Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Stifel initiates Flutter as buy Stifel said the gambling company is well positioned. “We are initiating coverage of Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) with a Buy rating and establishing a $320 target price.” Cantor Fitzgerald initiates Microsoft as overweight Cantor said the tech giant is well positioned. ” Microsoft has been very clear and consistent that they are spending against bookings now and that leverage will follow with slowdown in capex and recurring AI revenues remaining in future periods.” Read more here. Barclays reiterates Nvidia as overweight The firm raised its price target on the stock to $175 per share from $160 and said it’s a top idea in 2025. “Given the ongoing focus on the AI compute end-market, we would be remiss to not mention NVDA’s continued upside potential.” Barclays upgrades Lumentum to overweight from equal weight Barclays said in its upgrade of Lumentum that it’s very bullish on the telecom equipment company. “We would normally wait to jump on the horse after what appears to be a poorly modeled Q1 vs. normal seasonal downtick but our math suggests that the opportunity is so large in 2025 that we need to get on the right side of history.” TD Cowen upgrades Salesforce to buy from hold TD Cowen said the entry point is too compelling to ignore right now. “We upgrade CRM from Hold to Buy and raise our PT to $400. Following a strong end of ’24 rally on the heels of Agentforce excitement, shares have pulled back, creating a compelling entry point.” Baird upgrades Ventas to outperform from neutral Baird said the healthcare housing company is best positioned for “senior housing recovery.” “We believe VTR is favorably positioned to fully capitalize on the senior housing recovery now that the company has regained a favorable cost of equity.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Clearwater Analytics to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said likes the software company’s deal to buy investment management platform Enfusion. “We are upgrading CWAN to OW as we view the acquisition of ENFN as a transformational deal that makes the front-to-back opportunity a reality.” UBS upgrades Life360 to buy from neutral UBS said it likes the ad opportunity for the location tracking service. “Upgrading LIF to Buy ($55 PT 34% upside) on increased confidence in the mid-term ad rev opportunity.” KeyBanc upgrades Lam Research and Applied Materials to overweight from sector weight Key said the semi companies have “immediate growth drivers.” “We are upgrading AMAT & LRCX to OW from SW as we reposition our Semicap coverage toward immediate growth drivers including AI-related devices and leading edge technology transitions.” UBS initiates Semtech as buy UBS said the analog company is best positioned. “We initiate coverage of Semtech (SMTC) with a Buy rating and $85 PT (17% upside).” Citi opens a positive catalyst watch on Cisco Citi said it’s bullish heading into Cisco earnings in February. “We are adding a positive catalyst watch heading into earnings as we believe improving trends in the ~$20B campus switch market will contribute to solid Jan-Q results and potential upside to FY25 topline growth.” Wolfe downgrades Spotify to peer perform from outperform The firm downgraded Spotify mainly on valuation. “Valuation looks reasonable, but renters’ economics in music limit margins, necessitating further investment in new verticals to achieve 35-40% GMs LT [gross margin long term].” Evercore ISI reiterates Netflix as outperform Evercore said it’s sticking with Netflix ahead of earnings next week. “Looking for a Modest Beat-and-Bracket Q4.” Wolfe upgrades DuPont to outperform from peer perform Wolfe said the company’s “fundamentals are improving.” “We’re upgrading DD to Outperform with a $91 price target. Even after DD’s 1/15 announcement it will retain the Water biz, uncertainty is still elevated into ’25, but we sense the current valuation is a bit harsh re: these variables.” Bank of America downgrades Southwest and JetBlue to underperform from neutral The firm said both airline stocks have “less exposure to the strongest industry trends.” “Given less exposure to corporate, premium, and international routes, we downgrade both LUV and JBLU to Underperform from Neutral.” Evercore ISI reiterates Apple as outperform The firm said it’s bullish heading into earnings later this month and added a tactical outperform to the stock. “We think Apple is positioned to deliver an in-line quarter with continued emerging market growth and strength from Services and Wearables (new AirPods and Watch).” Citi adds a negative catalyst watch on CrowdStrike The firm said it sees too many negative catalysts ahead. “We’re also putting CRWD, VRNS on negative catalyst watches (estimate risk, estimate revisions disappointment)…” Morgan Stanley names Robinhood a top pick Morgan Stanley it sees an attractive entry point for the stock trading company. “We see compelling opportunity at OW HOOD and move to Top Pick.” Evercore ISI downgrades Warby Parker to in line from outperform The firm downgraded the eyewear company mainly on valuation. “We are changing our recommendation on shares of WRBY from Outperform to In Line as we find the risk reward outlook to be less compelling at current levels.” Bank of America adds United to the US1 list The firm added the stock to its top picks list. “We are adding United Airlines Holdings Inc. (UAL) to the US 1 List.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Amazon as overweight Morgan Stanley said Amazon is a “strong strategic” fit for TikTok. “TikTok could potentially be a strong strategic fit for AMZN including 1) improved social shopping/ad network offering 2) competition in the broader online ad space and 3) AMZN’s strong balance sheet.”
