JPMorgan analyst Alex Yao says that while shares of Alibaba are likely to move lower on last night's announcement, Jack Ma's stepping down from the chairman role should not have a significant impact on the company's daily operations and long term strategic planning. The analyst believes the near-term share price movement is highly dependent on Alibaba's fiscal 2019 core commerce and consolidated profit growth outlook during its upcoming investor day.

Jefferies analyst Karen Chan believes the 12-month timeframe of Jack Ma's succession plan, and his retention of a permanent role in Alibaba Partnership, should enable a smooth transition with lower "key man risk" following next year's transition. Alibaba authorized a two-year $6B share repurchase program on May 18, 2017 and has not made any repurchase as of Sept 7, 2018, Chan tells investors in a research note. She points out that based on the last closing price of $162.37, the company may repurchase up to 37M shares until May 18, 2019. The analyst keeps a Buy rating on Alibaba with a $225 price target.

MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson lowered his price target on Alibaba to $270 ahead of its Analyst event next week, also lowering his expected FY19 EBITDA view to RMB121B from RMB131B. The analyst anticipates a 6.8% drag on commerce margin as the company prices in the impact of Ele.me investment while likely maintaining its guidance. Sanderson also expects the macro risks around China to "normalize" at higher levels, but keeps his Buy rating on Alibaba longer term to reflect expectations of China consumption doubling over the next 10 years to around $10T.

Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak raised his price target on shares of Alphabet to $1,515 from $1,325 citing the continued strong fundamentals in its core Google business as well as the growing visibility into its Waymo business. Nowak believes the current valuation of Alphabet ascribes little value for Waymo, but he also thinks the launch of Waymo's ride-hailing service by year-end can be a catalyst to realize that value. He currently values Waymo at $45B, or about $60 per Alphabet share, but notes this is only 25% of the $175B potential value he ascribes to the business. Nowak, who raised his 2018 and 2019 adjusted EBITDA estimates by 2%, keeps an Overweight rating on Alphabet shares.

Oppenheimer analyst Shaul Eyal maintained an Outperform rating on Palo Alto Networks (PANW) and raised his price target to $275 from $235 following the company's "robust" Q4 results, noting that the results "beat almost every possible metric." In a research note to investors, Eyal says that the CEO transition appears to be progressing smoothly and he "appreciated" constructive conference call commentary from CEO Nikesh Arora about his strategic vision, even though he is only 90 days into the new role. Eyal contends that Palo Alto Networks remains a "builder rather than a buyer," and that Arora's former experience -- at Google (GOOGL) and SoftBank (SFTBF) -- should not be interpreted as a sign of "future splashy acquisitions."

Citi analyst Mark May keeps Amazon.com (AMZN) as his top pick in U.S. Internet based on recent data points pertaining to company fundamentals, the near-term setup, recent stock performance, investor sentiment and changes since his last update. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Yelp (YELP), Expedia (EXPE), GrubHub (GRUB) and GoDaddy (GDDY) moved up in his rankings while Facebook (FB), eBay (EBAY), Twitter (TWTR), TripAdvisor (TRIP) and Booking Holdings (BKNG) moved down.

Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly. MORGAN STANLEY RAISES ALPHABET, AMAZON TARGETS: Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak raised his price target on shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) to $1,515 from $1,325 citing the continued strong fundamentals in its core Google business as well as the growing visibility into its Waymo business. Nowak, who raised his 2018 and 2019 adjusted EBITDA estimates by 2%, kept an Overweight rating on Alphabet shares. Additionally, Nowak expressed increasing confidence that Amazon's (AMZN) rapidly growing, high margin revenue streams will drive higher profitability and continue to push up consensus estimates. He has not made any changes to his estimates, but raised his price target on Amazon shares to $2,500 from $1,850 to reflect its improving business mix and his belief that the new target more accurately represents the company's long-term potential earnings power. He maintained an Overweight rating on Amazon shares. FERRARI UPGRADED TO BUY: HSBC analyst Giulio Pescatore upgraded Ferrari (RACE) to Buy and raised his price target for the shares to EUR 133 from EUR 114. The recent selloff on the CEO's comments regarding Sergio Marchionne's 2022 targets has provided an attractive entry point, Pescatore said. The analyst believes Ferrari's pipeline remains strong. ROYAL CARIBBEAN UPGRADED TO BUY: Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Woronka upgraded Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) to Buy and raised his price target for the shares to $146 from $135. The analyst finds the stock's valuation as "undemanding" at current share levels. Further, he sees the potential for more inflows into cruise stocks for the balance of 2018 as comps get tougher across sectors like lodging, retail, and Macau, but "relatively easier" for Royal Caribbean. JEFFERIES RAISES TARGET ON PAYPAL: Jefferies analyst John Hecht raised his price target for PayPal (PYPL) to $110 from $100 saying the company's growth story is more than just Venmo. While Venmo is an important growth driver, PayPal's core person-to-person business and mobile trends, which have been "impressive," should be followed more closely alongside the Venmo success, Hecht said. The analyst's updated analysis supports his belief that the eBay (EBAY) migration should be "very manageable" for PayPal. Further, his analysis of app downloads shows PayPal platforms "remain competitive." Hecht reiterated a Buy rating on the shares.

After examining recently announced changes to Google's ad tech suite, Wells Fargo analyst Peter Stabler notes that advertisers, agencies and other ecosystem participants have pointed to the planned deprecation of UserID data from downloadable DoubleClick ad server logs as a potential source of volatility in key ad techs markets, including third-party ad serving and demand-side platform. However, based on his checks, the analyst concludes that potential risk for Google has been overstated by competitors, risk is centered on the third-party ad serving market, and Google's larger DSP business appears relatively secure given important product advantages. The analyst reiterates an Outperform rating and $1,400 price target on Alphabet's shares.

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill lowered his price target for Snap to $11 and keeps a Hold rating on the shares. Based on third-party data analysis of Android usage, Snap's daily active users and time spent are both trending down in Q3 in the U.S., U.K., Spain, France, Germany, and Australia, Thill tells investors in a research note. While advertiser sentiment is neutral to positive, reach is capped due to declining users, the analyst contends. He lowered his 2019 revenue and EBITDA estimates to reflect greater uncertainty around users and continues to prefer shares of Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) over Snap.

Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth reiterated his Strong Buy rating Facebook, calling the recent selloff in the shares a buying opportunity. Though Facebook's growth rates are slowing, it continues to drive "massive" revenue and operating income increases, said the analyst, who sees the long-term growth story being intact given the secular growth in digital ad spending.

KeyBanc analyst Andy Hargreaves says Criteo's (CRTO) removal from the Facebook (FB) Marketing Program has no impact on his revenue or earnings estimates. The analyst reiterates an Overweight rating on the stock with a $42 price target. The removal does not change the outlook of Criteo's product performance, Hargreaves tells investors in an intraday research note. The stock in midday trading is down 10%, or $2.47, to $23.00.