Here are Wednesday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Oppenheimer downgrades Apple to perform from outperform Oppenheimer downgraded the stock ahead of earnings Thursday citing a “weaker outlook.” “We see a twofold challenge ahead for iPhone growth: 1) stronger competition in greater China and 2) lack of compelling Apple Intelligence and generative AI apps to accelerate near-term device replacement.” Bernstein initiates Rivian as underperform Bernstein said profitability seems years away for the EV company. “While we see the company succeeding in its plan to reach > 500k units by 2030, this is not enough to create financial success for shareholders. With breakeven years away and mounting risks, we initiate on Rivian with an Underperform rating and a price target of $6.10.” Mizuho initiates MicroStrategy as outperform Mizuho said the crypto company has upside. “Initiating coverage of MicroStrategy (MSTR) at Outperform, PT $515. MSTR’s strategy is to use proceeds from debt and equity issuance to accumulate bitcoin with a goal of growing its bitcoin holdings per diluted share.” Goldman Sachs downgrades Moderna to neutral from buy Goldman downgraded the biotech company due to limited visibility. “We downgrade MRNA to Neutral from Buy. We note the recent product revenue guidance represents the second in a series of negative revisions over the last six months, which while potentially at an achievable level, leads us to believe MRNA has limited visibility on the revenue stream for the respiratory vaccine business” Evercore ISI reiterates Nvidia as outperform The firm said investors should buy the dip. “Generally speaking, we view the recent weakness in the group as a particular buying opportunity for Buy-rated NVDA, ALAB and ARM, particularly for long duration investors.” Evercore ISI reiterates Apple as outperform Evercore said it’s bullish heading into Apple earnings on Thursday. “We think Apple is positioned to deliver an in-line quarter with continued emerging market growth and strength from Services and Wearables.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Walmart as buy Goldman said the stock is extremely well positioned ahead of earnings in late February. “We believe WMT is well positioned to continue driving solid earnings growth into 2025, supported by market share gains given its compelling proposition for value and convenience while its profitability profile should also improve, noting that operating income outpaced sales in 3Q.” Barclays reiterates Microsoft as overweight Barclays said it’s sticking with the stock ahead of earnings on Wednesday after the bell. ” MSFT shares have been a relative underperformer since the company mentioned capacity constraints for Azure last summer. While we are not expecting the December quarter itself to show a re-acceleration in Azure just yet, initial guidance for the March quarter will.” Mizuho upgrades Coinbase to neutral from underperform Mizuho said its checks show further bitcoin adoption is ahead. “Upgrading COIN to Neutral from Underperform. Why upgrade? Our analysis of bitcoin adoption growth points to further upside in bitcoin price over the medium-term. Bitcoin price and COIN shares are highly correlated.” Bank of America reiterates Starbucks as buy The firm said the Starbucks turnaround is underway following earnings on Tuesday. “Although obscured by choppiness in January (severe weather), underlying comp improvement throughout 1Q seems to have carried into 2Q. Encouragingly, the spend improvement is widespread.” JPMorgan adds a positive catalyst watch on Mattel JPMorgan said it’s bullish heading into earnings on February 4 for the toy company. “We are adding MAT to Positive Catalyst Watch into earnings as we expect sales and margin upside with the 2025 guide favorable to the Street (and the Barbie lap finally fully behind us), while valuation appears solid at ~8x EV/ EBITDA on our 2025 estimates.” Barclays upgrades Nextracker to overweight from equal weight The firm said it sees “flawless execution” for the solar tracker manufacturer following earnings. “We now expect the company to track towards the upper end, if not above, all guidance metrics for FY25. On the heels of another strong bookings quarter, we have revised our FY26 numbers higher and now have NXT trading at a discount to ARRY.” Guggenheim reiterates Meta and Reddit as buy Guggenheim says both stocks are “best positioned” heading into earnings. “We continue to view Meta and Reddit as best positioned with several foreseeable tailwinds (details within) and consensus ad revenue estimates as relatively de-risked compared to Pinterest and Snap.” JPMorgan adds a positive catalyst watch on Monday.com JPM said it’s bullish on the project management software company ahead of earnings in February. “We are placing Monday.com on positive catalyst watch. After combing through a collage of data points we track on Monday.com, including qualitative feedback from channel partners, quantitative data points for headcount growth and website visits, our own bottoms up analysis as well as our conversations with the company prior to the quiet period, we are positively biased going into the print.” Guggenheim reiterates Tesla as sell The firm said it’s sticking with its sell ahead of earnings on Wednesday after the bell. “It is not a zero-sum game, we believe TSLA is relatively advantaged vs. other EVs but the repeal of the IRA would still be a net negative for TSLA.”
