Here are Monday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Apple, Tesla, Netflix, PepsiCo, Micron, Meta, Starbucks and more

Published Mon, Mar 18 20248:21 AM EDTUpdated Mon, Mar 18 20249:07 AM EDT

Here are Monday's biggest calls on Wall Street: KeyBanc reiterates Apple as sector weight KeyBanc said its carrier survey checks look "moderately negative" for Apple shares. "Our February carrier survey indicates iPhone 15 sell-through was largely in line with store expectations with pockets of softness." Morgan Stanley reiterates Starbucks as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's standing by its overweight rating on Starbucks shares. "Our OW view acknowledges the tougher trends and weak sentiment at play currently which have limited participation in the stock, but we continue to see limited downside risk at current levels and believe there are catalysts over the medium to long term for what remains an attractive business for the long run." Telsey downgrades Hibbett Sports to market perform from outperform Telsey said it sees too many negative catalysts ahead for the sporting goods company. "We are downgrading our rating on HIBB to Market Perform from Outperform given that 2024 is projected to be a more difficult year than we anticipated with the comp flat to down LSD and operating margin contraction, while we had been expecting comp growth and operating margin stabilization." JPMorgan upgrades ESAB to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said the welding company is a "growth compounder." "ESAB: How to think about 1Q vs. the rest of the year? ESAB expects 2024 sales cadence of ~24.0% in 1Q, ~25.5% in 2Q, ~24.5% in 3Q and ~26.0% in 4Q." Mizuho reiterates Meta as buy Mizuho said it sees "upside to consensus" for Meta. "Our deep dive into META's key products indicates upside to consensus FY24 revenue forecast, and meaningful optionality in strategic assets." Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as neutral Goldman Sachs lowered its price target on the stock to $190 per share from $220. "We are lowering our Tesla estimates to better reflect what we believe are both production (e.g. Model 3 ramp pace, and downtime in Berlin tied to the Red Sea conflict/power loss) and market headwinds." HSBC reiterates Nvidia as buy HSBC raised its price target on the stock to $1,050 per share from $880. "We are encouraged by Nvidia's AI product roadmap which focuses on moving beyond GPUs [graphic processing unit] and towards owning the entire value chain." JPMorgan reiterates Netflix as overweight JPMorgan said it's "positive on Netflix's ability to accelerate revenue growth in 2024, expand margins, & drive multi-year FCF ramp." "NFLX shares have significantly outperformed since 4Q earnings, up +23% vs. SPX +5%, & are 12% below the all-time highs of November 2021." RBC initiates Howmet Aerospace as outperform RBC said the aerospace company has "successfully positioned itself as a high-quality aerospace supplier providing primarily exposure to the original equipment (OE) commercial aerospace cycle." "We are initiating coverage of Howmet Aerospace (HWM) with an Outperform rating and a $75 price target." Evercore ISI upgrades 1stdibs.com to outperform from in line Evercore ISI said the e-commerce company is a "self-help" story. "We are upgrading shares of DIBS to Outperform from In Line. Our PT goes to $8 from $6 based on a 2X EV/Sales multiple on our '25 Revenue." Raymond James downgrades New York Community Bank to underperform from market perform Raymond James said in its downgrade of the stock that "credit is likely to impair earnings." "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." Morgan Stanley upgrades Pepsi to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the beverage giant is undervalued. "We are upgrading Pepsi to OW from EW as our Top Pick, both in beverages and overall." Morgan Stanley initiates Ball Corporation as equal weight Morgan Stanley initiated the beverage can company and says the stock is fairly valued right now. "We are launching coverage of beverage can producers BALL, CCK, and AMBP with an In-Line view of the Paper & Packaging industry." Citi upgrades Regionals Financial to buy from neutral Citi said the regional bank is poised to "deliver strong returns." "We are upgrading RF to Buy and raising target price to $23. RF is a different theme than our other Buy rated names, which are more plays on the market not properly valuing normalized returns." Morgan Stanley names LifeStance a top pick Morgan Stanley named the mental health company a top pick on Monday. "Stay selective amidst mixed fundamentals; Moving LFST to Top Pick." Morgan Stanley reiterates Micron as underweight Morgan Stanley raised its price target on the stock to $78 per share from $74.75 and said it's sticking with its underweight rating heading into earnings later this week. "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." Wolfe initiates Dynatrace as outperform Wolfe said it's bullish on shares of the software company. "After doing our diligence on Dynatrace we came away bulled up on the company's market opportunity , product cycle, and differentiation from offering full stack observability." Bernstein upgrades Charter to outperform from market perform Bernstein said in its upgrade of the cable giant that the risks are more than priced in. "While we acknowledge that Charter has a clear set of challenges to navigate near-term, we believe that the market has more than priced in these risks given the potential persistence of the risks." Truist upgrades PagerDuty to buy from hold Truist said it sees limited downside for the IT company. "Upgrading PD to Buy; Downside Limited, Potential Upside to $30+." Bank of America reiterates Taiwan Semiconductor as buy Bank of America said Taiwan Semiconductor is 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." Bank of America upgrades Pinnacle West to buy from neutral Bank of America said it sees an improving regulatory backdrop for the utility company. "We upgrade shares of Arizona based regulated utility Pinnacle West Capital Corp. (PNW) to Buy to reflect an improving regulatory environment." Evercore ISI downgrades Prologis to in line from outperform Evercore ISI said it's waiting for a better entry point for the logistics facilities company. "On the flip side, we are downgrading Prologis (PLD) and Invitation Homes (INVH) from Outperform to In Line while SL Green (SLG) moves from In Line to Underperform." UBS reiterates Five Below as buy UBS said it's sticking with its buy rating on shares of Five Below. "In our view, for a retailer with such a good long-term outlook, the market pays a lot of attention to the short-run gyrations. In this case, there shouldn't be a lot of mystery." Wells Fargo reiterates Carnival as overweight Wells Fargo said it's bullish heading into the cruise company's earnings report later this month. "Heading into CCL's 1Q24 EPS on 3/27, we up our 1Q EBITDA to $866m (+3% vs Street), and see a nice setup for CCL to raise and drive a catchup trade vs. cruise peers. F2Q seems de-risked as Red Sea impact was already quantified."