the consumer products and retail area. " SBUX continues to offer what we believe to be an attractive combination of outsized global fundamental (i.e. comp & unit) growth within both retail & consumer products. The tempering of F20/LT guidance, coupled with fundamental re-acceleration into F20 & recent stock price easing lead us to upgrade to Overweight. Our PT is $107." Read more about this call here . Baird downgraded Tesla to 'neutral' from 'outperform' Baird downgraded Tesla and said the risk/reward is now more balanced following the stock's recent run-up. "We are moving to the sidelines, admittedly battle-weary after a hard-fought several years, including ~20% outperformance over the last year. We think risk/reward is more balanced following recent stock appreciation; expectations (particularly on the buyside) appear to be fairly calibrated and we think the positive estimate revision cycle is in its latter stages." Read more about this call here. DA Davidson initiated Goldman Sachs as 'buy' DA Davidson said in its initiation of Goldman Sachs that it saw the company as a "self-help" story and a "battleground" stock. " Goldman , in our view, is a battleground stock with concerns over the growth of consumer loans (5% of loans) coupled with underperformance in trading relative to its U.S. peers. However, we find the stock intriguing trading near forward tangible book value with several strategic initiatives to drive a larger gap between returns and its cost of equity." Bank of America upgraded Goldman Sachs to 'buy' from 'neutral' Bank of America upgraded the investment bank and said it saw a more favorable backdrop for the stock. "We are upgrading GS to Buy from Neutral given a more favorable macro backdrop, strategic repositioning, and a relatively attractive valuation. We see the more favorable macro backdrop benefitting the near term outlook, while the strategic repositioning has the potential to create benefits over the next 3+ years, though is not without risks." Bernstein initiated Spotify as 'underperform' Bernstein initiated the music streaming service and said it thought the market was discounting too much growth in the valuation of the company. "However, we believe the market is currently discounting too much growth, too soon, into the valuation of Spotify . While it's impossible to trace the exact factors that cause our long-term forecast to be lower than what's implicit in the stock price, we believe it is driven by a combination of three factors: a) the percentage of consumers willing pay for a premium subscription, versus finding the free ad-supported version "good enough", b) Spotify market share vs. competition, and c) ARPU pressure." Bank of America raised its price target on Alphabet to $1,620 from $1,450 Bank of America raised its price target on the stock and said it saw a healthy ad business for Alphabet among other things. "We continue to see Google as a top Internet utility poised to benefit from an expansive data center network investment and Online transaction growth. Key sentiment drivers are healthy, ~20%, ad growth (several ad product initiatives), Ongoing cloud traction, and recent management changes that could evolve Google's corporate philosophy. We see the biggest near-term risk as margin surprises, while an increase in regulatory activity could weigh on the multiple." Mizuho upgraded Advanced Micro Devices to 'buy' from 'neutral' Mizuho upgraded the multinational semiconductor company and said that the 2020 server market could be stronger than expected. "We are upgrading AMD to Buy as we see 1) the 2020 server market could be stronger than current muted consensus; 2) many of the aggressive INTC price cuts are in the rear-view mirror and, as our checks indicate potential INTC delays in the 10nm Ice Lake single socket server market, we see opportunity for AMD server share gains into 2H20; and 3) a better 1H20 PC market versus consensus combined with a new PS5 AMD gaming console cycle starting in 2H20E." Read more about this call here . Credit Suisse upgraded Coca-Cola to 'outperform' from 'neutral' The beverage giant was upgraded at Credit Suisse, which said structural changes at the company should allow revenue and returns on investment to grow more quickly. "The Coca-Cola of today is considerably different compared to a few years ago. In a return to its asset-light roots, revenues should grow faster and ROIC is improving. We expect revenues to grow at the high-end of Coke's 4% to 6% algorithm for several years, driving margin expansion and therefore earnings and cash flow ahead of consensus." Guggenheim added Best Buy to the 'best ideas' list Guggenheim added the stock to its best ideas list and said it saw "above-consensus" profit growth among other things. "In this report, we are adding BBY to our Best Idea list as it offers attractive growth at a reasonable multiple with an improving product cycle. ... the company should be able to leverage an improving product cycle and robust cost containment into solid, above-consensus profit growth and further multiple expansion." Berenberg downgraded Boeing to 'hold' from 'buy' Berenberg downgraded Boeing and said the 737 Max issue has lasted "far longer" than it expected and the crash of the 737 in Iran on Wednesday added "further pressure" to the stock. "The 737MAX grounding has lasted far longer than we or anyone expected and a decision to halt MAX production this month adds more uncertainty about both time/cost and its potential ramifications within the supply chain. The fatal 737-800 crash in Iran on Wednesday morning, while entirely unrelated to the MAX, adds further pressure on the stock." Jefferies raised its price target on Apple to $350 from $285 Jefferies raised its price target on the stock and said it believed the tech giant had a "strong" finish to 2019. "Our analysis of foot traffic to retail stores in the US and web traffic to online stores globally shows that Apple is set for a strong finish to calendar 2019. Looking forward, we see potential for increased device subsidy competition in the US driven by T-Mobile. We're removing tariffs from the model, keeping our iPhone