Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Tesla, Alphabet, Kroger, Meta, Silvergate, UPS & more

Published Fri, Mar 3 20238:28 AM ESTUpdated Fri, Mar 3 20238:47 AM EST

Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as a top pick Morgan Stanley said it sees a "catalyst rich event path" for the tech giant. "Pent up iPhone demand, Services re-acceleration, underappreciated GM upside, and Apple's first new product launch in 8 years are near-term catalysts that support our OW rating and new $180 PT." Read more about this call here. Gordon Haskett downgrades Domino's Pizza to hold from buy Gordon Haskett said it's concerned about slowing growth for the pizza delivery chain. " DPZ will be unable to easily drive a return to 6-10% average annual system sales growth – which means the company's best-in-class 'long-term algo' days are in the rear-view mirror." UBS upgrades First Solar to buy from neutral UBS said First Solar is a top beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act. "We upgrade shares of FSLR from Neutral to Buy and within our coverage see FSLR as the most significant beneficiary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) with high visibility on capacity, revenue and earnings growth through 2026." Read more about this call here. BMO downgrades Vornado to underperform from market perform BMO said it sees leasing trouble and refinancing issues for the office real estate investment trust. "We downgrade DEI and VNO to Underperform - both have high leasing and refinancing risks." JPMorgan downgrades Hormel to underweight from neutral JPMorgan said shares of the spam maker are not fully "de-risked" yet. "We are downgrading the HRL shares to Underweight from Neutral following 1Q23 earnings and a 6% guidance cut that, in our view, does not fully de-risk earnings." Barclays names Meta and Nvidia top A.I. picks Barclays said Meta and Nvidia are top AI beneficiaries. "Investors and the media have generally focused on mega-cap players like MSFT and NVDA as the main beneficiaries of the disruption posed by expanded artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, but we believe that generative AI/large language model (LLMs) could potentially impact the everyday utility and productivity across consumer and enterprise applications." Morgan Stanley names Alphabet, Amazon and Meta top AI picks Morgan Stanley named Alphabet, Amazon and Alphabet as top picks and said AI is at an inflection point. "The leading platforms (GOOGL/AMZN/META) headline this list, and we show how AI-based advances (incremental revenue and opex efficiencies) could drive ~10%+ upside to our current price targets." Barclays reiterates Alphabet as overweight Barclays said it's standing by its overweight rating on the stock but sees it range-bound for the foreseeable future. "Despite being years ahead in AI, GOOGL shares face new risks from two vectors: 1) higher inference costs from AI assisted search results, and 2) potential query share loss to ChatGPT, Apple, Bing & others." Daiwa reiterates Tesla as outperform Daiwa said it's standing by its outperform rating after the automaker's investor day earlier this week. The firm also raised its price target on the stock to $218 per share from $200. "At current valuations, we see a favorable risk-reward ahead of multiple catalysts such as Cybertruck, Semi and lower cost EV. Our Outperform rating reflects Tesla's unique position of being a cost and technology leader with the highest amount of EV capacity to satisfy demand." Morgan Stanley reiterates Eaton as a top pick Morgan Stanley said it sees several cyclical growth drivers for the multination power management company. "Mixed cyclical signals focus us on high growth visibility where ETN remains our Top Pick." JPMorgan upgrades Kroger to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it sees an attractive risk/reward for the grocery store company. "We are upgrading the KR shares to Overweight from Neutral as we believe the risk/reward now skews favorably." JPMorgan upgrades Procter & Gamble to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it sees "compounding earnings per share" ahead for the consumer goods giant. "We are upgrading Procter & Gamble (PG) to Overweight from a Neutral rating, as we now think consensus estimates are low into the back end of 2023 or 1HFY24, a more positive setup compared to when we downgraded PG to Neutral about a year ago." Read more about this call here. Wells Fargo reiterates UPS as overweight Wells Fargo said shares of the shipping giant are "underappreciated." "We remain buyers of UPS as we look past 2023 and into the 2024 earnings opportunity. In 2023, UPS faces both earnings and sentiment headwinds. However, as the year progresses the focus will shift to 2024, where we see case for ~20% EPS growth." Read more about this call here. Jefferies upgrades Marathon Petroleum to buy from hold Jefferies said it's bullish on shareholder returns from the energy company. "We upgrade MPC to Buy with a PT of $157. Our rating is driven by a step-up in margin capture to the high ~90%s from the prior avg of ~90%. Strong FCF generation, cash balance, and distributions from MPLX give us confidence in MPC's ability to return capital to shareholders through the cycle." Goldman Sachs reiterates Costco as buy Goldman said it's standing by shares of the big box retailer after its earnings report on Thursday. "We continue to have conﬁdence in COST's value proposition continuing to resonate with consumers, while the company's scale and limited SKU model enable it to manage cost pressures. We reiterate our Buy rating with an updated 12-month price target of $538." Morgan Stanley names Eli Lilly as a catalyst driven idea Morgan Stanley named Eli Lilly as a catalyst driven idea, saying that the stock "levered" to a likely positive outcome from upcoming obesity drug trials. "Data for Novo's landmark obesity outcomes study, SELECT, are expected around mid-2023. ... .Novo is conducting the Ph3 SELECT trial evaluating the ability of Wegovy (injectable GLP-1 drug) to lower the risk of cardiovascular events in people with obesity." Goldman Sachs adds Rio Tinto to the conviction buy list Goldman added the metals and mining company to its conviction buy list and said it has an attractive valuation. "We are Buy rated on RIO and add to the CL due to: (1) compelling relative valuation vs. peers." Goldman Sachs moves Silvergate to a suspended rating Goldman changed its rating on the crypto bank company to not rated and says it doesn't have enough information on the stock. "We have suspended our investment rating, price target and earnings estimates for Silvergate Capital Corp because of insufficient information on which to base an investment view." HSBC names Ferrari a top pick HSBC said Ferrari is one of the firm's top auto picks and that it has earnings momentum. "Our preference is split between long-term value creation and near-term positive earnings momentum."