Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Peloton, Netflix, Chipotle, Apple, Moderna & more

Published Fri, Jan 21 20228:33 AM EST

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday: Cowen initiates coverage of Novavax as outperform Cowen said the biotech company is "well positioned to succeed." " Novavax is entering the competitive COVID-19 vaccine market with a differentiated profile with improved tolerability compared to the mRNA options." KeyBanc names Papa John's and Chipotle as top picks KeyBanc named Papa John's and Chipotle as top picks for 2022. The firm said investors should buy the dip. "And while the setup for 2022 is far from perfect, with the parabolic rise in COVID-19 infections, unprecedented cost inflation, difficult multiyear sales comparisons, and limited earnings visibility across the group, we view the sector's lackluster performance since the start of the year as an opportunity to get more constructive on select high-quality names." Stifel initiates coverage of Zscaler as buy Stifel said it sees more upside in 2022 for the cloud solutions company. "With secure web gateway roots that provide secure access to the internet and SaaS apps, Zscaler has significantly broadened its platform, offering secure access to internal applications, protecting cloud workloads, and improving the overall user-to-application experience." Stifel upgrades Peloton to buy from hold Stifel said in its upgrade of the fitness company that it sees a more balanced risk/reward for Peloton after the sell-off in shares. "We believe the stock has over corrected relative to underlying business conditions and note that yesterday's closing price is below pre-pandemic levels (February 2020) despite the company having a significantly larger subscriber base (+289% larger now than December 2019) and subscriber additions that are meaningfully outpacing prior levels off of a much larger base." Morgan Stanley downgrades Netflix equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley downgraded Netflix after its earnings report on Thursday due to slowing subscriber growth. "Our prior view assumed that as content investments rebounded post pandemic, net additions would as well. We now assume a base case of continued content spending growth but a more muted net adds outlook, lowering our earnings outlook materially." Read more about this call here. Barclays downgrades Netflix to equal weight from overweight Barclays downgraded the stock after its earnings report and said it's concerned about slowing subscriber growth. " Netflix's lack of growth visibility may not just be a Q1'22 issue which in turn should narrow valuation premium relative to internet peers." Read more about this call here. HSBC upgrades Beyond Meat to hold from reduce HSBC upgraded the meat substitute stock on valuation. "We believe Beyond Meat is putting itself in a difficult position. The group is investing heavily in transforming the business from an asset light co-packer brand to a much more intensive end-to-end producer (all the while expanding base material capacity) which will mean that the next couple of years are heavy years of investment." Credit Suisse upgrades Cloudflare to outperform from neutral Credit Suisse said in its upgrade of the web infrastructure company that it's uniquely positioned. "We are upgrading Cloudflare from Neutral to Outperform. Because of the company's (1) differentiated serverless architecture; (2) efficient and rapidly expanding global network." Read more about this call here. Barclays downgrades Travelers to equal weight from overweight Barclays downgraded the insurance company mainly on valuation. "We have long admired TRV's underwriting discipline and franchise value. Looking forward, we remain constructive on company fundamentals, execution and growth prospects within commercial lines amid a hard market cycle." Evercore ISI adds a tactical outperform call on Bumble Evercore added the dating company to its tactical outperform list. The firm said investors should accumulate shares ahead of earnings later this quarter. "We are adding BMBL to Evercore ISI's Tactical, Action & Positioning Outperform List heading into Q4 print. ... .We believe there is potential upside to the Street's estimates for Q4 and FY'22 Bumble Payer Net Adds, and we see several drivers for Net Adds to accelerate in 2022; 2) relative valuation for Bumble, especially on a growth-adjusted basis vs. Match, remains attractive and we note that the EV/EBITDA gap between the two is well above historical average." Bernstein reiterates Apple as market perform Bernstein kept its market perform rating on the tech giant but said it's bullish heading into earnings next week. "We expect Apple to beat on revenues and EPS on the back of solid demand and better than expected availability for the iPhone – Apple was assuming a $4B+ iPhone headwind in Q1 but supply-demand was largely in balance by quarter end, and China shipments were strong." Bank of America upgrades Moderna to neutral from underperform Bank of America said in its upgrade of the stock that the valuation is more "reasonable." "We've been bearish on MRNA shares for some time based on what we thought were overly optimistic Street assumptions on C-19 boosters." Citi upgrades Under Armour to buy from neutral Citi said in its upgrade of the stock that it should emerge stronger from the pandemic. "We are upgrading shares of UAA from Neutral to Buy and maintaining our $29 target price. UAA is emerging from the pandemic in a much stronger position in North America with inventory clean, distribution rationalized, the brand identity more clearly defined, and with its product assortment in good shape." Read more about this call here. MKM reiterates McDonald's as buy MKM reiterated its buy rating on the fast-food company ahead of its earnings report next week. The firm said there are short-term challenges for McDonald's, but it's sticking with the stock for the long term. " McDonald's is set to release its 4Q21 earnings before Thursday's market open, with the continued choppy landscape and pandemic-related factors (including inflationary pressures impacting the domestic P & Ls, and certain macro-related pockets of weaknesses across its global portfolio) potentially temporarily offsetting the brand's competitive advantages." D.A. Davidson upgrades Coty to buy from neutral D.A. Davidson said in its upgrade of the cosmetics company's stock that the turnaround is taking hold. "Now, Chief Transformation Officer Gordon von Bretten is putting more focus on attacking gross margin with 11 activities in four areas: (1) commercial, (2) supply chain, (3) portfolio, and (4) material costs. Coty' s gross margin performance has been impressive, with a 190bp Y/Y increase in FY21, and a 480bp Y/Y increase in F1Q22."

Customers order from a Chipotle restaurant at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Mark Makela | Reuters

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Friday:

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