Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday: Benchmark upgrades Red Robin to buy from hold Benchmark said a turnaround is underway at Red Robin. “We believe the new senior management team at RRGB, led by experienced industry veteran G.J. Hart and a hand-picked team of senior leaders that he is assembling are the right team, with a focused operational strategy that should drive meaningful operating and financial improvement for the Red Robin brand.” Bernstein upgrades Kinder Morgan to outperform from market perform Bernstein said it’s getting more constructive on shares of the energy infrastructure company. “For as long as we can remember, the bear case on KMI has been ‘leaky bucket’ or ‘death by a thousand cuts’ or some similar idiom bemoaning that every year, there would be roll off of ~$250mm of EBITDA, mostly in, but not limited to, gas pipelines.”. JPMorgan initiates Eve as overweight JPMorgan said the urban mobility company is one of the strongest players in the space. “We see Eve as a one of the strongest players in the growing Urban Air Mobility (UAM) industry and the eVTOL market, which should benefit from aircrafts’ lower noise, zero emissions, superior safety and future ability to be autonomous, gaining market share from helicopters due to a stronger penetration in congested metro areas.” DA Davidson initiates Palantir as neutral DA Davidson said it sees limited earnings visibility for Palantir. ” Palantir is a strong mission-driven company with significant intellectual property, but we believe its unique mission and focus may limit its opportunity and earnings visibility.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Sarepta to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it’s bullish on the company’s gene therapy drug, SRP-9001. “On SRPT’ s 4Q earnings call, mgt. highlighted recent commentary following the mid-cycle review of SRP-9001 suggesting that the FDA is comfortable with the surrogate endpoint and acknowledged no safety related issues.” Read more about this call here. JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan said survey checks show iPhone 14 demand remains high . “Recent surveys from Wave7 Research into US sales trends across various carriers in January 2023 indicated that overall iPhone 14 series demand remained high relative to peers. iPhone share at all three carriers remains elevated above prelaunch levels and is also seasonally higher relative to prior product cycles.” Piper Sandler reiterates Tesla as buy Piper said Tesla remains a core holding as the company’s investor day gets underway. “We are as excited as anyone for [today’s] event, and we continue to view TSLA as a core holding within our coverage.” Guggenheim initiates AbbVie as buy Guggenheim said in its initiation of the stock that it likes AbbVie’s pipeline of products. “While investors have naturally been focused on Humira’s erosion curve as it loses market exclusivity in the US, we believe that has led to people overlooking the strength of the rest of AbbVie’s business, including products such as Skyrizi, Rinvoq, and Vraylar, each of which we feel can drive further upside through recent or upcoming line extension opportunities.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Rivian as overweight Morgan Stanley said it’s standing by its overweight rating on the EV maker after its earnings report on Tuesday, but says it’s now a show-me story. “While RIVN’s 4Q22 showed improvement in cost control, the FY23 guide disappoints on production, gross margins, and cash consumption. We see FY23 as a pivotal year for RIVN to show they can achieve a path to GM (gross margin) breakeven in FY24.” Stifel upgrades Kontoor Brands to buy from hold Stifel said in its upgrade of the maker of Lee and Wrangler jeans that Kontoor has “brand momentum.” “Our more constructive view reflects evidence of standout brand momentum, market share gains in both core denim and non-denim styles, gross margin opportunities in 2H23 and into 2024, and conservatism baked into the FY23 guidance.” KBW downgrades Silvergate to market perform from outperform KBW downgraded the stock due to limited visibility. ” SI’ s shares continue to be volatile in the wake of the deleveraging of the crypto industry and FTX bankruptcy fall-out, which has made utilizing fundamental valuation models challenging when looking at SI’s twelve-month outlook.” JPMorgan downgrades Marqeta to neutral from overweight JPMorgan said it sees too many headwinds for the card issuer. “While we like the strategic value and long-term operational improvements being put in place at Marqeta, we feel it is time to move to the sideline on the stock given trade-off of lower near-term growth with longer-term certainty due to stepped up renewals including Visa that surprised us to the downside.” Read more about this call here. UBS upgrades Procter & Gamble to buy from neutral UBS said the selloff is overdone on P & G shares. ” P & G has been the worst performing stock across our HPC coverage universe YTD, which is partially due to the unwind in the group but also concerns around the ability for P & G to deliver outsized EPS growth/positive revisions looking ahead.” Read more about this call here. UBS upgrades Philip Morris to buy from neutral UBS said the tobacco company’s stock is compelling. “While the margin dilution could understandably put some investors off PMI , we view its setup for H2 2023 and beyond as compelling.” Bank of America upgrades Empire State Realty Trust to buy from neutral Bank of America upgraded the real estate investment trust and said it sees upside potential from a New York City recovery. “We upgrade ESRT to Buy from Neutral. We view its valuation as the most compelling of its peers despite challenging near-term fundamentals. … .That said, we believe there is upside potential to earnings from lower operating expenses and continuing recovery of NYC tourism.” Redburn upgrades Spotify to buy from hold Redburn said that consensus is too cautious on Spotify . “We see the waning headwinds from investments, publishing royalty increases and FX alongside growing marketplace as the key levers for the gross margin reaching 26.7% in 2023 and 30.4% in 2026, 100bp and 160bp higher than consensus respectively.” Citi downgrades Warby Parker to neutral from buy Citi said the growth outlook is “too blurry” for Warby Parker. “We are downgrading WRBY from Buy to Neutral. 4Q was fine relative to expectations, but there were several things that came out of 4Q and F23 guidance that make us more cautious about near and long term growth prospects.” Roth MKM downgrades Ambarella to neutral from buy Roth said in its downgrade of the semiconductor design company that it sees “inventory digestion.” “We believe end demand, particularly in automotive, remains healthy and expect a relatively short-lived inventory adjustment for AMBA in its target markets.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Eli Lilly as top pick Morgan Stanley said the stock is best-in-class and that it’s bullish on its diabetes drug, Mounjaro. “Our thesis on the stock is unchanged as we continue to expect Mounjaro and LLY’ s other new product cycles to drive a best-in-industry rev/EPS growth profile.” Morgan Stanley names JD.com a catalyst driven idea Morgan Stanley said it’s bullish heading into the China e-commerce company’s earnings on March 9. “We believe the market has overestimated the incremental expenses and positive comments on margins could lead to positive share price movement. What and when is the catalyst? JD is scheduled to release its 4Q22 earnings on March 9.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Microsoft as overweight Morgan Stanley said it’s standing by shares of Microsoft. “The release of a new Bing powered by an OpenAI-based large language model created a big marketing splash and cracked open the door for potential share gains in search. However, we see bigger (and higher probability) opportunities as the OpenAI functionality permeates through the MSFT portfolio.” Deutsche Bank upgrades Coupang to buy from hold Deutsche said in its upgrade of the South Korean e-commerce company that it likes its “double digit margin lift.” ” Coupang earned USD102m net income in 4Q, helped by a nine percentage point lift in adjusted EBITDA margin YoY. Adjusted EBITDA reached USD211m, a USD0.5bn reversal YoY. While Korea’s online market is slowing, Coupang grew at triple the market in the quarter and its cost efficiencies have been outstanding.”
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Wall Street’s top analyst calls on Wednesday include Apple & Spotify
