Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Truist downgrades Procter & Gamble to hold from buy Truist downgraded Procter & Gamble mainly on valuation. “We believe the company has done a remarkable job of refocusing its product portfolio, cutting ~$10B of overhead and other costs and improving investor sentiment over the past five years. However, we now believe the current valuation of the stock fully reflects those turnaround efforts.” Citi names Meta top pick Citi said Meta is its new top pick pick based on the strength of its ad platforms. “Key among them include stabilizing trends across online advertising, but those platforms focused on ads innovation should continue to outperform, and we highlight META , our new Top Pick overall.” JPMorgan reiterates Netflix as overweight JPMorgan said it’s getting “incrementally positive” on shares of Netflix . “Incrementally Positive Coming Out of Upfront Presentation, w/Paid Sharing Broad Launch During 2Q; Overweight, $380 PT.” Jefferies reiterates Amazon as buy Jefferies said it sees a “strong AI opportunity” for the e-commerce giant. ” AMZN’s advertising platform is still laps ahead of its eCommerce competition, and all the data exhaust is creating a strong AI opportunity.” UBS upgrades Albemarle to buy from neutral UBS said it sees a compelling entry point for the lithium company. “We upgrade ALB to Buy, as we see the current inflection in China lithium pricing and 2023 earnings reset leading to increasingly positive sentiment on the stock.” Read more about this call here. Deutsche Bank names FedEx as a catalyst call buy idea Deutsche added a catalyst call buy idea on FedEx and said it’s bullish heading into earnings next month. “We believe upcoming results from FedEx next month can be a meaningful positive catalyst for shares. We see little to no risk on the quarter itself, and we are very positive on the potential for 2024 earnings and guidance relative to consensus.” Read more about this call here. Citi adds a negative catalyst watch on Williams-Sonoma Citi added a negative catalyst watch on Williams-Sonoma and says it’s concerned about a consumer spending slowdown. “We expect a SSS miss based on weakening trends in our Citi card data related to home furnishing spend and cautious commentary from retail peers regarding home demand.” Jefferies upgrades Rambus to buy from hold Jefferies said the chip interface technology company is underappreciated. “As a provider of IP and chips for acceleration and security of data transfer in data center infrastructure to the Big 3 DRAM vendors and chip designers, RMBS is a critical player for the sustainability of the semis value chain.” Susquehanna reiterates Nvidia as positive Susquehanna said it’s bullish heading into Nvidia earnings next week. “Overall, we expect better results/ guidance, driven largely by the ongoing AI gold rush.” Citi reiterates Tesla as neutral Citi said its recent survey checks show Tesla has an “impressive loyalty lead.” ” Tesla continues to sport the industry’s most impressive loyalty metrics, holding a ~67% brand loyalty rate (LTM as of Q1) vs. ~46% for luxury brands.” Deutsche Bank names Charles Schwab a top pick Deutsche Bank said it sees Schwab shares rebounding. “We are encouraged by the recent improvement in the pace of balance sheet deposit decline at SCHW, with client cash sorting continuing to moderate.” Read more about this call here. Jefferies reiterates Walmart as buy Jefferies said the big box giant is still a top pick after its robust earnings report on Thursday morning. ” WMT demonstrated strong Q1 results across the board, with Q1 net sales, SSS, GM, EBIT margin, and EPS all ahead of consensus.” Evercore ISI upgrades Teva Pharmaceuticals to outperform from in line Evercore said the pharmaceutical company is underappreciated. “Meanwhile, a very interesting setup has emerged: in spite of Teva’s cost cutting drive in last few years, 2 branded programs are approaching major clinical events.” Oppenheimer reiterates Toll Brothers as outperform Oppenheimer said the housing builder is a top pick heading into earnings next week. ” TOL will report FY 2Q23 (April quarter-end) EPS next Tuesday (5/24) afternoon. Though we expect a clean beat and optimistic commentary, expectations have ramped up since the winter and the bar has been raised for both EPS and orders.”
