Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said in a note previewing Apple earnings later this month that it’s a “high quality name to buy on pullbacks.” “We expect June Q results slightly below Street and toward the lower end of guidance, with Mac & Services underperformance more than offsetting solid iPhone results. We see potential for more guarded Sept Q commentary, but view AAPL as a high quality name to buy on pullbacks.” Bernstein upgrades Alibaba to outperform from market perform Bernstein said in its upgrade of the China tech company that it sees an attractive risk/reward outlook. “We are upgrading Alibaba as we expect the company’s incremental GMV share to improve in the coming quarters as we lap the merchant exodus last year and softer macro comps, and expect lower strategic initiatives spend to drive acceleration in China Commerce EBITA growth.” Read more about this call here. Bernstein initiates Atlassian, Datadog and ServiceNow as outperform Bernstein said the software companies are long-term winners. “We aspire to see through the fog of the future, and identify companies that remain on the path to becoming long-term growing cash platforms. The names we selected for coverage all dream big, and aspire to become entrants to the long-term winner club.” Read more about this call here. Bernstein downgrades Cummins to market perform from outperform Bernstein said in its downgrade of the power-generation products maker that Street estimates are too high. “We are downgrading Cummins from Outperform to Market Perform and adjusting our price target from $238 to $190, implying 7% downside potential to the current share price.” Bank of America downgrades Hologic to neutral from buy Bank of America said it sees too many headwinds for the medtech company. “Despite HOLX’ s admirable progress in revamping the core business, as well as diagnostic (Dx) share gains during the Covid (C19) pandemic, we believe that the macro environment, ongoing supply chain issues, the roll-off of C19 testing, and F/X headwinds will hamper core growth and operating margin (OpM) expansion heading into FY23.” Susquehanna initiates Caesars as negative Susquehanna said in its initiation of the casino stock that it sees a “difficult” operating outlook. “While CZR navigated three Houdini-like transactions since 2020 (closing a merger four months after the pandemic started; horse trading multiple assets; narrowly closing sale of non-U.S. WH assets to 888), we think the ‘clock’ has run out and creates a difficult operating outlook for them.” HSBC upgrades Chevron to buy from hold HSBC said it sees an attractive entry point for Chevron . “Oil price-driven sector correction leaves valuations looking attractive once more — we see > 20% upside to our targets.” Read more about this call here. Bank of America upgrades Check Point to buy from underperform Bank of America said in its upgrade of the software tech company that it has a high level of visibility on the stock in quarters ahead. “We upgrade Check Point to Buy from Underperform, and flag Check Point and Amdocs as providing investors with the highest levels of visibility and stability over the next few quarters.” Bank of America downgrades Arista and Juniper to underweight from buy Bank of America downgraded several networking stocks and said it sees deteriorating financials. “Downgrading JNPR , ANET, FFIV. Despite recent valuation declines, we downgrade the ratings of a few Networking stocks, as we believe investor expectations are still not aligned with the forthcoming deterioration in the financials. Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said in its earnings preview note that the consumer outlook is “cloudy” but it’s “positive” on depressed profits and valuation. “A mazon (AMZN) reports 7/28 and we are lowering 2022 & 2023 estimates to reflect recent FX pressure and BofA outlook for mild 4Q recession.” Stifel upgrades Netflix to buy from hold Stifel upgraded Netflix after i ts earnings report on Tuesday and says it sees the stock stabilizing and that subscriber losses are overblown. “We are upgrading shares of Netflix to Buy. With signs of stabilization in the subscriber base emerging, we believe the prospect of a prolonged period of subscriber losses is becoming increasingly unlikely.” Read more about this call here. Argus downgrades Weyerhaeuser to hold from buy Argus downgraded the timberland company due to a cooling housing market. “We expect Weyerhaeuser’s results to be hurt by lower lumber prices and a slowdown in new residential construction.” Stifel downgrades Allbirds to hold from buy Stifel said in its downgrade of the footwear company that inventories appear “alarmingly high.” ” BIRD shares present unique opportunities and risks given that inflection to EBITDA profitability is delayed until FY23 at the earliest.” Wolfe downgrades PayPal to peer perform from outperform Wolfe said in its downgrade of the stock that it’s recession sensitive. “We are downgrading PYPL from Outperform (OP) to Peer Perform (PP) due to the company having among the highest recession sensitivities and based on valuation.”
