Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: TD Cowen reiterates Amazon as outperform TD said it sees the e-commerce giant's earnings report to be "above consensus" when it reports its quarterly results later this month. "We like AMZN shares into 3Q earnings as we are 0.8% above consensus revenue with growth driven by 3P sales, advertising and AWS growth." HSBC initiates American Express as buy HSBC said it sees healthy earnings growth for American Express . "Aspirational brand, premium client base, leverage to secular growth drivers, and strong profitability underpin our positive view." Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as buy Bank of America said it's standing by Nvidia as a top pick "Big-picture, generative AI requires data center scale compute optimization, and NVDA' s systems approach stands in contrast to the narrow silicon-only approach of its rivals." Mizuho reiterates Meta as buy Mizuho said it's standing by its buy rating heading into earnings later this month. "We are positive on Meta into the print as our agency checks indicate ad revenue growth is tracking ahead of consensus, and we expect further operating leverage from increased efficiency." Stephens initiates Campbell's as buy Stephens said the stock is at an "inflection point." " Campbell's market share is stabilizing in many categories and returning to growth in others, while shares still trade more than one standard deviation." Bernstein reiterates Tesla as underperform Bernstein concluded in an analysis of Tesla that the company is more of an automaker than a tech company. "On net, we lean more towards the sentiment that Tesla is a car company, and the car industry is brutally competitive, and will not allow volume participants to have sustained outsized margins. As Warren Buffett has noted, a tough industry will ultimately triumph over great management, and we believe that it is the case for autos/ Tesla." Barclays upgrades Varonis Systems to overweight from equal weight Barclays said it sees numerous positive catalysts ahead for the software company. "More broadly, we think VRNS is transitioning to SaaS [software-as-a-service] faster, and will have catalysts ahead as the maintenance conversion accelerates." Stephens initiates Hershey as buy Stephens said the chocolate company has many "quality" brands. "Within the salty snacks category, Hershey has high-quality brands that are poised to benefit from emerging consumer trends towards subcategories like flavored pretzels and popcorn." JPMorgan initiates Post Holdings as overweight JPMorgan said in its initiation of the food and cereal company that it sees robust free-cash flow. "Importantly (and a key reason for our OW rating), Post generates strong cash flow, which may be applied in large quantities to reduce debt and buy back stock over the next two years." Read more about this call here. Morgan Stanley downgrades JD.com to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said in its downgrade of the stock that it sees a slowing recovery. "We have low conviction in a strong recovery in growth in 2024 and onward: This reflects our forecast for JD's 4Q23 revenue growth to be similar to that of 3Q23, even though the base is both lower (Covid lockdown in 4Q22) and cleaner." Read more about this call here . Gordon Haskett upgrades Dollar General to buy from hold Gordon Haskett said in its upgrade of the stock that it's bullish on the company's new CEO. "After the close (10/12), Dollar Genera l announced that former CEO Todd Vasos would be returning to the company immediately ... replacing former CEO Jeff Owen who had been at the top-spot since late last year. Read more about this call here. Wolfe downgrades Netflix to peer perform from outperform Wolfe said in its downgrade of Netflix that it's concerned about unreasonable growth forecasts. "2024 ARPU expectations look full, while today's paid-sharing net adds lead to tomorrow's gross add shortfalls. Valuation is reasonable but wouldn't withstand falling growth expectations." Read more about this call here. Baird upgrades Mister Car Wash to outperform from neutral Baird said it sees an attractive risk/reward for the stocj. "While our upgrade isn't a call on 3Q, we believe the post-2Q guidance reset sufficiently lowered the 2H23 bar." Citi upgrades Oshkosh to buy from neutral Citi said the children's clothing retailer has earnings upside. "As the sector's earnings revision cycle matures, we think OSK is an outlier with earnings momentum accelerating into 2024." Needham upgrades Lam Research and Applied Materials to buy from hold Needham it sees a semiconductor recovery as soon as this quarter. "If the current trend is sustained, we think global semiconductor sales growth could resume as early as 4Q23." Northland upgrades SolarEdge to outperform from market perform Northland said investors should buy the dip in shares of SolarEdge . "Solar demand is weak, Israel is at war, an inventory correction, a strong dollar is a headwind, and a competitor pre-announced. It is hard to imagine things could get much worse. Stock is down 50% since it reported Q2 on 8/1, likely reflecting the short-term outlook." Oppenheimer downgrades Tractor Supply to perform from outperform Oppenheimer it sees a "sales expansion lull" for the company. "Nearer-term, however, we are increasingly concerned that TSCO shares do not yet discount adequately for a potentially pro-longed, post-pandemic sales expansion lull, likely to occur as COVID-related tailwinds gradually abate." Wells Fargo reiterates Lululemon as overweight The firm said the lifestyle retailer continues to "buck the trend." "We hosted LULU CFO, Meghan Frank & VP IR, Howard Tubin for investor meetings in California. Mgmt sees solid momentum in the business w/ share gains across the globe, despite a choppy retail backdrop. All in, LULU continues to buck the trend."
