Friday analyst calls: Street sticking with Pinterest, Citi upgrades Liberty Global, United Airlines could surge

Published Fri, Feb 9 20246:20 AM ESTUpdated Fri, Feb 9 20247:49 AM EST

(This is CNBC Pro's live coverage of Friday analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) With more than 60% of quarterly earnings reports in the books, analysts continued to look for winners and losers from S & P 500 companies. Pinterest rocked the market after hours Thursday when it released earnings guidance that was below expectations, sending shares down more than 9% in premarket trading. However, analysts largely have not soured on the visual discovery company, based on expected opportunities ahead. Elsewhere, Citi boosted Liberty Global ahead of the telecom's earnings report next week, and Morgan Stanley sees opportunity in aerospace leader TransDigm. United Airlines' shares got a premarket lift following an upgrade at Evercore, and Bank of America dropped its price target on Expedia. 7:47 a.m. ET CyberArk remains underappreciated, Bank of America says CyberArk stands out among its cybersecurity peers thanks to its durable growth and ongoing strong performance, Bank of America analyst Tal Liani wrote in a Thursday note. Liani reiterated CyberArk as one of Bank of America's top picks for 2024, and reiterated his buy rating on the stock. He raised the price target to $300 from $225, which implies shares could gain 14.6% from Thursday's close. This comes a day after CyberArk's quarterly results topped analysts' expectations. Strong top-line growth powered healthy margin expansion, Liani said. However, the stock is still trading at a lower valuation compared to peers such as Palo Alto and Crowdstrike. Liani said continued financial outperformance and new customer growth could help close the valuation gap this year. "CyberArk has one of the best visibility into pipeline in the cybersecurity space, giving us confidence in our estimates," Liani said. "Strong margins and relatively high growth also make the valuation attractive, even when considering the execution risks and perpetual licensing model." — Hakyung Kim 7:26 a.m. ET Bank of America steps to the sidelines on Expedia Expedia is facing uncertainty through the first half of 2024, according to Bank of America, which believes the stock is now a "2H story," or second half. Analyst Justin Post downgraded shares to neutral from buy. He also lowered his price target to $181 from $156, which implies 13.5% upside potential from Thursday's close. The company reported earnings Thursday after the bell. Bookings in the fourth quarter came in lower-than-expected, particularly in the airline and Vrbo booking segments. Shares were last trading nearly 15% lower premarket "We think bulls will highlight that estimate changes are limited, guidance risk is not that important, and the stock remains attractive at 9x our 2024 FCF estimate, which we think should support stock valuation," Post wrote in a Friday note. "Still, we think guidance set-up is harder than last year with added execution challenges and potential competitive responses that will be overhangs in 1H '24." Post said Expedia will have "a more back end-loaded top-line year" that will need strong sequential booking growth for the company to reach its guidance. Vacation rental platform Vrbo's recovery is also taking longer than forecasted, and cost streamlining efforts will result in $80 million to $100 million in expenses, Post noted. — Hakyung Kim 6:59 a.m. ET 'New strategic era' ahead for Costco, says Goldman Sachs Earlier this week, Costco announced a new chief financial officer for the first time in 40 years. This new move — which also marks Costco's first external hire for the position — could be significant for the retailer, according to Goldman Sachs. "We see a new external hire possibly bringing in ideas based on previous experience which could include a focus on building out the company's digital, media and/or fulfillment businesses," analyst Kate McShane wrote in a Friday note. She added, "While this conclusion might appear to be a big leap given Costco's ecommerce business is still relatively small as a percentage of sales, we think the build out of these alternative businesses could be the way of the future for those selling [groceries]." Incoming chief financial officer Gary Millerchip's past experience at Kroger suggests Costco could focus more on alternative revenue streams, according to the analyst. McShane reiterated her buy rating and $749 price target on shares, which suggests 3.4% upside potential from its closing price on Thursday. — Hakyung Kim 6:39 a.m. ET United Airlines shares could surge 56%, according to Evercore Evercore upgraded shares of United Airlines to outperform from in-line. The firm forecasts a shift in capital allocation and says United is becoming "more investor-friendly." Analyst Duane Pfennigwerth said he was previously on the sidelines despite United's good execution and bargain valuation, due to the company's high aircraft capex plans. "However, for the first time in years change is in the air on this front, aided by recent change in financial leadership," Pfennigwerth wrote in a Friday note. United named a new chief financial officer who