unit estimates unchanged, and still expect a positive bias for Apple's December results – PT to $350." Deutsche Bank initiated BlackRock as a 'catalyst call' buy idea Deutsche Bank initiated a catalyst call buy on the asset manager's stock, saying it should outperform the overall market during earnings season. "We are initiating a Buy Catalyst Call on BlackRock , hedged against the S & P 500, as we think the stock should outperform the equity market during 4Q earnings season given our view of a strong 4Q earnings report in mid January and our expectation that investors may rotate into traditional asset manager stocks this earnings season and will view BLK as a bellwether stock for the space." Buckingham upgraded Goldman Sachs to 'buy' from 'neutral' Buckingham upgraded the investment bank and said the stock's valuation seems "washed out." "Thematically, as noted above, we see better value and greater potential upside from a rebound in capital markets activity at the brokers. ... Valuation Washed Out. GS has been the worst performing stock over the past 2-year and 5-year periods: -8% over past two years vs. average upside of +14% for peers; +26% over 5-year period vs. +83% average for peers." Atlantic Equities upgraded Macy's to 'neutral' from 'underweight' Atlantic Equities said in its upgrade of the stock that it expects the company to meet its most recent guidance. "We are upgrading Macy's to Neutral after the company reported sequential improvement in Holiday sales. Nov-Dec comps were -0.6%, better than the -3.9% reported for Q3 and higher than the -2.5% consensus expectation. While there was no specific comment on guidance, we expect the company can comfortably meet its most recent guidance." Raymond James initiated Shake Shack as 'underperform' Raymond James initiated the fast food company and said expectations for the company in 2020 and 2021 seem "overly optimistic." "We initiate coverage of SHAK at Underperform as we believe Street expectations for 2020/2021 seem overly optimistic and create further downside risk from still elevated valuation levels. These concerns outweigh our generally constructive view of the Shake Shack concept and its long-term growth prospects, though we believe long-term investors may be presented with a better entry point over the next few quarters as expectations further reset." Jefferies upgraded Snap to 'buy' from 'hold' Jefferies upgraded the company in its 2020 internet outlook and said the stock had more room to run this year. "We believe SNAP stock has more room to run in 2020, driven by accelerating user growth, particularly internationally, an improved ad platform driving 30%+ revenue growth over 3 years, and a clearer pathway to 25%+ EBITDA margins and positive FCF. Our view is supported by proprietary survey work and data checks, which indicate that Snapchat's strengthening ecosystem can drive upside to user and revenue growth in 2020. Raising estimates and PT to $21." Jefferies downgraded eBay to 'underperform' from 'hold' Jefferies said in its downgrade that the company's fundamentals lag ecommerce peers. "We believe eBay' s marketplace is losing relevance for consumers (supported by proprietary survey), resulting in sluggish growth as ecommerce competition intensifies in new and used goods. We lower our SOTP-derived PT to $32 (prior $38), reflecting peerbased growth adjusted multiples for Marketplace and Classifieds and outstanding offer for StubHub." Cowen upgraded Snap to 'outperform' from 'market perform' Cowen upgraded the stock after the firm conducted its ad buyer survey which showed the company as "emerging platform for meaningful ad spend." "Our SNAP upgrade to Outperform is underpinned in part by the key takeaways from our '20 Ad Buyer Survey, comprising i) continued ascent for usage of Direct Response ad products; ii) momentum around branding campaigns, as 10% of ad buyers would use SNAP to start a new branding campaign for 13-34 year-olds on an overall avg basis; iii) 6% of ad buyers view SNAP as a platform that could emerge or is emerging as a meaningful part of their Digital spend outside of GOOG and FB properties; and iv) Ad pricing appears to be stabilizing per survey respondents." Bank of America downgraded Kohl's to 'neutral' from 'buy' Bank of America downgraded Kohl's after the company's disappointing holiday sales results. "We had expected significant new product launches, incremental traffic from the Amazon returns program and investments to drive sales to fuel outsized comps vs. peers. However, the company's (0.2)% Holiday comp suggests that these efforts are not enough to offset secular headwinds. The Holiday comp was disappointing and points to a much slower underlying run-rate entering F2020 than our prior +1% 4Q comp estimate. We are cutting our F2020 EPS from $5.10 to $4.10 to reflect a lower comp and some incremental margin pressure."

David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs & Co., listens during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Monday, April 29, 2019.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday:

Barclays upgraded Starbucks to 'overweight' from 'equal weight'

Barclays said in its upgrade of the stock that it saw "outsized global fundamental growth" in the consumer products and retail area.

"SBUX continues to offer what we believe to be an attractive combination of outsized global fundamental (i.e. comp & unit) growth within both retail & consumer products. The tempering of F20/LT guidance, coupled with fundamental re-acceleration into F20 & recent stock price easing lead us to upgrade to Overweight. Our PT is $107."

Baird downgraded Tesla to 'neutral' from 'outperform'

Baird downgraded Tesla and said the risk/reward is now more balanced following the stock's recent run-up.

"We are moving to the sidelines, admittedly battle-weary after a hard-fought several years, including ~20% outperformance over the last year. We think risk/reward is more balanced following recent stock appreciation; expectations (particularly on the buyside) appear to be fairly calibrated and we think the positive estimate revision cycle is in its latter stages."