Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Nike, Disney, AT&T, Square, Nvidia & more

Published Thu, Feb 25 20218:12 AM EST

Key Points

Bank of America upgraded Overstock.com to buy from neutral.
Wells Fargo upgraded CME Group to overweight from equal weight.
Citi raised its price target on Disney to $230 from $205.
Loop downgraded ViacomCBS to sell from hold.
Guggenheim upgraded Square to buy from neutral.
Bank of America downgraded Dollar General to neutral from buy.
Credit Suisse upgraded Sunrun to outperform from neutral.
HSBC upgraded Nike to buy from hold.
Citi upgraded NXP Semiconductors to buy from neutral.
Bank of America downgraded Dollar Tree to underperform from buy.
Oppenheimer downgraded Verizon and AT&T to perform from outperform.
MoffettNathanson named Visa and Mastercard as top picks.
Argus upgraded Expedia to buy from hold.
Needham raised its price target on Nvidia to $800 from $700.

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: Bank of America upgraded Overstock.com to buy from neutral Bank of America said in its upgrade of the internet retailer that it sees upside potential. " OSTK has seen more of a business transformation than peers from accelerating online Home Furnishing sales and appears to be better-positioned now than any point in recent history to 'potentially' sustain full-year Retail growth and positive EBTIDA." Wells Fargo upgraded CME Group to overweight from equal weight Wells upgraded the global markets financial company and said the interest rate upside optionality was "underappreciated." "Our more positive stance is based on the potential for a volume recovery in 2021 and beyond which should be driven by an acceleration in economic growth and higher interest rates. We do not think CME 's volumes will be impaired for anywhere near as long as the post-2008 experience as this recession was much shallower with significantly less financial leverage." Citi raised its price target on Disney to $230 from $205 Citi raised its price target on the stock tying a Street high after the entertainment giant changed how it will report revenue in its various businesses going forward. " Disney 's new reporting segments are a vast improvement to the prior presentation. We have rebuilt our model to align with the firm's new disclosures. There are two implications. First, Parks and Consumer margins will be ~320bps higher due to the elimination of the inter-segment revenue share with Studio. Second, risks to downward estimate revisions from Content Licensing are smaller than we expected, since this segment only has ~10% EBIT margins." Loop downgraded ViacomCBS to sell from hold Loop downgraded the entertainment and media giant after its streaming event on Wednesday and said the stock has come too far too fast. " VIAC unveiled its streaming strategy yesterday. The company presented an impressive content slate and management is projecting 65-75 million global streaming subscribers by 2024. However, the SVOD ARPU is low and despite the impressive 69% subscription ad gain 4Q total company advertising would have been down if not for political advertising. In our view, the strategic shift to streaming is necessary, but the incremental profitability to VIAC is not clear." Guggenheim upgraded Square to buy from neutral Guggenheim upgraded the mobile payment company and said it sees a buying opportunity as shares have declined this week largely due to the price of Bitcoin. "This presents an opportunity for investors to buy SQ , in our view, after the company reported strong 4Q results that beat our estimates - and, importantly, management discussed numerous areas of emerging operational strength that bode well for SQ's future and place it on the path towards much greater levels of revenue, EBITDA, and EPS generation in coming periods." Bank of America downgraded Dollar General to neutral from buy Bank of America downgraded the discount retail chain store and said it saw "difficult" comps in 2021. "We downgrade DG to Neutral from Buy and lower our PO to $215 (was $245), which is ~20x our below consensus F23E EPS of $10.95 as we expect P/E multiple compression in a decelerating / negative comp environment." Credit Suisse upgraded Sunrun to outperform from neutral Credit Suisse upgraded the residential solar company after the stock's recent pullback. "We upgrade RUN to Outperform after the recent pull back. ... .We see multiple tailwinds that help offset higher rates over the next few years – higher leverage, spread compression, solar import tariff reduction, lower solar equipment costs, rising electric bills, and Biden policy push." HSBC upgraded Nike to buy from hold HSBC upgraded the athletic footwear company and said it sees "top-line growth and margin expansion." "For a very long time, we have believed that Nike 's business model was essentially to reinvest all excess profits to ensure the group would continue to take market share from peers. More recently however, given elements of scale and benefits of higher-margin channels (online, DTC, Asia), it has become clear that the debate around sales or EBIT is indeed no longer an either or – Nike can have both." Citi upgraded NXP Semiconductors to buy from neutral Citi upgraded the semiconductor company and said it was well-positioned heading into a semiconductor cycle upturn. "We are upgrading NXPI from Neutral to Buy as we recommend investors increase leverage to the cycle and NXP has higher than average leverage to semiconductor cycles (upturns and downturns), especially given NXP's high exposure to the automotive industry, which is experiencing double ordering amid shortages and extended lead times." Bank of America downgraded Dollar Tree to underperform from buy Bank of America double downgraded the discount retailer and said "wage, freight and traffic recovery headwinds" could pressure the stock. "However, wage, freight & traffic recovery headwinds could pressure DLTR 's earnings & valuation as comps decelerate at the Family Dollar banner (FDO) against tough average ticket comparisons that reflected highly elevated Consumables inflation as industry promos declined." Oppenheimer downgraded Verizon and AT & T to perform from outperform Oppenheimer downgraded the two telecommunications company mainly on valuation after government's spectrum auction. "We are downgrading VZ/ T from Outperform to Perform mainly on valuation. C-Band Auction results were released and the quiet period should end March 10. ... .We think VZ /T bid aggressively to catch up with TMUS's 5G network quality." MoffettNathanson named Visa and Mastercard as top picks MoffettNathanson named the two credit card payment company's as top picks and said they were at an "attractive" entry point. "Visa and Mastercard are our top two picks (with Visa as #1) – we continue to see clear signs of pandemic-driven acceleration in cash displacement, and expect positive revisions to FY21 estimates over the next 3-6 months." Argus upgraded Expedia to buy from hold Argus upgraded the online booking travel company and said it saw earnings growth in 2021 followed by an "accelerated" recovery in 2022. " Expedia reported increased bookings in January, and appears on track to post above-peer-average earnings growth in 2021, recovering from its sharp losses in 2020. We also look for an accelerated recovery in 2022, with earnings of $6.00 per share, helped by the broad distribution of coronavirus vaccines." Needham raised its price target on Nvidia to $800 from $700 Needham raised its price target on the stock to a Street high after it beat earnings expectations on Wednesday. " NVIDIA came in with a beat and raise quarter, with sales coming in at $5.0B (vs. 4.8B Needham / $4.82B consensus) and guided to Q1-21 sales of $5.3B. Core data center remains strong with adoption in multiple end markets, where Verticals now exceeds hyperscalers due to demand from deep learning voice AI and "recommender" models, among others.

A customer enters a Dollar General Corp. store in Colona, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014.

Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: