Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street:
Bank of America reiterates Netflix as buy
Bank of America raised its price target on Netflix to $1,175 per share from $1,000 following earnings on Tuesday.
“We reiterate our Buy rating and raise our PO to $1,175, reflecting ~32x our increased CY26E EBITDA, driven by continued positive subscriber and earnings momentum as well as drivers including evolving advertising and live opportunities.
Wells Fargo upgrades Charles Schwab to overweight from equal weight
Wells said the bull case will “prevail” following earnings on Tuesday.
“Our call on SCHW had been that the bull/bear debate would keep shares range bound. Following a solid print and call (key elements of our positive tactical call), the bear case is weaker, and we expect the bull case to prevail.”
Barclays upgrades Netflix to equal weight from underweight
Barclays said in its upgrade of Netflix following earnings on Tuesday that subscriber growth is looking strong.
“The company’s continued outperformance largely disproves our hypothesis on growth mean reversion and while growth will slow in ’25, current operating momentum, if sustained, could drive further upside. Therefore, we upgrade the stock to EW.”
Wells Fargo upgrades 3M to overweight from equal weight
Wells said in its upgrade of 3M that margins are “moving up.”
“Early days of significant margin expansion ambition, at a time of uncertainty about the trajectory of an industrial recovery, is attractive. A willingness to work down cash and do buybacks is a strong statement on confidence in operational execution.”
UBS reiterates McDonald’s as buy
UBS said it’s standing by McDonald’s heading into earnings in early February.
“While we expect 4Q24 US sss [same-store sales] to be pressured from E. coli impacts, we’re positive on the outlook for the segment in ’25, given multiple sales drivers that should support improved trends through the year.”
Evercore ISI adds a tactical outperform on UPS
Evercore said data points are improving for shares of UPS.
“Without a fear of the next miss or lower, we believe the stock can finally revert some its material underperformance since mid-2023, and we think a meet/in-line outcome for 4Q24 and the FY25 guide could result in a short-covering event.”
Bernstein upgrades Darden to outperform from market perform
Bernstein upgraded the owner of brands like Olive Garden and said it sees margin expansion.
“DRI has upside from improvements in its core middle-income consumer cohort, rollout of UberDirect with marketing support and efficiency measures supporting margin expansion.”
Jefferies reiterates Meta as buy
Jefferies said it’s sticking with the stock heading into earnings on Jan. 29.
“Overall, we continue to be encouraged by META’s ability to sustain DD [double digit] rev growth, given the combination of higher engagement from AI investments, increased advertiser efficiency and ramping of incremental monetization formats.”
Jefferies reiterates Microsoft as buy
The firm said it’s bullish heading into earnings on January 29.
“We expect MSFT to execute well, and remain fans of LT consolidation & AI story.”
Citi resumes Disney as buy
Citi resumed coverage of the stock and said it sees an “attractive” risk/reward.
“We are resuming coverage of Disney after a period of Rating Suspended with a Buy rating and $125 target price. While Street Adj EPS estimates look a touch high to us, we believe the risk-reward is attractive at prevailing levels.”
Barclays reiterates Apple as underweight
Barclays said it’s expecting a “mixed” earnings report from Apple on January 30.
“We expect in-line to a bit softer Dec-Q as better Services growth and better Macs offset softer iPhones.”
Loop upgrades Nordson to buy from hold
Loop said it sees burgeoning growth from the adhesives manufacturer.
“We are upgrading shares of NDSN to ‘Buy’ and raising our price target to $280/share ($255 prior). Based on our analysis of key customers, we have increased conviction that organic sales growth will improve through FY25, supporting positive estimate revisions.”
JPMorgan initiates Sun Country as overweight
JPMorgan said the low-cost airline is “underappreciated.”
“Sun Country’s sizable Charter and Cargo operations, generating roughly a third of the airline’s revenue, create differentiating demand drivers not directly tied to consumer discretionary spending on air travel, which typically dictates sentiment for a low-cost carrier.”
KeyBanc reiterates Nvidia as overweight
Key said it’s sticking with its overweight rating ahead of earnings later this quarter.
“We expect NVDA to deliver in-line to higher results and in-line to higher guidance.”
Roth MKM downgrades Reddit to neutral from buy
Roth downgraded the stock mainly on valuation.
“We are downgrading our rating on RDDT shares to Neutral from Buy as we believe the near-term risk/reward is fairly balanced at current levels.”
Needham upgrades Cerence to buy from hold
Needham said the auto software solutions company has pricing power.
“We are upgrading CRNC, as we expect new, LLM-based [large language models] voice assistants to drive overall PPUs higher (Price per Unit).”
Barclays downgrades Ford to equal weight from overweight
Barclays said in its downgrade of the stock that there is “too much uncertainty on the path ahead for cost improvement.”
“While we appreciate Ford’s transformation efforts, we believe that elevated volume headwinds in 2025 due to inventory destocking and continued modest price normalization will drive downside on earnings estimates.”
Benchmark upgrades Seagate to buy from hold
Benchmark upgraded Seagate following earnings.
“While a supply constraint is expected to impact the March quarter, we see continued strong cloud demand along with growing AI business driving results in 2H25 and 2026, where we project non-GAAP earnings growing 25% y/y to $9.96/share.”
Wedbush reiterates Tesla as outperform
The firm said Tesla is in the “The Golden Age of Autonomous.”
“We are raising our price target on Tesla from $515 to $550 as we have growing confidence in the demand delivery story for 2025 along with a fast tracking of the autonomous future under the Trump Administration.”
Morgan Stanley reiterates Microsoft as overweight
The firm lowered its price target on the stock to $540 per share from $548 but said it sees an “attractive entry point.”
“Given leading positioning for the GenAI opp and a compelling valuation, concerns likely prove transitory, providing an attractive entry point for MSFT.”
