Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Rivian, Oracle, Teladoc, Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart & more

Published Fri, Aug 12 20228:47 AM EDT

Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: DA Davidson initiates Teladoc as buy DA Davidson said it sees upside for the the telehealth company. "COVID created unprecedented tailwinds for the market, which turned into headwinds; we believe we are now at stable to growing penetration rates for telehealth, and that Teladoc is well-positioned to continue to lead the market's growth and evolution, and see upside to the stock at current levels." Read more about this call here . Guggenheim initiates Oracle as buy Guggenheim said Oracle has strong momentum and could see a stock re-rating. "Following several years of low single-digit growth, Oracle began to see a material uptick in FY22, driven by accelerating organic Cloud revenue and the best database performance in 8 years." KeyBanc downgrades Six Flags to equal weight from overweight KeyBanc said that Six Flags earnings report on Thursday was "indefensible." "We dislike reactionary downgrades, but we had couched 2Q as a "put up or shut up" quarter, so here we are, and the results were indefensible, in our view." Goldman Sachs downgrades Utz to neutral from buy Goldman said in its downgrade of Utz that it sees "strong momentum balanced by premium valuation." " Utz's results were solid. Management continues to execute well both behind its core business and recent acquisitions to drive a consistent beat-and-raise cycle with exceptional growth and margin delivery in 2Q22." Wedbush downgrades Lennar to neutral from outperform Wedbush said it doesn't see any near-term positive catalysts for the homebuilder. "We are downgrading Lennar to NEUTRAL from OUTPERFORM. At current levels, the shares are within 5% of our unchanged $88 price target, and we do not see a new catalyst to increase our target." Loop reiterates Bed Bath & Beyond as sell Loop said the most recent "meme stock short squeeze" craze doesn't change the firm's long-term fundamental view of the company. "Thus, while we are cognizant of the old Wall Street saying 'markets can remain irrational a lot longer than you and I can remain solvent,' we nonetheless reiterate our Sell rating and $1 price target." Read more about this call here. Bank of America reiterates Rivian as buy Bank of America said the electric vehicle company is in the "right place/time with right product/strategy." "Despite what seems to be a tougher 2022 than initially envisioned and stock market volatility that has created challenges for some start-up EV OEMs in getting much needed low cost capital, our Buy rating on RIVN is predicated on our view that the company is one of the most viable among the start-up EV automakers and also a relative competitive threat to incumbent automakers." Loop reiterates McDonald's as buy Loop said its survey checks show that same-store sales are tracking ahead of expectations. "Our latest McDonald's U.S. franchisee checks indicate same-store sales growth is tracking ahead of expectations to date in 3Q." Morgan Stanley upgrades Ciena to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the telecommunications and networking software company is well positioned going forward. "We think CIEN sets up well over the coming Qs given a strong service provider and cloud spending environment, coupled w/ seemingly bottoming conditions on supply chain." Read more about this call here. Wolfe initiates Bunge and Archer-Daniels-Midland as outperform Wolfe initiated several biofuels companies on Friday and said it sees "long-term secular demand." "We are initiating on BG and ADM as an extension of our Biofuels coverage, expanding to feedstocks and related markets. We are Outperform on both stocks as we see long term secular demand growth in vegetable oils driven by biofuels, which is the focus of this sub-sector note." Cowen downgrades The RealReal to market perform from outperform Cowen said in its downgrade of The RealReal that it sees a "bumpy path" to profitability for the online luxury fashion store. "We move to the sidelines as revenue growth volatility and labor pressures in 2H cloud visibility to longer term goals of 2024 profitability." Telsey reiterates Target as outperform Telsey said it's bullish heading into earnings next week and that it sees shares going higher later this year and into 2023. "In our view, Target's near-term challenges are already reflected in the current P/E valuation of ~13x on our 2023 EPS estimate of $13.51 vs. its typical trading range of 17x-18x in the past few years." Cowen downgrades Sally Beauty to market perform from outperform Cowen said in its downgrade of the beauty retailer that it sees "decelerating trends." "We downgrade SBH to Market Perform as we see risks to Street's FY23 estimates given weaker consumer sentiment at the low end, gross margin compression risk from higher promotional activities, and while heavy concentration in hair color/care has been a stable positive, this may become a risk on tougher compares." Bank of America adds GlobalFoundries to the US1 list Bank of America added the semiconductor manufacturing company to its top picks list. "We are adding GlobalFoundries Inc. (GFS) and removing Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) from the US 1 list. AVGO remains Buy-rated." Morgan Stanley reiterates Walmart as overweight Morgan Stanley said in a note to clients on Thursday night that Walmart's margin pressure is likely temporary. "We don't know how much excess inventory WMT needs to work through in 2H, and margins could still see a drag from markdowns – but it shouldn't linger into next year based on our math."

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