Analysts upgraded a bunch of stocks as markets look for a rebound, including Nvidia, Tesla, Zillow & more

Published Tue, Mar 24 202010:54 AM EDT

Key Points

Needham upgraded Nvidia to buy from hold.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Virgin Galactic to overweight from equal weight.
DA Davidson upgraded Zillow to buy from neutral.
Wedbush upgraded Deckers to outperform from neutral.
UBS upgraded Tesla to neutral from sell.
UBS downgraded Ford to neutral from buy.
Raymond James upgraded Cigna to strong buy from outperform.
Goldman Sachs upgraded Intel to neutral from sell.
Telsey upgraded Dollar Tree to outperform from market perform.
Cowen upgraded Callaway Golf to outperform from market perform.
Bernstein upgraded Spotify to market perform from underperform.
Argus downgraded Tesla to hold from buy.

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Wall Street analysts upgraded a bunch of stocks on Tuesday as the market showed signs of a turnaround. The upgraded stocks include, Nvidia, Tesla, Virgin Galactic, Zillow, and more. Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Tuesday: Needham upgraded Nvidia to 'buy' from 'hold' Needham said in its upgrade of Nvidia that it has a superior balance sheet among other things. "We acknowledge it's risky to upgrade a stock given this vicious pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout. However, during this uncertain time, we believe investors will flock to companies with superior balance sheets and robust free cash flow. NVDA fits the bill on that front, as we see it." Morgan Stanley upgraded Virgin Galactic to 'overweight' from 'equal weight' Morgan Stanley said in its upgrade that it sees a 90% upside for the spaceflight company. "The world has changed in the past month, including SPCE 's stock down > 70%. However, the story and the balance sheet remain intact. Despite mark-to-marking our PT to $24, we still see ~90% upside and as a result move to OW. DA Davidson upgraded Zillow to 'buy' from 'neutral' DA Davidson said the online real estate database company was a compelling opportunity and high-quality brand. "We are upgrading shares of ZG from Neutral to BUY, while lowering our estimates and our price target from $60 to $39. The 52% pull-back in ZG shares in the past month (vs. a ~28% decline for the Nasdaq) combined with management's recent steps to de-risk the business in the face of COVID-19 have created a compelling opportunity to own one of the highest-quality brands and assets in mid-cap U.S. Internet in our view." Wedbush upgraded Deckers to 'outperform' from 'neutral' Wedbush said in its upgrade of the lifestyle footwear brand that it has the business model to weather the current economic shock. " DECK is upgraded to OUTPERFORM with a price target of $145 (from $170 previously) as our analysis & conversations with mgmt give us confidence that its business model should be able to weather the current global economic shock with notably less sales & earnings pressure than peers, supported by a solid balance sheet & compelling valuation, with shares trading at a ~20% discount to historic levels." UBS upgraded Tesla to 'neutral' from 'sell' UBS upgraded the stock and said it expects Tesla to continue to rapidly gain market share. " Tesla has currently the best visibility on near-term demand thanks to the backlog for Model Y (not quantified, but we estimate ~6-9 months) and the localized Model 3 in China (we estimate ~2 months), even though volumes are still likely to suffer from the current crisis (Model 3 ex-China and S & X). Tesla's B/S is unlike peers in debt territory with ~$4.9bn net debt and ~$8.6bn gross liquidity (year-end 2019 plus rights issue proceeds), but could probably raise equity at lower cost than most other OEMs if needed. UBS downgraded Ford to 'neutral' from 'buy' UBS said it sees the risk/reward as less attractive due to liquidity issues among other things. " Ford had a net cash position at year-end 2019, but the negative working capital could be a substantial drag to FCF when volumes shrink. Therefore, we think it is the right decision to run the company in a liquidity preservation mode, including the announced suspension of the dividend payments. Ford had $22bn in gross cash and $35bn in total liquidity (incl. credit lines) at year-end 2019, resulting in a much stronger balance sheet than during the financial crisis. Also, only 6% of its finco loan book is considered higher-risk." Raymond James upgraded Cigna to 'strong buy' from 'outperform' Raymond James upgraded the health insurer and called it uniquely positioned as it said it gets 40% of earnings from his pharmacy benefits management. "As implied above, we think that CI is uniquely positioned