appears more "attuned" to the connections between returns and valuation, Pfennigwerth said. He added that this could result in a potential change catalyst. "The company may be more receptive to a shift given very strong relative earnings momentum over the last two years did not translate to share outperformance (listening to its derated multiple and feedback from investors)," the analyst said. "While upside risks were already present given improving industry conditions (firming domestic) and May investor day, a meaningful shift/ rethink on capital allocation would be a very significant unlock catalyst for UAL shares," he added. Pfennigwerth also increased his price target to $65 from $58, which suggests shares could rally 56.2% from Thursday's close. United shares rose 2.3% in premarket trading. —Hakyung Kim 6:17 a.m. TransDigm remains Morgan Stanley's top pick in aerospace TransDigm shares closed 1.6% lower Thursday after the company lowered its earnings outlook for the year. Despite the disappointment on the weak guidance, Morgan Stanley remains bullish on the stock. The firm reiterated its overweight rating on TransDigm as its top pick designation in the aerospace market. "In our view, the relative underperformance [yesterday] was driven by higher than expected interest expense headwinds to EPS outlook paired with the stock's strong performance YTD of up ~11.5% vs. the S & P 500 of up ~4.8%," analyst Kristine Liwag wrote in a Friday note. Liwag said she is positive on the company's primary end markets. TransDigm's commercial aftermarket growth could jump to the mid-teens range due to the halt of Boeing's 737 Max model production. Liwag also kept her price target of $1,275, which implies the stock could gain about 13% from Thursday's close. — Hakyung Kim 6:05 a.m. ET Citi upgrades telecommunications firm to buy rating Citi says there's a "low hurdle" for Liberty Global ahead of its 2023 full-year results on Feb. 15. The bank's analysts upgraded shares to buy from neutral and raised the price target to $24 from $20. The new target price suggests 25.1% upside potential from Thursday's close. According to Citi's estimates, the telecommunications company could unlock value between $2.1 billion and $3.1 billion from its operating companies, including Ziggo, Sunrise, Telent and VMO2. "Overall, we believe LBTY has sufficient levers to unlock value over the next 12-18 months while also improving its balance sheet and liquidity position across at least some of the [operating companies]," analyst Georgios Ierodiaconou said in a Thursday note. To be sure, Ierodiaconou noted that 2024 will likely be a mixed year for Liberty amid forecasts of a cut to its free cash flow, but it will see some benefits from energy cost tailwinds. "Overall, we believe the hurdle for value creation is low enough and LBTY has the capacity to deliver on these in the coming years. Unlike other telcos with significant discounts in terms of valuation, LBTY is poised to take action and thus the timing of this is important," the analyst said. The stock is 7.2% higher year to date, up more than 25% from its lows in November 2023. — Hakyung Kim 5:52 a.m. ET Analysts stick with Pinterest despite letdown on sales guidance Although Pinterest shares are down Friday morning following a disappointing revenue forecast and quarterly from the company, analysts remain optimistic on the company. The stock was last down nearly 10% in premarket trading as investors digested disappointing revenue guidance, in addition to a revenue miss in the fourth quarter. However, analysts at some of Wall Street's biggest firms remain confident in the stock. Goldman Sachs, UBS, Bank of America and Citi all reiterated their buy ratings on Pinterest. UBS analyst Stephen Ju cited the sharp fall in shares as an "attractive opportunity." He is also optimistic on the company's new partnership with Google announced during a call with analysts. " Although there are current guardrails with Google bringing advertisers in territories where Pinterest does not yet monetize , this partnership can be expanded to include other regions over time " Ju wrote in a Friday note. He reiterated his $48 price target on shares, which suggests around 18% upside from the stock's closing price on Thursday. Goldman also believes the partnership with Google Ads Manager should close Pinterests' gap between user base and engagement "into a monetization driver." "In our view, PINS [management] remains focused on building scale into a wider pool of ad budgets (advertiser diversity, new product iteration and better monetization of intent signals) to drive an improved revenue trajectory in the quarters and years ahead," analyst Eric Sheridan said in a note on Friday. Bank of America's Justin Post also foresees "multiple tailwinds to aid growth and margins" this year for Pinterest. An improving macro backdrop should help growth and ad pricing, he noted. Post also expects benefits from the Google deal should start to appear in a few quarters. "Given our view on acceleration and margin expansion, we see valuation as attractive vs history (at AH price of $37, stock valued at 19x our '25 EBITDA, slightly below 20x historical average)," Post said in a Friday note to clients." — Hakyung Kim