Here are Monday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: UBS upgrades Take-Two to buy from neutral UBS said in its upgrade of Take-Two that the game maker has an “unprecedented pipeline.” “We are upgrading shares from Neutral to Buy and raising our PT to $230. With increased conviction in GTA VI [Grand Theft Auto] demand and a robust lineup of other titles, we expect bookings, profits and FCF to inflect over the next two yrs, lowering leverage and freeing capital for accretive investments.” Stifel upgrades Portillo’s to buy from hold Stifel said it’s bullish on shares of the hot dog restaurant company. “The company has intensified efforts to address weak traffic trends while indicating a willingness to promote value more aggressively if needed. We also believe the board has become more engaged, and we are encouraged by the recent appointment of Jack Hartung.” KBW downgrades Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae to underperform from market perform KBW downgraded the government sponsored enterprise lenders on valuation. “The GSE [government sponsored enterprises] shares have increased sharply recently ( FNMA and FMCC are up +333% and +343%, respectively, since the day before the election and +436% and 515% since the beginning of 2024), and shares are now well above levels reached during Trump 1.0.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Twilio to buy from neutral Goldman said it’s bullish on the stock ahead of earnings and analyst day. “We are upgrading Twilio to Buy (from Neutral) with a PT of $185 (from $77) after the company’s 2025 Analyst Day and ahead of F4Q results (2/13).” Goldman Sachs reiterates Tesla as neutral Goldman said it likes Tesla’s Model Y refresh but that it’s sticking with its neutral rating. “We believe the new version offers several good enhancements. We also think that the refresh is relatively in line with investor expectations, as the upgrades are generally similar to what Tesla did with the Model 3.” Baird upgrades Titan Machinery to outperform from neutral Baird upgraded the machinery company following declining inventory. ” TITN underperformed the S & P by ~70% in 2024 as the stock steadily moved lower following significant guidance cuts and equipment margin compression as inventories ballooned and used equipment prices declined. Inventories drive stock performance, with TITN set to destock as CY2025 progresses which should catalyze the shares.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Exelixis to overweight from equal weight After a change in analyst coverage the firm upgraded the biotech company and says the valuation is “undemanding.” “We assume coverage of EXEL with an Overweight rating and a $40 price target.” Piper Sandler upgrades Qorvo to overweight from neutral Piper upgraded the semis company on reports of an activist investor involved. “We are upgrading shares of QRVO this morning based on the potential for improving fundamentals given Starboard’s involvement in the company.” Rosenblatt reiterates Apple as buy The firm is standing by the stock ahead of earnings later this week. “Expectations for Apple’s Dec. quarter are low, after 3rd party data suggesting a disappointing iPhone performance. But there are mitigating factors for the Dec. quarter fears, including lack of an earnings warning, and potential for services and other devices to make up some of the iPhone gap.” Telsey initiates Vital Farms as outperform Telsey said the food products company is well positioned. ” Vital Farms is a fast-growing, next-gen food company disrupting the traditional food ecosystem by developing high-quality products with elevated ethical standards.” Bernstein reiterates Microsoft as outperform Bernstein said the stock is well positioned ahead of earnings later this week. ” Microsoft is scheduled to report after the market closes on Wednesday, January 29th and investor interest in the quarter is much higher, we believe, than normal.” Jefferies reiterates Meta as a top pick Jefferies said the stock remains a top idea at the firm. “We are bullish on META’s position to monetize its traction in Gen AI with META.AI & Llama, seeing strong returns for these investments.” Jefferies reiterates Amazon as buy Jefferies is bullish ahead of Amazon earnings next week. “We expect a slight beat to Q4 based on solid holiday sales, AWS acceleration, improving Advertising, and margin support from continued operating efficiency gains. We see momentum continuing in ’25. AMZN remains a top pick for enterprise AI. Maintain Buy, $275 PT.” Bank of America downgrades D.R. Horton to neutral from buy The firm said it sees a “challenging backdrop” for the homebuilder. “Housing demand has moderated with higher rates and input costs are rising. We believe DHI is prudently adjusting to a more challenging backdrop (slowing starts and increased share repurchase), but we expect margin headwinds to persist through F2025.” Bank of America upgrades Travel & Leisure to buy from underperform Bank of America said travel demand is accelerating for the travel company. “We upgrade Travel + Leisure to Buy from Underperform on improving travel demand, relatively de-risked earnings and a lower rate environment beneficiary.” Melius initiates Marvell as buy Melius said the semis stock is the “next multi-hundred billion dollar AI semis company “Despite Marvell’s stock being up 108% since the start of 2024, there is more to go since there’s a shortage of semis names that can get really big from here – and we bet this company is the next one to do it on the back of the AI theme.” Cantor Fitzgerald reiterates Nvidia as overweight The firm said the release of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek effect on Nvidia is overblown “Following release of DeepSeek’s V3 LLM [large language model], there has been great angst as to the impact for compute demand, and therefore, fears of peak spending on GPUs. … .We would be buyers of NVDA shares on any potential weakness.” Raymond James downgrades Ralph Lauren to market perform from outperform Raymond James downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. “We lower our rating to Market Perform from Outperform. Brand elevation and execution remain excellent under strong leadership and strategy. But RL’s significant stock rally and materially adverse changes to FX rates could limit upside to F2H25 and FY26 expectations.” Bank of America downgrades Bloomin’ Brands to underperform from neutral The firm said it sees “limited near term upside” for the owner of brands like Outback. “While the casual dining industry is notoriously slow growth, BLMN’s struggles have allowed chain competitors to expand their market share leads. The new management’s focus is rightly trained on reversing those traffic declines.”
