Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Disney, McDonald's & more

Published Thu, Mar 10 20228:34 AM ESTUpdated Thu, Mar 10 202211:45 AM EST

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: Evercore ISI reiterates Apple as outperform Evercore kept its outperform rating on shares of Apple and said investors misunderstand the company's TV strategy. "Most of the criticism of TV+ seems to come from a misunderstanding of what Apple is trying to do. The goal is not to become Netflix, but instead to focus on high quality scripted content and desirable sports rights." Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America reiterated its buy rating on shares of the e-commerce giant after the c ompany announced a stock split on Wednesday . The firm said it should benefit from rising gas prices. "Gas price impact on consumer spending is a risk to industry sales, but we would expect Amazon' s share gains in retail to get a modest boost if gas costs remain elevated." Morgan Stanley reiterates Affirm Holdings as overweight Morgan Stanley kept its overweight rating on the fintech company and said it sees several positive catalysts in the months ahead. "We remain constructive on Affirm' s long-term demographic opportunity within financial services and see upside drivers from new partnerships and products, and strong traction on consumer engagement and adoption." Piper Sandler reiterates Tesla as overweight Piper Sandler kept its overweight rating on shares of the automaker and said strained U.S.-China relations could hurt Tesla shareholders. "Nickel prices are garnering particular attention, given their importance in battery manufacturing, but in our view, deteriorating U.S.-China relations are potentially more consequential in the long-term. Tesla' s China exposure is a major positive, but we must admit: If American companies are eventually used as pawns in a wider geopolitical conflict, then Tesla shareholders would likely suffer." Wells Fargo downgrades Cisco to equal weight from overweight Wells Fargo said in its downgrade of the stock that shares are likely to remain range bound for the foreseeable future. "We are not making a negative/downside fundamental call on Cisco , and we maintain a positive long-term view on the company's subscription model execution and incremental webscale traction." Read more about this call here. Argus upgrades Hormel to buy from hold Argus said in its upgrade of the stock that the company has a clean balance sheet and strong demand. "We expect Hormel to offset inflationary pressures through price hikes and improved efficiency, and to benefit from continued strong demand for its products." Wells Fargo upgrades Arista Networks to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its upgrade of the computer-networking company that it likes its robust deferred revenue growth. "Arista's portfolio evolution and enterprise traction should drive strong growth in recurring services and software-only revenue contributions; we would highlight Arista's strong deferred revenue growth in 2021." JPMorgan upgrades KB Home to overweight from neutral JPMorgan upgraded the homebuilder mainly on valuation. "By contrast, for KBH , we raise our rating to Overweight from Neutral, as we view its relative valuation, trading at 3x our 2023E EPS vs. its smaller-cap peers' average of 3.7x, as attractive relative to our outlook for above-average gross margins and ROE in 2022-23." Read more about this call here. Wells Fargo reiterates Disney as overweight Wells Fargo kept its overweight rating on the entertainment giant and said it's a top pick in a volatile market. " DIS — A year ago the market loved streaming, now it hates it. DIS is a way to keep some exposure to streaming sentiment possibly improving, with protection offered by the strong performance of Parks." Northcoast downgrades McDonald's to neutral from buy Northcoast said in its downgrade of the fast food chain that earnings growth could be at risk due to the situation in Russia and Ukraine. " McDonald's has been active in Russia and Ukraine for decades. Closing operations temporarily will create headwinds to earnings that could continue for years. Case in point, Russian and Ukrainian stores contributed $300M to operating profits in 2021. Shuttering stores will cost McDonald's $0.08 per quarter in EPS from the closures alone." Barclays upgrades NetApp to overweight from equal weight Barclays said in its upgrade of the cloud-data-services and data-management company that it sees faster than expected growth. "We believe NTAP has strong tail winds from accelerated services revenue as a result of its rebounding storage installed base with a growing installed base monetization rate and faster-than- expected growth in public cloud data services." BMO upgrades Pilgrim's Pride to outperform from market perform BMO said in its upgrade of the poultry company that the "fundamentals justify the upside." "We expect PPC to exceed expectations in F2022 and F2023 on the heels of stellar U.S. chicken margins, improving labor conditions (i.e., improved mix) and solid Mexican fundamentals." BTIG upgrades CrowdStrike to buy from neutral BTIG upgraded the stock after its earnings report on Wednesday and called it "thesis changing." "We are upgrading CRWD to a Buy rating following a stronger than expected FQ4'22 report and initial FY23 growth outlook." Read more about this call here. Bernstein reiterates FedEx as outperform Bernstein kept its outperform rating on FedEx heading into earnings next week, but the firm said the company's execution is lacking. "We have rarely seen sentiment on the name this negative, and while market conditions may be peaking, execution leaves a lot to be desired." Evercore ISI adds Five Below to the tactical outperform list Evercore reiterated its in-line rating on shares of the discount retailer, but the firm added a tactical outperform call on the stock and said Five Below is well positioned to handle inflationary pressure. "We are initiating a positive trading call on FIVE ahead of its earnings and analyst day on 3/30. We believe Five Below is well positioned as a fun and affordable retailer amidst widespread inflationary pressure. 4Q21 comp and EPS are known as Five's mid-January holiday sales update detailed."

Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk attends an opening ceremony for Tesla China-made Model Y program in Shanghai, China January 7, 2020.

Aly Song | Reuters

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: