Here are Tuesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Loop initiates Penguin Solutions as buy Loop said the technology computing company is well positioned for artificial intelligence. “We’re Initiating on PENG with a Buy and $30 PT. … We believe PENG is an on-the-come Gen AI related company with teeth in important areas of critical next generation technology.” Piper Sandler initiates Coca-Cola & PepsiCo as overweight Piper said it likes both beverage giants in 2025. “We favor KO but also see opportunity in PEP pullback. We consider KO best positioned for sustainable growth and share gains, given its leading global brands and execution.” Truist initiates Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America as buy Truist said in an initiation note that it’s bullish on several banking giants. “At current prices, we see particular value in BAC, WFC and C (all rated Buy), expecting each to show improving efficiency and ROTCE via self-help and cyclical levers.” Oppenheimer upgrades Cheesecake Factory to outperform from perform The firm said it’s getting bullish on the restaurant stock for the first time since 2011. “For the first time since launching our restaurant franchise in 2011, we become bullish on CAKE ($65 target). We anticipate a break-out performance in 2025 as the model is finally armed with SSS/margin upside, based on our work.” Mizuho upgrades Vornado to outperform from neutral Mizuho said in its upgrade of the real estate investment trust that it sees a NYC recovery for Vornado. “From a fundamental perspective, we estimate office stocks pricing in flattish to slightly positive market rent growth the next 12 months, reasonable in our view given where current and estimated 2025 vacancy.” HSBC upgrades Bank of America to buy from neutral HSBC said it sees an attractive entry point for the stock. “After rallying from September through most of November 2024, bank stocks have pulled back, offering selective opportunities to add exposure to companies with double-digit plus EPS growth and material ROE/ROTCE expansion potential at attractive valuations. We upgrade Bank of America and Truist to Buy.” Redburn Atlantic Equities upgrades Disney to buy from neutral Redburn said it’s turning bullish on the company’s streaming profit opportunity. “After years of cord-cutting pressures, Disney is finally at a point where streaming profit growth will more than offset linear TV declines.” Bernstein names Walmart a top pick Bernstein said investors should buy shares of top pick Walmart despite its valuation. ” WMT is expensive but we don’t believe that consensus EPS represents its true earnings power. In our upside scenario, we expect WMT to turn a profit in its US e-commerce business on a fully loaded, unsubsidized basis by FY30, which represents a 53c EPS benefit.” Needham reiterates Roku as buy Needham said the connected TV company is a best idea in 2025. ” ROKU is our top stock pick for 2025. For media stocks, we think the two most important upside valuation drivers in 2025 will be connected TV (CTV) ad growth, and industry consolidation. Roku benefits from both, we believe.” RBC upgrades Carvana to outperform from sector perform The firm said the turnaround is on for shares of the online car company. “After CVNA’s remarkable turnaround last year, we see the controversial pullback as an opportunity & we upgrade to Outperform & set a $280 PT based on 28x our newly established EV/’26 EBITDA.” MoffettNathanson downgrades Apple to sell from neutral The firm said it’s worried about too much “bad news.” “Despite the steady melt-up in Apple shares over the past few months, there has actually been a steady drumbeat of bad news.” Bernstein upgrades Lululemon to outperform from market perform The firm said a recovery is underway for the company. “For the first time ever, we are upgrading Lululemon to Outperform. … .After a tough year of growth deceleration and multiple compression, we believe the Americas business has bottomed and is now set up for a modest recovery.” Barclays upgrades Shake Shack and Dutch Bros to overweight from equal weight The firm said both stocks are well positioned in 2025. “We are upgrading both SHAK & BROS to Overweight from Equal Weight. The two have lots of similarities … both are mid-cap, high growth, fast casual concepts, with new c-suite leadership introduced in ’24.” UBS reiterates Dell as buy UBS said the stock is a top pick in 2025. “Our top large cap pick is Dell (DELL – Buy rated / PT $158) as the company should be a winner in the AI server market relative to peer HPE across Tier 2 Cloud and Enterprise markets driving at least 10% ISG [information services group] revenue growth next year.” BTIG initiates Hims and Hers as buy BTIG said the healthcare tech company is “disruptive.” “We are initiating coverage of Hims & Hers Health (HIMS) with a Buy rating.” Evercore ISI upgrades LabCorp to outperform from in line The firm upgraded LabCorp and said the diagnostics company is well positioned in 2025. “We expect base lab testing volumes continue to trend within a solid growth range in FY’25 even if the current robust utilization.” Wells Fargo upgrades Snowflake to overweight from equal weight Wells said it sees an attractive entry point. ” SNOW shares appear more favorably positioned heading into 2025, potentially set to benefit from a budding product cycle, a possible rotation towards software (large-cap, liquid, AI/data play), and a more attractive entry point with recent pullback from highs.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Zions Bancorporation to buy from neutral The firm said it’s bullish on the regional bank. “We see several drivers for ZION shares during 2025, including: we expect continued NIM [net interest margin] expansion, driven by fixed rate asset repricing, higher than peer deposit betas, and funding base optimization leading to greater than expected NIM expansion.” Bank of America downgrades Tesla to neutral from buy Bank of America said in its downgrade of Tesla that the growth drivers are already priced in. “Since our upgrade in April 2024, news flow and investor sentiment have shifted more positively. Catalysts around future growth drivers have been more fully recognized.” UBS upgrades Bank of America to buy from neutral UBS calls the banking giant an “overlooked” winner in 2025. “In the post-election landscape of de-regulation and higher for longer, BAC has been largely left out of the conversation.” Truist upgrades Atlassian to buy from hold The firm said the software company is well positioned to benefit from AI. “While at first investors feared risk of AI displacing seats in IT organizations and posing risk to Atlassian’s core business, we see the narrative shifting to acknowledge the potential for Atlassian to become a beneficiary in the AI age.” Evercore ISI adds a tactical outperform on Alphabet and Uber The firm said it’s bullish on both stocks heading into earnings in early February. “With UBER, we have a stock that has materially underperformed intra-quarter – UBER has had the largest sell-off in the group since the Q3 prints. … With GOOGL, our TAP call is based on our belief that Street Search, YouTube and Google Cloud estimates appear reasonable to mildly conservative.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Nvidia as buy The firm said it’s sticking with its buy rating following the Nvidia CEO’s presentation at CES on Monday night. “Product and partnership announcements from Nvidia are often difficult to translate into forecasts; that said, we believe today’s string of announcements, at a minimum, highlights the company’s ability to innovate at industry-leading speed across hardware and software as well as its robust partner and customer eco-system.”
