Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls of the day: Caterpillar, Apple, Tesla, Rivian & more

Published Wed, Apr 6 20228:37 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Apr 6 20228:38 AM EDT

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Stifel initiates Occidental Petroleum as buy Stifel said the stock is "attractively valued." "Despite the stock's strong YTD performance supported by purchases of top shareholder, Berkshire Hathaway, we believe OXY remains attractively valued with a best-in-class 2022E FCF yield of 26% and 2022 EV/EBITDA more than half-a-turn below our peer group average." Read more about this call here. Stephens initiates Block as overweight Stephens said it sees "multiple expansion" for the company formerly known as Square. "We view execution against a substantial TAM (total addressable market) across Cash App & Seller serves as a catalyst for multiple expansion. SQ' s 2-sided network is a differentiator in the highly competitive FinTech and SMB (small mid size business) space, and Afterpay is a driver of synergies and connector between the 2 eco-systems." Loop initiates Upstart Holdings as buy Loop said the AI lending platform is a fintech leader. "We are initiating coverage on Upstart with a Buy rating and a $140 1-year price target with further upside potential thereafter. Upstart is a 2-sided fin-tech platform model that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and millions of data points to approve borrowers and match their loans to the risk appetite and lending policy of banks and financial buyers." Piper Sandler reiterates Apple as overweight Piper Sandler said in its latest survey on teens that Apple ownership remains high among teenagers. "Overall, we view the survey results as a sign that Apple's place as the dominant device brand among teens remains well intact." Morgan Stanley names Eli Lilly a top pick Morgan Stanley named the pharmaceutical company a top pick on Wednesday and said it's very bullish on Eli Lilly's product pipeline. The firm has an overweight rating on the stock. " LLY has the most robust new product cycle (and hence growth) outlook in Pharma as over the next 2 years the company could launch five new drugs, including tirzepatide for diabesity." Read more about this call here. Piper Sandler upgrades Synchrony to overweight from neutral Piper said in its upgrade of the financial services company that macro fears are already priced in. " SYF has come under pressure as fears of a pending recession, rising funding costs, and increasing competition have weighed on the stock." Read more about this call here. UBS reiterates Caterpillar as buy UBS said in a note to clients on Wednesday that it sees further margin growth for Caterpillar. "We still expect CAT to show outsized incremental margins as costs moderate, but with steel and other commodity prices having increased in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we expect this lift to be temporarily slightly flatter than we had previously expected before achieving the full inflection." Cowen downgrades bluebird bio to market perform from outperform Cowen said it sees limited visibility for bluebird bio 's commercial viability. "We await better visibility on commercial viability esp given high COGS (cost of goods sold) & need to raise capital." RBC reiterates Rivian as outperform RBC said in a note to clients that Rivian shares present a "strong mid-term risk/ reward profile." "We believe stronger than expected 1Q22 production is a good first step to rebuilding investor confidence. While we are cognizant of upcoming lock-up, we still believe shares reflect strong mid-term risk/ reward profile." Evercore ISI downgrades Spirit to in line from outperform Evercore said in its downgrade of the discount airline that it doesn't see a better offer for Spirit than JetBlue's. "We're lowering our rating on Spirit to In Line from Outperform as we'd be surprised if a higher offer materializes and there will likely be twists and turns along the way during the approval process. Bank of America upgrades Lear and Aptiv to buy from underperform Bank of America upgraded several auto supplier stocks on Wednesday, saying it sees a "production volume recovery." "we are making the ratings changes among our stocks: Upgrade APTV (U/P to Buy), LEA (U/P to Buy), ADNT (U/P to Neutral), VC (U/P to Neutral) on production volume recovery." Argus reiterates Alphabet as buy Argus said that the internet giant will continue its dominant leadership well into the future. "We see Alphabet as one of the tech industry's leaders, along with Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. These companies have come to dominate new developments in mobile, public cloud, and big data analytics, as well as emerging areas such as artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality, and even quantum computing." Goldman Sachs downgrades Jazz Pharmaceuticals to neutral from buy Goldman downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. "Furthermore, given average upside for Neutral-rated names in our coverage being 14% (vs 112% average upside for Buy-rated names), with current upside to our price target for JAZZ being 22%, we have moved to the sidelines for now." Bank of America reiterates Peloton as buy Bank of America said it thinks gross subscribers will beat consensus for the third quarter. "We think Peloton subscriber and content base are strong assets in the space, with advantages vs peers to transform business model under new CEO. We also think highly of new CEO Barry McCarthy's track record at subscription companies." Raymond James downgrades JetBlue to market perform from outperform Raymond James said that it doesn't see any "meaningful synergy benefit" from the Spirit deal. "We are downgrading JBLU from Outperform to Market Perform due to the increased uncertainty following the all-cash offer to acquire Spirit for $33/share. While there may be longer term merits to the deal, execution risk is greater than that of the proposed Spirit-Frontier merger with dis-synergies likely to precede any meaningful synergy benefits." Read more about this call here. Bank of America raises price target on Tesla to $1,300 from $1,100 Bank of America said Tesla shares continue to be overvalued. "Although the company may continue to face operational/financial hurdles, such as supply/demand challenges, potential future losses/cash burn, and the prospect of new competition and technology obsolescence, we believe the company can execute on further equity raises to fund accelerated growth and valuation higher."

Jim Umpleby, CEO of Caterpillar Inc.

Adam Jeffery | CNBC

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