Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Best Buy, Nvidia, Dollar Tree & more

Published Mon, May 18 20209:20 AM EDT

Key Points

Goldman Sachs initiated Dollar General and Dollar Tree as buy.
BMO upgraded Nvidia to outperform from market perform.
Telsey upgraded Best Buy to outperform from market perform.
Wells Fargo upgraded SurveyMonkey to overweight from equal weight.
Bank of America upgraded Kraft Heinz to buy from neutral.
Bank of America downgraded Square to underperform from buy.
Wedbush upgraded Williams-Sonoma to outperform from neutral.
DA Davidson upgraded Palo Alto Networks to buy from neutral.

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Monday: Goldman Sachs initiated Dollar General and Dollar Tree as 'buy' Goldman initiated the discount retailers and said they add value and convenience to consumers during the economic crisis. "We initiate coverage on the Dollar stores ( DG , DLTR ) with Buy ratings: We see the dollar stores as well positioned in this uncertain macro economic backdrop. The dollar stores bring a powerful combination of value and convenience to the cash-strapped consumer. Add elements of unit growth, counter-cyclicality and supportive demographics to this mix, and you get attractive business models slated to perform well in the face of a recession." BMO upgraded Nvidia to outperform from 'market perform' BMO said the graphics processing company continues to execute and was uniquely positioned going forward. "We have stayed on the sidelines long enough on the NVDA shares. We are raising our rating to Outperform from Market Perform and raising our target price to $425 from $285. While there is no one single event we can point to which has led us to change our thinking, the continued execution on the data center side, along with the latest product rollout, has helped. We believe NVIDIA is uniquely positioned to continue to benefit from a massive shift in the compute landscape." Telsey upgraded Best Buy to 'outperform' from 'market perform' Telsey said it expects the consumer electronics retailer to benefit from the work-from-home trend. "Beyond the near-term challenges and sales declines stemming from COVID-19, we expect Best Buy to benefit from: 1) the work-from-home trend, which will likely be here for a while, and the shift in spending toward home-related items, including electronics; 2) higher consumer adoption of e-commerce (19% of domestic sales); 3) its growing services and healthcare businesses; and 4) new gaming console launches later this year. Importantly, during this period of store closures, Best Buy has retained ~70% of the sales level from last year, which is quite solid." Wells Fargo upgraded SurveyMonkey to 'overweight' from 'equal weight' Wells Fargo upgraded the online survey company and said it had increased conviction in the stock in the wake of the coronavirus. "1Q results—a fourth straight quarter of revenue growth acceleration—and solid 2Q guide demonstrate to us that SVMK 's business remains strong in the face of COVID-19's macro crosswinds and, if anything, more essential than ever to enterprises and other users seeking to understand the current environment and associated changes in the public's attitudes and behaviors. While we acknowledge we missed superior entry pts, driven by COVID-19-related market volatility, over the past 2+ months, we nonetheless view shares as attractive at current levels, particularly given our increased conviction regarding SVMK's resilience, enterprise-readiness and relevance, superior cost effectiveness and time-to-value advantages vs. peers, and prospects for continuing margin expansion." Bank of America upgraded Kraft Heinz to 'buy' from 'neutral' Bank of America said in its upgrade of the stock that it was well positioned to take advantage of changing consumer habits in the wake of the coronavirus. "Year to date KHC has underperformed packaged food peers and trades at a 40% valuation discount to the group. In our view, this has been driven by a lack of confidence in new management/strategy change, lack of confidence in product portfolio and balance sheet concerns. In our view, self-help actions started in 2019 on brands/portfolio, supply chain and capabilities position KHC to take advantage of changing consumer trends in the wake of COVID-19 and adapt as the marketplace adjusts to recession and other changes. Our $38 PO is based on 15x our CY21 EPS estimate, which is slightly below packaged food peers reflecting our view that performance gap vs peers is closing." Bank of America downgraded Square to 'underperform' from 'buy' Bank of America double downgraded the mobile payment company on concerns about small business churn risk due to the coronavirus. "The extent of small business churn is hard to quantify, and likely won't be known for perhaps another 6 months, but we note that 75% of SQ 's payment volume comes from merchants with < $500,000 in annual card volumes. Against this backdrop, SQ has outperformed the S & P500 by 4,000bps YTD, creating negative risk/reward." Wedbush upgraded Williams-Sonoma to 'outperform' from 'neutral' Wedbush upgraded the kitchen-wares and home furnishing retailer and said it sees potential for double-digit earnings growth in 2021. "As we now see WSM growing earnings in this anything-but-typical recession, and we see potential for normalized double digit earnings growth in 2021 and beyond given the company's strong secular position and ecommerce focus, we believe WSM should trade at least in line with its NTM five-year historical average PE multiple of 15x. We value WSM at 16x our new 2020E EPS estimate of $5.03, or $80 per share (up from $46) and raise our rating from NEUTRAL to OUTPERFORM." DA Davidson upgraded Palo Alto Networks to 'buy' from 'neutral' DA Davidson upgraded the cyber security company on valuation as well as improving demand. "We are upgrading shares of PANW to BUY from Neutral and raising our PT to $270 from $155, based on improving demand trends, conservative estimates and a reasonable valuation. Moreover, we believe investor sentiment is relatively low, which could provide a boost if results get back on track. The key metric near-term to focus on is product revenue growth, which we believe will come in better-than-feared. Looking ahead, we believe management has done an exceptional job assembling one of the strongest cloud portfolios in the industry, which should drive long-term revenue and FCF growth during the next market transition."

Shoppers at a Best Buy store in Brooklyn, New York.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.)

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Monday:

Goldman Sachs initiated Dollar General and Dollar Tree as 'buy'

Goldman initiated the discount retailers and said they add value and convenience to consumers during the economic crisis.

"We initiate coverage on the Dollar stores (DG, DLTR) with Buy ratings: We see the dollar stores as well positioned in this uncertain macro economic backdrop. The dollar stores bring a powerful combination of value and convenience to the cash-strapped consumer. Add elements of unit growth, counter-cyclicality and supportive demographics to this mix, and you get attractive business models slated to perform well in the face of a recession."

BMO upgraded Nvidia to outperform from 'market perform'

BMO said the graphics processing company continues to execute and was uniquely positioned going forward.

"We have stayed on the sidelines long enough on the NVDA shares. We are raising our rating to Outperform from Market Perform and raising our target price to $425 from $285. While there is no one single event we can point to which has led us to change our thinking, the continued execution on the data center side, along with the latest product rollout, has helped. We believe NVIDIA is uniquely positioned to continue to benefit from a massive shift in the compute landscape."