Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Nvidia, Shake Shack, Palo Alto Networks & more

Published Thu, Aug 20 20207:59 AM EDT

Key Points

Deutsche Bank initiated Palo Alto Networks as buy.
JPMorgan reinstated Thermo Fisher as overweight.
Wedbush upgraded Shake Shack to outperform from neutral.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Elanco to overweight from equal weight.
Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia to $600 from $520.

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.) Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: Deutsche Bank initiated Palo Alto Networks as buy Deutsche Bank initiated the cybersecurity company and said it thought that firewall demand would remain "resilient" despite the coronavirus and cloud adoption. "In our view, the Street is overly pessimistic on the trajectory for Palo Alto Networks ' product revenue. We believe Palo Alto Networks has remedied its sales execution issues in firewall that plagued the business in 1H FY20 – n.b. in 1Q FY19 the company altered its compensation plan by offering (an almost unheard of) 3x accelerators for sales of its cloud portfolio over firewall product sales. More broadly, firewall demand is remaining resilient despite cloud adoption and COVID-19, with Check Point and Fortinet's recent 2Q product sales both solid." JPMorgan reinstated Thermo Fisher as overweight JPMorgan reinstated coverage of the lab instrument healthcare company and said it had a portfolio that was "resilient" with coronavirus tailwinds. " TMO has delivered exceedingly strong performance in 2Q20 that again demonstrates the resiliency of its portfolio and ability to scale up quickly to address COVID-19 opportunities, and we see both durability (given TMO's leading position in PCR and ramping OUS testing demand) and upside (once vaccines/therapeutics start to ramp in 2021/2022) in the COVID-19 tailwinds." Wedbush upgraded Shake Shack to outperform from neutral Wedbush upgraded the restaurant chain and said the stock would be even "more attractive" after the coronavirus has passed. " SHAK was the preeminent growth story within restaurants pre-COVID, and we believe the growth story is even more attractive post-COVID. As management accelerates digital investments and aggressively targets multiple unit formats, we believe SHAK's LT domestic company unit target of 450 could prove meaningfully conservative." Morgan Stanley upgraded Elanco to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley upgraded the animal health solutions company and said it was "bullish" about the company's "long-term prospects." "We still see risk to 2020 EPS given COVID pressures and 2H Bayer deal dilution due to seasonal weakness (only 30% of Bayer annual profits are generated in 2H). But we are upgrading to Overweight because we are bullish about long-term prospects. Our new investment thesis is that moderate revenue growth can translate to significant EBITDA & EPS growth and the pipeline could have a favorable impact on valuation over time." Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia to $600 from $520 Bank of America raised its price target on the stock after the company's strong earnings report and said it thought Nvidia would be the first $0.5 trillion market cap chip vendor. "Bigger picture, we believe NVDA has an unassailable hardware / software / developer lead in some of the largest and fastest growing markets in semis/tech (AI, Gaming, Autonomous), all derived from a common architecture, that can potentially drive sales at a 20%+, EPS at a 25%+ pace to head towards $22/sh by CY24E, painting a scenario for the first $0.5Tn+ mkt. cap chip vendor, at current multiples.

A person wearing a protective glove holds a bag outside Shake Shack during the coronavirus pandemic on April 20, 2020 in New York City.

Noam Galai | Getty Images

(This story is for CNBC PRO subscribers only.)

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday:

Deutsche Bank initiated Palo Alto Networks as buy

Deutsche Bank initiated the cybersecurity company and said it thought that firewall demand would remain "resilient" despite the coronavirus and cloud adoption.

"In our view, the Street is overly pessimistic on the trajectory for Palo Alto Networks' product revenue. We believe Palo Alto Networks has remedied its sales execution issues in firewall that plagued the business in 1H FY20 – n.b. in 1Q FY19 the company altered its compensation plan by offering (an almost unheard of) 3x accelerators for sales of its cloud portfolio over firewall product sales. More broadly, firewall demand is remaining resilient despite cloud adoption and COVID-19, with Check Point and Fortinet's recent 2Q product sales both solid."

JPMorgan reinstated Thermo Fisher as overweight

JPMorgan reinstated coverage of the lab instrument healthcare company and said it had a portfolio that was "resilient" with coronavirus tailwinds.

"TMO has delivered exceedingly strong performance in 2Q20 that again demonstrates the resiliency of its portfolio and ability to scale up quickly to address COVID-19 opportunities, and we see both durability (given TMO's leading position in PCR and ramping OUS testing demand) and upside (once vaccines/therapeutics start to ramp in 2021/2022) in the COVID-19 tailwinds."