Monday's analyst calls: Nvidia price target hike ahead of big conference, beverage giant gets an upgrade

Published Mon, Mar 18 20245:43 AM EDTUpdated Mon, Mar 18 20248:26 AM EDT

(This is CNBC Pro's live coverage of Monday's analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) Early analyst calls featured one firm calling for more gains for Nvidia and an upgrade to a major beverage and snacks maker. HSBC raised its price target on Nvidia to $1,050, which implies upside of nearly 20% for the chipmaker. Elsewhere, Morgan Stanley upgraded PepsiCo to overweight, noting that prior headwinds have now subsided. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 8:25 a.m.: BTIG reiterates Domino's as top pick BTIG is "even more confident" on Domino's Pizza's ability to deliver its financial targets over the next several years after meeting with the pizza chain's management, the firm said in a note Monday. The firm reiterated its buy rating and top pick designation. Not only is there excitement over its partnership with Uber Eats, but Domino's is benefitting from its revamped rewards program, analyst Peter Saleh wrote in a note to clients. "This revamp is driving increased loyalty membership and accelerating transaction counts, that we believe can continue for several years, and are not limited to the first three quarters of this year," he said. His $515 price target suggests nearly 17% upside from Friday's close. — Michelle Fox 8:10 a.m.: Wells Fargo raises estimates for Carnival, sees rebound ahead for stock Carnival's cruise business is off to a strong start to its fiscal year, according to Wells Fargo. Analyst Daniel Politzer said in a note to clients Monday that Carnival looks poised to beat Wall Street expectations for adjusted EBITDA, a key metric related to profitability. That should help the stock close the gap to its peers, according to Politzer. "Near term, we think CCL is ripe for a catchup trade (-12% YTD vs. cruise peers -1% and SPX +7%). CCL has solid fundamentals w/ booking trends exhibiting strong momentum, a reasonable valuation at 8.6x FY24 EBITDA (vs. NCLH's ~10x), and a fast-improving [balance sheet]," the note said. Carnival is scheduled to release its first quarter results on March 27. Wells Fargo has a $22 price target on Carnival, which is 35% above where the stock closed on Friday. — Jesse Pound 8:09 a.m.: Meta Platforms is a top 2024 pick, Mizuho Securities says Meta Platforms is a top 2024 pick investors are underestimating, according to Mizuho Securities. Analyst James Lee added the social media behemoth to its top picks for the year, saying a look into Instagram and other key products from Meta suggest there's significant revenue upside ahead. "Our deep dive into META's key products indicates upside to consensus FY24 revenue forecast, and meaningful optionality in strategic assets," Lee wrote on Sunday. "We note that improving monetization in Reels, geographic expansion and Amazon partnership of Shops, and unified ranking to optimize video placements give us incremental confidence in our above-the-Street revenue growth of 20%." Furthermore, we expect the company's L-T investments in WhatsApp, GenAI for creative, and LLM Llama could generate incrementally 65% of upside to rev/user over time," Lee wrote. The analyst already has a buy rating on the stock, and his $575 price target implies roughly 19% upside from Friday's close of $484.10. Meta shares were up by 1.4% in the premarket. — Sarah Min 7:29 a.m.: Morgan Stanley lifts price target on Micron Technology Morgan Stanley sees some downside in store for shares of Micron Technology despite the memory chipmaker's recent run higher. Analyst Joseph Moore adjusted the firm's price target to $78 from $74.75 a share, citing the market's "clear desire to pay higher multiples for AI stories." But the adjusted price objective still implies more than 16% downside from Friday's close. Along with the price shift, Moore retained the firm's underweight rating, citing oversupply concerns and a cautious view of the dynamic random access memory market. "We expect Micron to report upside around the quarter - but weakening trends in the core business put the onus on AI to carry the stock from here," he said. "We are constructive on the [high bandwidth memory] opportunity, but in our view, it's more than priced into shares at current levels." — Samantha Subin 6:58 a.m.: Citi upgrades Regions Financial, says market is 'discounting' returns Investors may be underestimating Regions Financial , according to Citi. " RF is currently earning top quartile returns, but the market is discounting these returns in part due to concerns on credit risk given performance last cycle and possibly impact on fees from regulatory reform," wrote analyst Keith Horowitz in a Sunday note. Given this perspective, he upped the firm's price target to $23 from $20 a share, reflecting 21% upside from Friday's close. Shares are down about 2% this year and rose less than 1% before the bell. Regions Financial shares are currently trading at a discount on a cost-of-equity basis as the market "questions sustainability of these returns," Horowitz wrote. "However, given strong capital position and improved credit profile, we think RF is poised to outperform and see an attractive entry point here," he said. Horowitz also sees potential tailwinds from a repricing in deposits once the Federal Reserve begins rate cuts. — Samantha Subin 6:26 a.m.: Goldman Sachs lowers Tesla price target amid production, demand woes Goldman Sachs trimmed its price target on Tesla from $220 to $190 a share as the company faces a slew of production and market headwinds. "For Tesla, while