Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
POTENTIAL UPSIDE TO AZURE'S ESTIMATES: UBS analyst Karl Keirstead assumed coverage of Microsoft (MSFT) with a Buy rating with a price target of $243, up from $232. The analyst cited the potential for upside to the company's Azure revenue estimates in 2021-2022 as enterprises proceed with plans to accelerate cloud infrastructure adoption. Keirstead also expects market share gains from Microsoft along with "strong" Office/Windows E5 adoption as large customers start consolidating more with their largest strategic vendors.
The analyst also assumed coverage of
LONG-TERM WINNER: JPMorgan analyst Nick Lai upgraded NIO Inc. (NIO) to Overweight from Neutral with a price target of $40, up from $14. China's new energy vehicle penetration is set to accelerate from here and quadruple by 2025, Lai told investors in a research note. In China's smart electric vehicle market, the analyst expects NIO to be a long-term winner in the premium space among Chinese brands versus Xpeng (XPEV) leading the mass market. Tesla (TSLA) is driving "a rising tide lifts all boats" phenomenon, said Lai, who believes the China market is not "winner takes all." Despite NIO's year-to-date rally, its valuation suggests "meaningful upside in the long term," the analyst contended.
MOVING TO THE SIDELINES: Wells Fargo analyst Edward Kelly downgraded Kroger (KR) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $34, down from $38. The analyst believes Kroger remains a key beneficiary of the COVID pandemic, but the risk/reward no longer looks favorable to him with the benefit past its peak and the stock still close to its recent high. While he fully expects results to be strong over the next few quarters, Kelly believes it makes sense to scale back from this name based as the market has stopped buying earnings upside, the other side of COVID could be a slippery slope for Kroger, and valuation no longer compensates investors for the risk of owning a unionized grocer.
BUY AUTOZONE: Raymond James analyst Matthew McClintock upgraded AutoZone (AZO) to Strong Buy from Outperform with a price target of $1,565, up from $1,500. McClintock believes AutoZone is the proven, best-in-breed, consistent, long-term retail story that investors only get few chances over an entire career to acquire at a discount. The analyst also notes that management gave rare forward commentary for the first time in at least five years, and believes it was positive for both the forward quarter and forward year.
SLOWLY IMPROVING: Loop Capital analyst Laura Champine upgraded American Eagle (AEO) to Hold from Sell with a price target of $15, up from $9. The company's business is slowly improving, and while there is still "massive uncertainty" heading into the holiday, consumers are more "eager" to return to a more normal lifestyle, the analyst told investors in a research note. Champine added that American Eagle's back-to-school season was down from last year, but there is a likelihood of sequential improvement that exceeds her prior forecasts.
American Eagle
+0.415 (+2.81%)
AutoZone
+26.32 (+2.26%)
Kroger
-0.715 (-2.06%)
Tesla
+8.45 (+1.89%)
XPeng
+1.27 (+6.47%)
Nio
+3.325 (+15.38%)
Citrix
-1.17 (-0.81%)
DocuSign
+5.41 (+2.27%)
Veeva
-0.61 (-0.20%)
Acquired by AVGO
+0.81 (+0.52%)
Bought by CSCO
-9.33 (-4.32%)
Salesforce
+0.31 (+0.12%)
ServiceNow
-1.98 (-0.38%)
Workday
-0.62 (-0.27%)
Oracle
+0.485 (+0.80%)
Microsoft
+0.71 (+0.32%)