Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Arm, Meta, Ulta and more

Published Wed, Oct 18 20238:20 AM EDTUpdated Wed, Oct 18 20232:14 PM EDT

Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Wedbush reiterates Amazon as outperform Wedbush said Amazon earnings next week will be better than investors fear. "We think the company is broadly better positioned than investors fear, and we see catalysts ahead as retail margins continue to rise and AWS growth accelerates against easing comps." UBS reiterates Apple as neutral UBS said its survey checks show the wait time for Apple's iPhone Pro have shortened. "Utilizing UBS Evidence Lab data that tracks iPhone availability across 30 countries, wait times have contracted by an average of 5 days YoY amongst the US, China, Europe, and Japan for the iPhone 15 Pro." Citi reiterates Nvidia as buy Citi lowered its price target to $575 per share from $630 due to the latest U.S. export restrictions . " NVIDIA disclosed its response to latest US export restrictions in 8K yesterday. While the company does not anticipate that the additional restrictions will have a near-term impact on financial results given the strength of overall AI demand, we are de-risking our FY25/26 estimates and assume low likelihood of US government granting export licenses." Read more about this call here. KeyBanc initiates Arm Holdings as overweight KeyBanc said it sees "meaningful market share gains" for Arm. " ARM stands to benefit as computing requirements across mobile, data center, auto, and IoT become increasingly more demanding and complex; this will only increase the industry's reliance on Arm IP, ultimately resulting in royalty rate expansion and market share gains." JPMorgan reiterates Alphabet and Meta as top picks JPMorgan said Alphabet and Meta remain the firm's favorite ad names. "Macro stability and favorable Y/Y comps have been key factors, but we are also seeing a number of specific product initiatives across AI and ad tech that we believe are helping lift advertiser returns." Bank of America reiterates Microsoft as buy Bank of America said Microsoft remains a top pick heading into earnings next week. "While 1% revenue upside for Q1 is unlikely to represent a major catalyst, we see several coming as we move through FY24, such as: growing AI contribution to Azure growth (OpenAI's revenue crossed a $1.3 billion annualized run rate last week, up from a $1 billion in Aug), growing M365 Copilot contribution to office growth." Raymond James upgrades Brinker and First Watch to strong buy from outperform Raymond James upgraded the owner of Chili's and said the stock is extremely attractive. The firm also upgraded First Watch and says the restaurant company will see margin outperformance. "Against this murky backdrop, we are selectively upgrading EAT and FWRG to Strong Buy from Outperform, and more broadly recommend a fairly targeted list of stocks with some combination of 1) company specific initiatives that should be able to drive sales/margin outperformance and/or 2) attractive valuations which should provide some downside support." Jefferies upgrades Elastic to buy from hold Jefferies said the Dutch software-as-a-service company is executing well. "We are upgrading shares of ESTC on two solid quarters of execution, revenue acceleration heading into FY25, and shares trading at a discount to publicly traded peers, and 1.5 turns below the SPLK takeout." Deutsche Bank reiterates Ulta as buy Deutsche Bank said despite softening beauty sales, Ulta remains "compelling." "Bottom line: ULTA is one of our top ideas and we regard the current risk/reward profile particularly compelling." Morgan Stanley reiterates NetEase as overweight Morgan Stanley said the video game company is becoming a "powerhouse." "After tripling its market share in China in the last decade, NetEase is emerging as a global video games content powerhouse by forming synergistic partnerships with gaming industry veterans globally that will likely drive a similar runway for its global market share." Deutsche Bank adds a catalyst call buy on Avis Deutsche Bank said shares of the rental car company are cheap. "We believe the level of concern implicitly priced into the stock regarding a faster or more severe pace of 'normalization' on pricing or residual values is too extreme at current levels and we believe the stock can experience a rally as CAR's 3Q23 results and outlook are digested by the market." Bank of America names ASML a top pick Bank of America named the semiconductor company as a top pick and said growth expectations have been reset. "As we had anticipated (although we thought it would come in January), ASML reset expectations for CY24 to flat revenue growth vs prior guide of 'growth.'" Redburn Atlantic Equities initiates Nubank as buy Redburn said in its initiation of the LatAm bank that it has a robust balance sheet. " Nubank is the world's premier neobank and its equity story continues to improve. It has penetrated only 2% of a $2.7trn addressable market in Brazil and is poised for growth in high-return, low-risk payroll lending over the next three years." Guggenheim reiterates Walmart as buy Guggenheim said it's standing by its buy rating on shares of the retail giant. "We believe in WMT's long-term strategy and the leadership of Doug McMillon, who offers a steady hand and a long-term perspective while minding the near-term pressures and expectation." Bank of America downgrades Sherwin-Williams to underperform from neutral Bank of America downgraded the paint company due to weak housing demand. "Given more potential upside in the upstream names, we have trimmed valuation multiples for Sherwin and Ecolab, with Sherwin moving to Underperform due to potentially weak demand in housing starts, turnover, and remodeling." Guggenheim reiterates McDonald's as buy Guggenheim said it sees accelerating growth over the coming years for the fast-food giant. "We continue to like MCD as a Buy with fundamental business tailwinds and what we expect will be accelerating global unit growth over the next several years."