Check out today's top analyst calls from around Wall Street, compiled by The Fly.
'OPERATIONALLY CHALLENGED': R5 Capital analyst Scott Mushkin downgraded Walmart (WMT) to Sell from Hold with a price target of $131, down from $157, after his visits to approximately 40 supercenters across multiple states revealed four "long-term fundamental problems" he sees the company needing to fix. According to Mushkin, Walmart's overall store execution and customer experience must be improved; its freshness standards need a significant upgrade; its out-of-stocks, overstocks and understocks must all be addressed and corrected; and more capital needs to be invested, particularly to improve its omnichannel offerings.
ALIBABA TO CONTINUE TO OUT-COMPETE RIVALS: Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu initiated coverage of Alibaba (BABA) with a Market Perform rating and HK$270 price target. Armed with generous access to capital, massive troves of data, and access to consumers via push notifications, Zhu says Chinese Internet companies have long track records of creating new markets. The analyst expects Alibaba to continue to out-compete and out-spend offline rivals, and projects strong growth across most key end markets.
The analyst also started coverage of
'SUPERSTRUCTURE' OF BUSINESS: Baird analyst Ben Kallo raised the firm's price target on Tesla (TSLA) to $728 from $488 and reiterated an Outperform rating on the shares ahead of the company's fourth quarter results on Wednesday. After breaking ground on factories in Berlin and Austin, launching Shanghai operations in earnest and keeping promises of selling 500,000 cars in 2020, Tesla is entering the next stage of its evolution, Kallo told investors in a research note. CEO Elon Musk "may be interested in proposing to combine his business interests into one superstructure," the analyst speculated. Kallo believes bias for the stock remains to the upside in the near-term.
BUY WELLS FARGO: Credit Suisse analyst Susan Roth Katzke upgraded Wells Fargo (WFC) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $40, up from $35. The company with its fourth quarter results offered both targets and disclosure to increase clarity on the path to improved returns, Roth Katzke told investors in a research note. The combination of evident progress, incremental investment, excess capital and the inherent franchise opportunity reduce the downside risk and render the aspiration of a 15% return on tangible equity achievable, in time, the analyst said.
DOUBLE DOWNGRADE: Telsey Advisory analyst Joseph Feldman double downgraded GameStop (GME) to Underperform from Outperform with a $33 price target. The analyst sees a "disconnect" between GameStop's fundamentals and its valuation following the recent surge in the shares. Further, Feldman says the 10-fold advance in the stock since his September upgrade "far exceeds" his high fundamental expectations." GameStop's enterprise value to EBITDA valuation multiple is now at about 33 times, significantly ahead of many leading retailers and the company's 10-year average, Feldman added.
Tesla
+32.29 (+3.81%)
Wells Fargo
-0.18 (-0.56%)
Walmart
-1.96 (-1.34%)
Alibaba
+4.775 (+1.85%)
JD.com
+4.59 (+4.84%)
PDD Holdings
+18.96 (+11.03%)
Tencent
+ (+0.00%)
Meituan
+ (+0.00%)
Bilibili
+4.61 (+3.45%)
GameStop
+25.77 (+39.81%)