we continue to believe that Tesla is well positioned for longer-term growth given its strong position in the EV and clean energy markets … we believe that softer near-term EV market conditions are weighing on earnings," wrote analyst Mark Delaney in a Sunday note, retaining his neutral rating. The updated price target reflects roughly 16% upside from Friday's close. Shares have already fallen 34% this year as the company grapples with minor factory shutdowns, rising competition in China, and slow demand for electric vehicles. Delaney also expects a muted ramp of the Model 3 in the United States. He also noted that data suggests lower-than-anticipated volumes and deliveries in the first quarter, along with slower sales. The stock rose 3% before the bell. — Samantha Subin 6:05 a.m.: Raymond James downgrades New York Community Bancorp to underperform It's time to sell shares of New York Community Bancorp , according to Raymond James. "We downgrade NYCB shares to Underperform from Market Perform and establish a fair value estimate of $3 to reflect our view that credit costs are likely to impair earnings for the next several years, as incremental disclosures in the bank's 10-K suggest that several years of earnings will be needed to support the balance sheet remix," wrote analyst Steve Moss in a Monday note. The fair value estimate of $3 implies 23% downside from Friday's close. The stock is already down about 62% this year following a string of events since it disclosed in January that it was dramatically boosting its allowance for potential loan losses on its balance sheet, and highlighted potential commercial real estate risks. NYCB YTD mountain NYCB in 2024 While New York Community Bancorp announced a $1 billion capital raise , Moss noted that the company's $7 billion interest-only exposure to rent-regulated multi-family suggests "aggressive underwriting." "We believe this will result in an expensive resolution through [pre-provision net revenue], given new management's stated intention to sharply reduce [commercial real estate] exposure," he wrote. "Further, recent disclosures have had an adverse mix on NYCB's deposit base that will likely reduce the bank's earnings power." — Samantha Subin 5:50 a.m.: Bank of America hikes price target on Taiwan Semiconductor, calls company a 'key enabler of AI' Bank of America boosted its price target on shares of Taiwan Semiconductor as the company situates itself as a "key enabler of AI with long-lasting leadership." "We raise PO to NT$880 (US$155) as we expect the structural advanced node demand to be stronger, supported by AI strength, computing power, power and saving requirement," wrote analyst Brad Lin in a Monday note. The price hike reflects about 14% upside from Friday's close. The stock has surged more than 31% this year and gained 1.7% before the bell Lee also sees upside potential from Intel outsourcing central processing unit tiles to Taiwan Semiconductor, forecasting an increase from 3% in 2024 to 6% in 2025. This should "bode well for TSMC's industry leadership" and underscores its dominance within power, performance, area and costs, he added. — Samantha Subin 5:43 a.m.: Morgan Stanley upgrades PepsiCo It's time to buy shares of PepsiCo , according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Dara Mohsenian upgraded the beverage and snack giant to overweight from equal weight, calling it a top pick. His price target of $190 indicates upside of 15.4% over the next 12 months. Shares climbed about 2% in the premarket following the rating change. PEP YTD mountain PEP year to date "Post Q2 of 2023 EPS, we downgraded Pepsi's stock to an [equal weight] ... concerned that valuation was priced to perfection and consensus/PEP guidance on [organic sales growth] was clearly too high with an unrealistic volume rebound as pricing dissipated. Both of these issues have now played out, and we would be aggressive buyers here ahead of a powerful inflection in H2 after PEP bottoms fundamentally in Q1, and returns to above consensus and peer OSG, with PEP's valuation compression overdone." PepsiCo shares have lagged this year, losing 3%, while the S & P 500 has ripped more than 7% higher to record levels. — Fred Imbert 5:43 a.m.: HSBC hikes Nvidia price target ahead of GTC Conference HSBC sees more upside in store for shares of Nvidia as the chip giant defends its AI position and reaches new markets. "We are encouraged by Nvidia's AI product roadmap which focuses on moving beyond GPUs and towards owning the entire value chain," wrote analyst Frank Lee, adding that the company's GB200 AI platform and AI roadmap should help Nvidia gain more pricing power and reach new total addressable market opportunities. Given this backdrop, analyst Frank Lee boosted the firm's price target to $1,050 from $880 a share, reflecting nearly 20% upside from Friday's close. The stock rose about 2% before the bell. NVDA YTD mountain NVDA year to date The price hike from Lee comes as Nvidia readies for its GTC Conference , where the chip darling is expected to announce a slew of AI updates, including its latest graphics processing unit. The stock has already rallied 77% in 2024. To be sure, Lee does anticipate a transition period for the company that could create uncertainty as it moves from its older generation H100 GPUs to its B100 model. This could create some capacity tightness that prevents Nvidia from beating estimates over the next few quarters. "That said, next year is a different story," he wrote, adding that AI GPU revenue could hit $4.4 billion by the 2026 fiscal year. "We see Nvidia widening its gap again with B100 and GB200 AI roadmap." — Samantha Subin