Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: RBC upgrades Estee Lauder to outperform from sector perform RBC said it sees an attractive risk/reward. "We are upgrading EL shares to Outperform. At this point, we believe EPS and investor sentiment have troughed and believe the risk-to-reward profile skews favorable.
" Raymond James initiates Taylor Morrison as outperform Raymond James said it's bullish on shares of the homebuilder. "We are initiating coverage of Taylor Morrison Homes with an Outperform rating and a $75 price target, representing an 8.3x multiple applied to our initial 2025 EPS estimate.
" Morgan Stanley reiterates Tesla as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's standing by shares of Tesla following the release of disappointing earnings. "No big change in outlook. Tesla's muddling through the EV recession.
That's okay." TD Cowen initiates JFrog as buy TD Cowen said the software company is an attractive cloud story. "Our thesis is 1) FROG is the standard for binary mgmt w/ durable competitive advantages & is mission critical; 2) Cloud story is attractive & we see a buying opportunity after the seasonally weaker.
" TD Cowen upgrades Lockheed Martin to buy from hold TD said it sees "enhanced visibility" with F-35 deliveries restarting for the defense company. "We're upgrading LMT from Hold to Buy and hiking our PT to $560..
" Goldman Sachs upgrades Spotify to buy from neutral Goldman said it's getting bullish on the streaming media company following earnings. "On the back of Spotify's Q2 2024 earnings results, we are upgrading our rating from Neutral to Buy and raising our 12- month price target from $320 to $425." Stifel upgrades A.
O. Smith to buy from hold Stifel said it sees "margin tailwinds" for the water heating solutions company. "We are upgrading our rating on AOS shares from Hold to Buy with a $98 target price.
" JPMorgan reiterates Alphabet as overweight JPMorgan said it's sticking with its overweight rating on the stock following earnings. "GOOGL delivered solid overall 2Q results w/notable strength in Search (+14% Y/Y), Cloud (+29% Y/Y), & operating income & the company remains on the offensive in GenAI." Morgan Stanley initiates Biohaven as overweight Morgan Stanley said it sees "value creation" for the biotech company.
"We initiate coverage of BHVN with an OW rating and $58 price target." Goldman Sachs upgrades Madison Square Garden Entertainment to buy from neutral Goldman said the arena entertainment company has a "unique' business model. "We upgrade shares of MSGE to Buy (from Neutral) following recent underperformance that we believe has created an opportunity for investors to gain exposure to a unique, pure-play venues business with an attractive financial model.
" JPMorgan adds a positive catalyst watch to Apple JPMorgan said it's bullish heading into Apple earnings on August 1. "We are establishing a December 2025 price target of $265 relative to prior December 2024 price target of $245 heading into F3Q24 earnings as we expect investors to start to pivot to looking beyond CY24, and see Apple well positioned to drive higher confidence from the upcoming earnings print relative to the shares." Jefferies downgrades Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble to hold from buy Jefferies said in its downgrade of Colgate and Procter & Gamble that the stocks have come too far too fast.
"At today's valuations, the market is paying for better top-line growth and margin expansion. We see downside risk to these expectations as consumption slows, demand elasticities weaken, and pricing fades." Piper Sandler downgrades Ulta to neutral from buy Piper said shares are "less compelling.
" "We're downgrading ULTA to Neutral and lowering our PT to $404 from $494 following further analysis of the competitive and promotional state of the business as well as a deeper understanding of possible scenarios coming out of the October investor day." Deutsche Bank names Citizens Financial a top pick Deutsche said the regional bank is a new top pick. " CFG shares have been strong the past month and are now up 27% YTD vs.
+19% for peers." Gordon Haskett downgrades Five Below to hold from accumulate Gordon Haskett said it sees too much uncertainty for the stock. "Last week, Five Below surprisingly pre-announced disappointing 2Q24 to-date sales (that resulted in a lowering of its 2Q24 guidance) in conjunction with the resignation of long-time CEO Joel Anderson.
" Morgan Stanley downgrades General Motors to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley said it sees a more "balanced" risk/reward for shares of GM. " GM's fundamental improvements in capital discipline have not been ignored by the stock market." Seaport initiates Imax as buy Seaport said Imax is a "pureplay on Film release turnaround.
" "We think there is a distinct near-term opportunity for IMAX shares to start to recognize that the film industry's theatrical release schedule will start heading toward normalcy, after the production shutdown from last year's strikes impeded the cycle of releases." Cantor Fitzgerald downgrades Tesla to neutral from overweight Cantor downgraded Tesla following earnings on Tuesday. "Downgrade to Neutral on Near-Term Valuation.
" Barclays reiterates Disney as overweight Barclays said its analysis shows that theme park weakness at Universal Studios won't extend to Disney theme parks. "Another factor to keep in mind is that Disney's visibility with respect to theme park trends is probably a bit better than Universal given that Disney has a significantly larger hotel footprint linked to its parks and a large membership program that tends to provide some advance insight into traffic." DA Davidson upgrades Malibu Boats to buy from neutral DA said its checks of the boating company show an "incremental pick-up in June retail demand.
" "We are upgrading MBUU t o BUY from Neutral with a $48 PT after our latest boat industry checks revealed incremental progress re-routing Tommy's Boats inventory to other dealers, paving the way for an improved FY25.".
