Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Home Depot, Tesla, Caterpillar, Apple, GM & more

Published Fri, Oct 8 20218:40 AM EDTUpdated Fri, Oct 8 20219:05 AM EDT

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday: Cowen names Dick's Sporting Goods a top pick Cowen named Dick's Sporting Goods a top pick into 2022 and said the company should be a back-to-school beneficiary despite supply chain issues. "In the interim, U.S. consumers appear resilient as indications on Back-to-School performance depict a strong season from a sales and margin perspective, especially when including a return to Team Sports — a positive for the sporting goods channel and DKS in particular." Loop downgrades Home Depot and Lowe's to hold from buy Loop said in its downgrade of the Home Depot and Lowe's that it's concerned about "persistent" inflation. "We are lowering our ratings from Buy to Hold on the home centers, as we think supply chain issues represent a significant risk and believe we may see persistent inflation push the Fed towards a rate increase within our 12-month time horizon." Wells Fargo downgrades Charter to underweight from equal weight Wells downgraded the stock due to concerns about slowing cable subscriber growth. "But, we're now taking a more bearish stance on the Cable sector's outlook and by default CHTR's as the industry standard-bearer." Morgan Stanley reiterates Charles Schwab as overweight Morgan Stanley reiterated Schwab as overweight and said it's bullish with the prospect of a Fed rate hike. "SCHW and LPLA are key Overweights in the sector that should see upward estimate revisions and greater investor appeal driving a re-rating as they benefit from the steepening yield curve and prospects for Fed Funds rate hikes as early as Dec 2022, with near term catalysts including the upcoming FOMC meeting this November that's likely to include a tapering announcement according to our rates strategists." JPMorgan reiterates Caterpillar as overweight JPMorgan kept its overweight rating on shares of Caterpillar and said it expects "significantly higher" earnings over the next few years along with strong fundamentals. "On the other hand, while CAT faces cyclical headwinds from lower global GDP growth, its end markets do not face structural challenges and, as a result, we believe it can deliver significantly higher earnings and FCF growth over the next five years." Evercore ISI reiterates Apple as outperform Evercore ISI said in a note to client on Friday that Apple is well positioned for secular growth ahead of its earnings report later this month. " Apple should report modest upside to Sept-qtr expectations despite concerns around supply headwinds as we think AAPL had largely procured enough capacity for the initial launch." Credit Suisse reiterates General Motors as outperform Credit Suisse kept its outperform rating on the automaker and said it sees a "compelling case" for multiple expansion after the company's investor day earlier this week. "While we've heard pitches in the past from GM on why we should think differently about them, GM's investor day this week was arguably the most aggressive presentation they've provided trying to change perception." JPMorgan upgrades Oatly to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of the oats company that it sees a "favorable risk/reward" for Oatly. "With the stock -49% from its 6/11/21 peak (median food -7%), we now view the upside potential (+43% to our price target) as far greater than the downside risk." JPMorgan downgrades Conagra to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said in its downgrade of the food company that it sees limited earnings upside. "There's still plenty to like in the CAG story, including (a) the valuation relative to the total peer median, (b) recent market share gains in key categories, (c) limited price elasticity to date." Wells Fargo initiates coverage of Stanley Black & Decker as overweight Wells Fargo said it likes the industrial tools company's valuation. "We view SWK's ~30% relative valuation discount to EEMI [Electrical Equipment & Multi-Industry] and SPX as attractive, and we believe this outweighs concerns of a potential slowdown in Tools & Storage demand. SWK has flexibility to further optimize its portfolio in a meaningful way via a combination of divestitures and M & A." Canaccord raises price target on Tesla to $940 from $768 Canaccord raised its price target on shares of Tesla and said it sees more upside in the stock heading into earnings later this month. "We see upside to the stock based on strong delivery numbers and increased gross margin from Model S and Made-in-China Model 3/Y. Being so close to the quarterly report, we are increasing our multiple to represent our sentiment on Tesla going into the quarter, and will update our model afterwards." JPMorgan downgrades SiriusXM to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said in its downgrade of the satellite radio company that it sees slowing new auto sales affecting new subscriptions. "We downgrade SIRI to Neutral and lower our December 2022 price target to $7 (from Overweight and $8 previously) driven by a combination of lower self-pay net add estimates, as new auto sales slow, and higher capex from a pull forward of satellite builds." JPMorgan upgrades Union Pacific to overweight from neutral and adds Norfolk Southern to the focus list JPMorgan said in its upgrade of Union Pacific that investors should buy the dip. The firm also added the Norfolk Southern to its focus list and said it's reasonably priced. "We upgrade UNP to Overweight with a $247 Dec-22 target on the pullback as network operations recently stabilized, rail dwell time at the Port of L.A. continues improving, and fuel economy gains can potentially boost OR (operating revenue) by +100bps while bolstering the ESG story. NSC moves back to the Analyst Focus List after a six-month absence as expectations appear more reasonable and positioning isn't as crowded." Deutsche Bank initiates coverage of Corning as buy Deutsche Bank said it likes the glassware and ceramics company's valuation. "Increasingly appealing valuation, with shares currently trading at 15x 2022E EPS. This is 3x below GLW' s historical average and 5x below the market, despite a more attractive relative growth profile in upcoming years." Bernstein reiterates Facebook as outperform Bernstein said in a note to clients on Friday that investors should buy the dip. "Objectively, these past few weeks have given us the ' Facebook Files', a 'Whistleblower', leaked documents, an IDFA blog post, announced CTO departure, a filed motion to dismiss the FTC suit, and a multi-hour outage of all of Facebook's apps. Add in some derating in the tech sector and Facebook's stock is down -17% from recent highs." Bank of America reiterates JPMorgan as buy Bank of America said it sees an attractive risk/reward heading into the bank's earnings report next week. "While historically, the stock has tended to sell-off post earnings, we believe that JPM still offers an attractive risk/reward. Importantly, the market appears willing to look past JPM's premium valuation and add exposure to the stock given the optionality to higher interest rates, to rebounding credit card balances and the potential for continued momentum in the capital markets business."

A shopper leaves a Home Depot with merchandise that she purchased on August 17, 2021 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday: