Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Tesla, Amazon, GE, Home Depot, Elanco, SeaWorld & more

Published Thu, Apr 20 20238:35 AM EDT

Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Thursday: Truist downgrades TripAdvisor to hold from buy Truist said in its downgrade of TripAdvisor that it sees better value elsewhere. "Our rating is now at Hold, previously Buy, as we move our estimates and outlooks to be more in-line with our outlooks (updating views on travel, costs, and related KPIs) and valuations on our other travel-related names." Piper Sandler downgrades Bath & Body Works to neutral from overweight Piper said in its downgrade of the stock that it sees little room for upside. "In short, expectations for BBWI have been elevated since the company issued what seemed to be rather conservative guidance on the FQ4 call." Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as buy Goldman says Tesla's earnings report on Wednesday was a "negative" but that it's standing by the stock. The firm did lower its price target to $185 per share from $210. "We believe the report was an incremental negative, with the company's pricing actions pressuring the automotive gross margin excluding credits by more than we had expected." Read more about this call here. Raymond James upgrades Capri to strong buy from outperform Raymond James said in its upgrade of the owner of Michael Kors that it sees an attractive risk/reward potential. "After disappointing during F3Q results and significantly lowering the consensus bar for FY24, we believe CPRI is poised to report better-than-expected results. With a P/E of ~6.5x we think the stock's risk/reward significantly favors upside potential." Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America says it's standing by Amazon heading into earnings next week. "Recession risk clouds the revenue outlook (especially for AWS), but with an investment cycle ending (see shareholder letter), Online retail share gains, and a large cloud opportunity ahead, we continue to like the stock on depressed valuation vs. history." Bank of America upgrades WestRock to buy from neutral Bank of America said in its upgrade of the packaging solutions company that it sees "transformation benefits." "We upgrade WestRock to Buy from Neutral. Why? There are lots of risks with WRK, but its 10x P/E and 7x EV/EBITDA on our 2023 estimates pay investors sufficiently to wait for its transformation benefits." Jefferies upgrades General Electric to buy from hold After a change in analyst coverage, Jefferies upgraded the stock and says it's bullish on GE's aerospace division. "GE Aerospace will have a clearer story to tell following the GE Vernova spin in early 2024, which we believe is one of the better positioned stories to the aerospace ramp." Atlantic Equities reiterates Home Depot and Lowe's as overweight Atlantic Equities said in a note that investors should buy any weakness in the home improvement stocks. " Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW) have underperformed YTD, weighed down by concerns regarding tough comps and an economic slowdown, with soft Q1 trends likely to compound these fears." Jefferies downgrades Raytheon to hold from buy Jefferies said in its downgrade of Raytheon that it's concerned about profit headwinds for the aerospace and defense company. "We see risk to the 2025 updated FCF target of $9BB, which represents a steep ramp from ~$4.8BB expected for 2023 and is largely predicated on growing the bottom line with likely headwinds around working capital and Pratt profitability." Stephens upgrades Shift4Payments to overweight from equal weight Stephens said in its upgrade of the payments processing company that investors should buy the dip and that it sees no validity to a recent short report om the stock. "We are upgrading FOUR to Overweight from Equal-Weight, as we see minimal validity to the Blue Orca short report which has created an attractive entry point for shares." Wells Fargo upgrades Emerson Electric to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its upgrade of Emerson that it sees "underappreciated value." "Uncertainty has been a 2-year+ overhang. That's now reduced, leaving attractive upside on historical relative valuation, and more on execution that can drive relative value expansion." Bank of America downgrades NetApp to underperform from neutral Bank of America said in its downgrade of the hybrid cloud data services company that it sees weaker demand. "We are downgrading shares of NTAP from Neutral to Underperform based on our view: (1) Product rev growth will be challenged in F24 given weaker demand environment, (2) Slowdown in public cloud creates a growth headwind through F24." Bank of America downgrades Citizens Financial to neutral from buy Bank of America said in its downgrade of Citizens Financial that it sees better value elsewhere in the regional bank sector. "While we don't see absolute downside in the stock from current levels, we don't believe valuation support will be enough to drive sustained stock outperformance and we see better relative risk/reward elsewhere in the group." UBS downgrades Sea Limited to neutral from buy UBS said in its downgrade of the Singapore-based tech conglomerate that it sees a lack of visibility. "While our thesis on acceleration of profitability has played out and Sea continues to make progress on margins; growth outlook for 2023 remains uncertain due to changing competitive environment." Bernstein reiterates Tesla as underperform Bernstein called Tesla's first-quarter earnings on Wednesday "disappointing." "The company missed materially on auto gross margins (18.3% vs. 21.1%), contributing to an EPS and FCF miss. We lower our EPS to $2.79 from $3.54 and see potential downside, as our model assumes no further cuts." Read more about this call here. Barclays upgrades Elanco to overweight from equal weight Barclays said in its upgrade of the pet health company that it sees an attractive risk/reward for Elanco. "Risk-reward attractive, with completion of Bayer integration; likely improved operating metrics from 2H. Multiple catalysts (approvals & launches) could drive re-rating over next year." Morgan Stanley initiates SeaWorld as overweight Morgan Stanley said in its initiation of SeaWorld that it sees an attractive risk/reward. "With valuation well below pre-pandemic levels, even relative to other consumer sectors, we see an attractive risk/reward skew despite macro risks. Initiate OW FUN, OW SEAS,seaw EW SIX." Redburn downgrades Charles Schwab to sell from neutral Redburn said in its downgrade of Charles Schwab that the stock is negatively effected by the Fed's tightening cycle. "The Fed's aggressive tightening cycle is posing a challenge to Charles Schwab's increasingly bank-oriented business model."