Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Qualcomm, Grab, Spotify, Six Flags, UPS, Amazon & more

Published Wed, Dec 15 20218:53 AM EST

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: Evercore ISI initiates Grab as outperform Evercore said in its initiation of the Asia tech company that it's a category leader with "meaningful scale and network effect advantages." "We are initiating coverage of GRAB with an Outperform rating and $10 price target. GRAB is in a strong position being the category leader in Southeast Asia across its Delivery and Mobility segments, which we think affords the company meaningful scale and network effect advantages." Morgan Stanley names Qualcomm a top 2022 pick Morgan Stanley named the stock a top pick and says it sees a compelling buying opportunity. "We are naming QCOM our Top Pick in US semis. While we do see smartphone as an area less impacted by current supply chain disruptions, the stock continues to trade at a discount to peers and should benefit from significant price increases that have continued around 5G." Goldman Sachs upgrades Six Flags to buy from neutral Goldman said in its upgrade that the company is resilient and that it sees more upside in the stock. "Given the correction across our group over the past month we see potential for a return to the 'reopening' trade, but believe investors will still focus on those names with greater visibility and/or secular growth themes in our coverage. Thus, we upgrade SIX given purely domestic-leisure exposure that has proven its resilience through the pandemic and has idiosyncratic upside potential under new leadership." Bernstein initiates TuSimple and Embark Technologies as market perform Bernstein started coverage of several autonomous trucking companies with market perform rating and said the stocks are fully valued right now. "The future is coming to the freight market. Three companies looking to automate millions of truck drivers on the interstate highways have entered the public capital markets: Aurora Innovation (AUR), TuSimple (TSP) and Embark Technologies (EMBK). We launch coverage with a positive longer-term view of the sector, believing that the market opportunity is compelling enough at both a macro and micro level to continue to attract capital." Morgan Stanley reiterates Spotify as overweight Morgan Stanley kept its overweight rating on shares of Spotify , saying audio entertainment is poised to outperform in 2022. The firm also named Warner Music a top pick in 2022. "We continue to see Audio Entertainment as an attractive area for investors with durable growth at both distributors (SPOT) and content owners (WMG) - reiterating OW SPOT and OW WMG with the latter now our Top Pick in Media & Entertainment ("M & E") for '22." Barclays downgrades Domino's to underweight from equal weight Barclays said in its downgrade of the pizza chain that the stock's valuation is "fully loaded." "Domino's has continued to deliver best in class fundamentals, accentuated by COVID headwinds which widened the gap of outperformance. With that said, industry headwinds are fading, leading to an easing in Domino's tailwinds." Read more about this call here. Wells Fargo resumes Under Armour as overweight Wells resumed coverage of the sports equipment and apparel company, noting it sees a robust turnaround story. "We are resuming coverage of UAA with an Overweight rating and a $33 PT. We see UA's turnaround story as being on firmer footing headed into 2022, driven by category tailwinds (particularly toward more technical offerings, where UA excels) and company-specific efforts to drive profitable top-line gains." Bernstein downgrades Regeneron to market perform from outperform Bernstein said in its downgrade of the stock that it sees a more balanced risk/reward. "Don't call us haters, we love Regeneron . It is one of the only true innovators out there, with management interests well-aligned with investors and a can-do attitude. However, it feels like the risk-reward is fair. Moving to the sidelines, price target remains $660." Read more about this call here. JPMorgan names Signature Bank a top 2022 pick JPMorgan named the bank a top pick for 2022, adding the company is poised to deliver above average growth. "Our top seven picks are FRC, SIVB, SBNY , SI, MCB, PNFP, and LOB, which are all positioned to continue delivering growth at a pace well above peers." JPMorgan upgrades Booking Holdings to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of the stock that Booking Holdings is best-positioned to capitalize on the broader travel recovery. "Despite potential N-T variant risk, we are incrementally positive on BKNG as we believe it is best positioned to benefit from travel's broader recovery in 2022 as Int'l, urban, & hotels—which have lagged vs. other parts of travel—all see greater rebound." Jefferies adds Callaway Golf to the franchise picks list Jefferies added Callaway Golf to its franchise picks list, saying it sees more upside in the stock. "We believe that the market has yet to fully appreciate the Topgolf acquisition. We see a path for this combined business to generate > $1B in EBITDA over time, which we expect to lead to upside to estimates and multiple expansion." Goldman Sachs names Okta and Palo Alto as top 2022 picks Goldman Sachs named Okta and Palo Alto Networks as top picks for 2022, saying it sees "accelerating demand." "We highlight our top picks as we go into 2022 - SentinelOne, Palo Alto Networks , Okta, and Tenable. Each of these companies saw accelerating demand in the quarter which we expect could continue with the current threat backdrop." UBS names UPS a top 2022 pick UBS named the shipping giant as a top pick heading into next year, citing the potential for margin expansion. "We expect continued pricing gains to support margin expansion and upside for UPS ." Citi initiates Hostess Brands as buy Citi said the maker of Twinkies is emerging "better than ever" from a host of bankruptcies and buyouts. "Based on our belief that the company should trade at ~10% premium to the market (vs. ~5% discount historically) owing both to the company's stronger sales growth and potential for margin expansion relative to its history, we derive a $22 target price and initiate with a Buy rating." Barclays names Starbucks a top 2022 pick Barclays named the coffee giant a top pick for 2022 and says it has a "best-in-class" digital platform. "We continue to view SBUX as a premier, large cap, high growth, global consumer company, with a dominant US retail & consumer product platform, significant int'l growth led by China, and a best-in-class digital platform." Citi upgrades UPS to buy from neutral Citi said in its upgrade of UPS that it sees "disciplined" growth and execution. "We are upgrading UPS to Buy and it now moves ahead of FedEx in our rankings, as we believe its disciplined execution will yield steadier outperformance." Read more about this call here. Evercore ISI names Micron, Marvel and Nvidia as top 2022 picks Evercore named several semi stocks as top picks, noting that "fundamentals remain solid." "Our Top Picks for 2021 are NVDA , MRVL, MU, and AVGO in Semis and ASML, AMAT, LRCX, and TER in Semi Equipment." Bank of America upgrades KeyCorp to buy from underperform Bank of America said in its upgrade of the regional bank that KeyCorp's growth is underappreciated. "We are upgrading our rating on KeyCorp to Buy from Underperform. We are revising our 2022/23 EPS estimates to $1.90/$2.16 from $1.88/$2.12 on the back of a stronger loan growth outlook and a faster Fed rate hike cycle. " JPMorgan names Spotify a top pick JPMorgan named Spotify a top pick for 2022, as it sees podcast losses improving and an advertising ramp-up. "Gross Margins should increase as SPOT gets beyond heaviest podcast investments & Advertising becomes bigger % of revenue mix…mgmt. target for 20%+ of revenue in the L-T (long-term)." Bank of America names Amazon a top pick in 2022 Bank of America named the e-commerce giant a top pick for next year and said it sees a "margin inflection" and more "valuation upside." "While holiday 2021 sales are sluggish and 1Q margins have risk, Amazon is our top FANG given our expectation that 2022 will end much better than it starts. We see share gains, accelerating 2H'22 growth as comps ease, supply chain improves and infrastructure investments play out, potential optimism on a 2023 margin inflection, and sum-of-parts valuation upside."

A pedestrian passes a sign on the Qualcomm campus in San Diego, California.

Mike Blake | Reuters

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: