Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America downgrades Advanced Micro Devices to neutral from buy Bank of America said it’s concerned about market share gain potential slowing. “Higher competitive risks in AI against best-of-breed NVDA’s dominance, and growing cloud preference for custom chips from MRVL/AVGO, limiting AMD’ s market share gain potential…” Morgan Stanley upgrades Reddit to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said the engagement and ad pipelines for the social media platform are “flowing.” “We think it’s still early for RDDT’s platform as we expect RDDT’s engagement and advertising pipelines to drive industry leading user, time spent and ad rev growth.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Nvidia as overweight Morgan Stanley said the tech giant is best positioned for AI growth. “Our Top Pick is NVDA, and we remain very positive on AI idiosyncratic growth drivers while lackluster cycle plays limit options elsewhere.” Goldman Sachs initiates Atour Lifestyle Holdings as buy Goldman said it’s bullish on the China hotel chain. “Having a relatively short history – only founded in 2013 – Atour is one of the fastest-growing chain hotel operators in China, with its hotel count more than tripled, or +30% CAGR from 420 at end-FY19 before the pandemic to 1.5k as of end-3Q24, covering close to 200 cities nationwide.” UBS initiates Elanco as buy The firm said it’s bullish on the pet health company. “We launch coverage of ELAN with a Buy and $18 PT. Wells Fargo upgrades C.H. Robinson to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its upgrade of C.H. that the third party logistics company is well positioned. “We’re upgrading to OW from EW and setting a $130 price target, as we see a unique opportunity for earnings to compound through ’27, driven by improved execution (led by technology), which should lead to share gains and margin expansion. ” Deutsche Bank initiates First Citizens as buy Deutsche Bank said it has a favorable long term view of the commercial banking company. “We are initiating coverage on First Citizens (FCNCA; market cap of ~$31b and total assets of $220b), with a BUY rating and PT of $2600; representing 18% upside potential vs. the 12/6 closing price.” Bernstein upgrades JD.com to outperform from market perform Bernstein said the China retailer is well positioned heading into 2025. “A macro environment where government support acts as a periodic crutch for durables consumption should favour JD … and JD’s greater focus on profit growth versus market share should help to protect earnings in a downside case for macro and consumption incentives.” Jefferies initiates Six Flags as buy Jefferies said it’s bullish on the combined companies of Six Flags and Cedar Fair. “We initiate with a BUY rating on FUN. ” Jefferies upgrades McCormick to buy from hold Jefferies said it sees growth potential for the food products company. ” MKC’s meal-related portfolio positioning provides a more favorable backdrop, advantaged core category growth potential, and increased defensibility compared to other large-cap branded food manufacturers.” JPMorgan reiterates Broadcom as overweight JPMorgan said it’s bullish on the stock heading into earnings on Thursday. ” Broadcom is set to report October quarter (F4Q24) earnings Thursday, and we continued to see a strong demand profile for its AI products combined with continued cyclical recovery in its diversified semiconductor (ex-AI) end markets (e.g., enterprise, server/storage) and VMWare revenue synergy unlock.” Citi upgrades Xylem to buy from neutral Citi said the water solutions company has “good growth” potential. “We’re also upgrading XYL given what we view as good growth potential over time and relatively modest valuation vs. historical levels.” Jefferies downgrades Biogen to hold from buy Jefferies said in its downgrade of Biogen that the setup looks “tough” heading into 2025 for the biotech company. “We move to HOLD as 2025 has a tough setup.” Wells Fargo upgrades Real Real to overweight from equal weight Wells said in its upgrade of RealReal that the luxury retailer is the “next big turnaround” story. “The story has changed, and the market has not fully caught up yet. As the margin structure has shifted and top-line growth is re-accelerating, we see material room to run from here. Morgan Stanley downgrades Bank of America to equal weight from overweight The firm said it sees a more balanced risk/reward. “We are downgrading BAC to EW as we now see a more balanced risk reward and prefer money centers with a higher skew to capital markets.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Bank of New York Mellon to overweight from equal weight The firm said the financial services company has robust operating leverage. “Upgrade to Overweight from Equal-weight, $94 PT: Operating leverage — the number one driver of Large Cap Bank stock alpha — is BK’s North Star.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Jefferies to overweight from equal weight The firm said it sees “favorable” M & A conditions for the investment bank and financial services company. “Laterally-hired MDs [managing director’s] bring decades of experience and relationships and can typically fully ramp in around three years. Hires during the 2022/2023 downturn are now well into their ramping periods at a time when M & A deal conditions look increasingly favorable. Top way to play recent MD hiring: Jefferies (JEF, OW).” TD Cowen upgrades Blackstone to buy from hold TD Cowen said in its upgrade of Blackstone that the alternative asset management company is well positioned. “We like the set-up on the shares into ’25E, with the recent pull back offering an opportunity to add another high quality Alt Manager to our Buy roster.” Barclays upgrades Robinhood & Charles Schwab to overweight from equal weight Barclays said Robinhood is a beneficiary of a changing regulatory environment. The firm said Schwab should see improving margins. “we see SCHW’s medium-term EPS growth trajectory as one of the ‘easiest’ in our coverage, with cash sorting and M & A-related attrition likely coming to an end, supporting meaningful NII [net interest income] and NIM [net interest margin] improvement over the next few years, while for HOOD, we see a uniquely differentiated growth opportunity set and an increasingly demonstrated ability to execute.” Bank of America upgrades PayPal to buy from neutral The firm said the stock is a turnaround story. “We upgrade PYPL to Buy from Neutral. Just over a year after C-level management change, PYPL is demonstrating increased turnaround progress, warranting a higher valuation multiple.” Bank of America downgrades Capital One to neutral from buy Bank of America said the Trump trade has played out for Capital One. “We are downgrading Capital One (COF) to Neutral from Buy after a strong run. Following the election, shares for COF rallied as investors believed the potential Discover (DFS) acquisition would be more likely to close as the Trump administration is considered to be more accommodative of bank M & A.” Bank of America downgrades SoFi to underperform from neutral The firm said the stock is overvalued right now. ” SOFI has already provided long-term guidance and even assuming SOFI achieves the high-end of the range, shares are trading at 20x ’26 EPS, a premium to peers. At this valuation, we view risk-reward less favorably and downgrade from Neutral to Underperform.” Bank of America upgrades TaskUs to buy from neutral Bank of America said the outsourcing company is “best in class.” “We upgrade TaskUs (TASK) to Buy from Neutral as we believe material and sustainable revenue growth acceleration to double-digits may be closer than consensus expects, while margins remain best-in-class.” JPMorgan upgrades Synchrony to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said the consumer financial services company is undervalued. ” SYF’s discount to the SPX remains wider than its historical average (creating the opportunity for relative outperformance).” Truist upgrades Newell Brands to buy from hold Truist said the consumer goods company is a turnaround stock. “We are upgrading Newell Brands (NWL) to Buy from Hold and raising our 12-month price target to $17 from $10.” Benchmark initiates Rivian as buy The firm says it likes the EV company heading into 2025. “We are initiating coverage of RIVN with a BUY rating and a $18 PT.” Deutsche Bank names Tesla a top 2025 pick Deutsche said the stock is well positioned in 2025. “While there has been debate over the right approach to achieving full autonomy, our view is that true commercial success in robotaxi is achieved through end-to-end AI. As such, we believe Tesla is well positioned.” JPMorgan upgrades Nokia to overweight from neutral The firm said the telecom company is poised for a “re-rating.” “This makes Telecom equipment companies like Nokia relatively interesting to investors. Nokia goes into ’25 with beatable earnings estimates and thus we upgrade the stock to Overweight (from Neutral) and adjust our Dec-26 target price to €6.05.” JPMorgan upgrades Victoria’s Secret to neutral from underperform The firm said comps are easing for shares of Victoria’s Secret. “Our math points to a +mid-single-digit comp growth opportunity throughout 1H25 (above Street +0.9%) carrying forward our modeled 2H24 comp CAGR of -2.2%.” Citi upgrades Timken to buy from neutral Citi said the engineered bearings manufacturer is attractive at current levels. “We upgrade TKR to Buy from Neutral and raise our TP to $90 from $85.” Roth MKM reiterates Amazon as buy The firm said the e-commerce giant is a top idea in 2025. ” AMZN is our top Mega Cap pick for 2025.”