among its managed-care peers with 70% of its lives in an administrative services only model and nearly 40% of earnings from its pharmacy benefits management, where we think both revenues and margins are more defensible, given the variable cost structure and the higher mix of government business. We also believe that it is highly unlikely that overall medical costs in the commercial book will be higher in 2Q and 3Q, given the expected slump in electives." Goldman Sachs upgraded Intel to 'neutral' from 'sell' Goldman said in its upgrade of Intel that it saw several near-term positive developments including strength in the CPU market among other things. "We upgrade INTC to Neutral from Sell with our slightly lowered 12-month price target of $54 (from $55) implying 9% potential upside from current levels. Despite the headwinds related to COVID-19, we are maintaining our estimates as we believe there are multiple near-term positive developments (i.e. potential strength/resilience in the high-end client CPU and server CPU markets given a growing number of people working/studying from home) that could largely offset the headwinds (i.e. weaker consumption and enterprise spending). Telsey upgraded Dollar Tree to 'outperform' from 'market perform' Telsey upgraded the discount retailer and said it was "well-positioned" to gain market share during the coronavirus crisis. "In this volatile environment, with an expected economic slowdown related to COVID-19, we believe Dollar Tree is well-positioned to attract traffic and gain market share, given its convenient locations, value-focused merchandise (including half the items priced at $1 and private brands), and defensive product mix of consumables and over-the-counter medications." Cowen upgraded Callaway Golf to 'outperform' from 'market perform' Cowen said in its upgrade of the stock that Callaway the premier brand in golf. "We are upgrading shares of ELY to Outperform with a $11 price target following the recent contraction in the valuation. We estimate the current market cap of $828MM and enterprise value of $1.1B assigns too little value to the company's core golf business. On our FY21 estimates, which assume more normalized demand off our lowered FY20 estimates, we model ELY to return to $0.89 in EPS vs. $0.43 in FY20 and $1.10 in FY19." Bernstein upgraded Spotify to 'market perform' from 'underperform' Bernstein said it now saw a balanced risk/reward in its upgrade of the streaming music company. " Spotify isn't perfectly insulated from COVID-19 and recession. Advertising will suffer from lack of demand (which also hurts podcast), as well as decreased usage (no commuting). There is already premium ARPU pressure, and free substitutes. We adjust down our near-term modelling assumptions, building a recovery curve that never gets back to our previous 2030 assumptions. Along with the Tencent stake mark-to-market, our target price comes to $124. Argus downgraded Tesla to 'hold' from 'buy' Argus said in its downgrade of the stock that it thinks the coronavirus will have a negative effect on vehicle deliveries. "We are lowering our rating on Tesla to HOLD from BUY as we expect the coronavirus pandemic to have a negative impact on vehicle deliveries. Prior to the outbreak, we had expected fairly robust deliveries from Tesla in 2020, as consumers continued to flock to the Model S, Model X, and more recently, the Model 3 - which accounted for more than 80% of 4Q19 production."

Sir Richard Branson poses outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) trading in New York, U.S., October 28, 2019.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.)

Wall Street analysts upgraded a bunch of stocks on Tuesday as the market showed signs of a turnaround. The upgraded stocks include, Nvidia, Tesla, Virgin Galactic, Zillow, and more.

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Tuesday:

Needham upgraded Nvidia to 'buy' from 'hold'

Needham said in its upgrade of Nvidia that it has a superior balance sheet among other things.

"We acknowledge it's risky to upgrade a stock given this vicious pandemic and the subsequent economic fallout. However, during this uncertain time, we believe investors will flock to companies with superior balance sheets and robust free cash flow. NVDA fits the bill on that front, as we see it."

Morgan Stanley upgraded Virgin Galactic to 'overweight' from 'equal weight'

Morgan Stanley said in its upgrade that it sees a 90% upside for the spaceflight company.

"The world has changed in the past month, including SPCE's stock down >70%. However, the story and the balance sheet remain intact. Despite mark-to-marking our PT to $24, we still see ~90% upside and as a result move to OW.