Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Amazon, Tesla, Verizon, Microsoft, Meta & more

Published Thu, Mar 31 20228:34 AM EDT

Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Citi reiterates Disney as buy Citi said there are still "pandemic headwinds at play." "Despite 1Q22 DPEP ( Disney Parks Experiences and Products) revenue and EBIT exceeding 1Q19 by 6% and 14% respectively, management noted that DPEP has still not fully recovered from COVID in three key areas." Atlantic Equities initiates Snowflake as neutral Atlantic Equities said Snowflake shares are overvalued. "We believe Snowflake has one of the strongest competitive positions out there, it benefits from a unique value proposition, dominant market share and a long runway for growth. However, we believe this is adequately reflected in the stock price and would not be buyers at current levels." Morgan Stanley downgrades Hewlett Packard to underweight from equal weight and Dell to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley downgraded several tech hardware stocks on Thursday, noting they are at risk of "ceding share." "Our 1Q22 Flash CIO Survey shows Hardware spend at risk of ceding share to other tech sub-industries due to greater macro uncertainty, leaving us incrementally more cautious on the group in 2022. We cut our 2022 PC forecast, downgrade DELL to EW (from OW) and HPQ to UW (from EW), and upgrade CDW to OW (from EW)." Read more about this call here . Barclays downgrades Advanced Micro Devices to equal weight from overweight Barclays said in its downgrade of the stock that the "growth story needs a pause." "We still view AMD as a share gainer vs. INTC for the next few years but move to the sidelines as we see corrections across several end markets dampening that growth. We would revisit with better visibility into the depth/timing of the corrections and INTC's progress in closing the process gap." Read more about this call here . Goldman Sachs initiates UBS and Deutsche Bank as buy Goldman said in its initiation of UBS and Deutsche Bank that the rise of fintech is a "positive" for the banking industry. "Digital platforms are scalable and therefore size is a key advantage – ﬁntech can be deﬂationary for leaders with scale, and inﬂationary for those that need to accelerate investment or that lack scale. Overall, we believe the rise of ﬁntech is positive for the ﬁnancial services industry, creating monetisable whitespace opportunities and delivering heightened efﬁciency." Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley said in a note Thursday that Tesla is becoming a "renewable energy on-shore infrastructure company." "So where does Tesla fit in? We're not going to tell you that Tesla is a car company. Or a tech company. It's both. But it's also an energy company. And what we're seeing emerge over the course of this year is Tesla as a renewable energy on-shore infrastructure company. Cowen names Nokia a top European idea Cowen said in a note to clients that the stock is underappreciated. "We see opportunity for NOK to drive upside to growth and margins, and thereby EPS and cash flow, driven primarily by Network Infrastructure—along with improved execution in Mobile Networks—which should benefit CY22 and beyond." Bank of America reiterates Verizon as buy Bank of America kept its buy rating on shares of the telecommunications company, saying business volumes remain "strong." "Wireless volumes remain strong and Verizon is entering a period of peak investment with a clear path to falling capex, rising free cash flow, deleveraging, and potential share repurchase." Citi upgrades Five Below to buy from neutral Citi said in its upgrade of Five Below after the company's earnings report on Wednesday that the stock has "standout growth at a value price." "Near-term, we are impressed that 1Q comps are expected to be only flat to down 2% against very difficult stimulus comparisons LY (last year), a reminder that their value positioning works in all types of consumer environments." Jefferies reiterates Meta Platforms as buy Jefferies said in a note to clients that it sees ad headwinds for the company formerly known as Facebook . "Key takes from our call with an ad agency expert: 1) Macro softness and tougher comps should drive slower digital ad growth in '22 vs. '21. 2) FB's Q1 ad budget grew 9% y/y with our expert forecasting 11% growth in Q2. 3) TikTok growth is impressive, but young demographic and lack of audience data are gating factors for broader advertiser adoption." Wells Fargo upgrades Baker Hughes to overweight from equal weight Wells said it sees improved liquid natural gas orders for Baker Hughes. "We have shifted valuation metrics forthe Energy Service sector to mid-cycle - a favorable change from our prior view of submid-cycle. In contrast to our prior views of roughly equal performance with the S & P 500,the Energy Services sector should outperform the broader market given current macro fundamentals, in our view." Barclays downgrades PulteGroup to equal weight from overweight Barclays downgraded the homebuilder due to the rise in interest rates. With interest rates likely set to rise more than we anticipated under our prior favorable view of homebuilders, we shift to a more defensive posture, moving to Equal Weight (from Overweight) on PHM and TMHC." Morgan Stanley reiterates Microsoft as overweight Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients on Thursday that the tech giant is one of the firm's "most preferred" names in software. "1Q22 CIO Survey again demonstrates Microsoft's strength with widespread leadership across key growth and defensive categories, and a further improvement in Cloud positioning. The combination of durable growth and reasonable valuation keeps MSFT as one of our most preferred names in software." Morgan Stanley reiterates General Electric as overweight Morgan Stanley kept its overweight rating on shares of General Electric , but said it's "cautious on the quarter." The firm says GE is a second-half 2022 and 2023 story. "The step down in 1Q22 appears more acute than in consensus, leading us to be cautious on the quarter, even if it is contemplated in FY guidance." Bank of America reiterates Marvell as buy Bank of America said in a note to clients Thursday that the stock has "long-term earnings per share power." " MRVL has been dealing with rising costs since the start of supply shortages, yet has been able to improve GMs for the last 6 qtrs by working closely with customers to effectively pass on higher costs. Wedbush reiterates Chipotle as outperform Wedbush said in a note to clients Thursday that the Mexican chain restaurant has same-store sales growth upside. "We believe CMG is poised to see accelerated market share gains in a post- COVID environment, resulting in sustained growth above pre-COVID levels and an expanding premium relative to its pre-COVID valuation." Morgan Stanley downgrades PVH to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said PVH shares will remain range-bound for the time being. "We see limited N-T catalysts while 2H-weighted guide hinges on acceleration through the year, adding risk to EPS. Expect the stock to remain range-bound for now." Wedbush reiterates Amazon as outperform Wedbush said that its most recent survey checks show Amazon is still the "king" of e-commerce. "Accompanied by the category strength, we are seeing continued strong consumer spending across many websites too, with Amazon still king."

The Disney store is seen in Times Square, New York City.

Nick Pfosi | Reuters

Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: