(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Friday’s analyst conference call and Wall Street chatter. Refresh every 20-30 minutes to see the latest posts.) Among the stocks analysts were talking about on Friday were Netflix and semiconductor makers. Street analysts gave their ratings on Netflix’s second-quarter performance. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley raised its rating on Arm Holdings to overweight from equal weight. Check out the latest conference call and chatter below. All times ET. 7:50 a.m.: Citi Raises T-Mobile Price Target Ahead of Earnings Citi reaffirmed its buy rating on T-Mobile ahead of the telecom giant’s next quarterly earnings release, scheduled after the market closes on Aug. 7. Analyst Michael Rollins also raised his price target on the stock to $210 from $184. T-Mobile shares have risen nearly 14% this year. Rollins’ latest forecast suggests there’s room for another 15% upside. “We believe the wireless competitive environment remains stable, driven by solid postpaid phone growth and positive pricing,” Rollins wrote. The analyst expects T-Mobile to report “robust” second-quarter results, with wireless service revenues up 3.8% year over year, above the 3.6% consensus estimate. This estimate takes into account the Mint Mobile acquisition. Meanwhile, Rollins projected postpaid phone net adds of about 665,000, above the consensus estimate of 645,000. “We estimate other postpaid phone net adds of 500,000, which is consistent with management’s comments about education disconnects post-pandemic, but surprisingly below the consensus estimate of 573,000,” he added. — Lisa Kailai Han 7:45 a.m.: JPMorgan says Carvana momentum continues JPMorgan expects Carvana to again report better-than-expected results and increased earnings in its next second-quarter earnings release. The firm raised its price target by $5 to $155 on Friday. The new price target suggests shares could rise about 20% from Thursday’s closing price. Analyst Rajat Gupta believes the used-car seller faces further upside risk from improved gross margins. Despite the stock’s 131% rise over the past 12 months, Gupta said the stock’s rally could continue due to rising margins relative to peers and the broader industry. “CVNA has seen a sharp recovery in its business over the past 12-18 months, but we believe the next phase of ‘profitable growth’ requires the company to maintain its recent high levels of execution,” Gupta wrote in a note on Friday. “That said, as we noted after the first quarter earnings release, unit economics starting points remain elevated, and with operating leverage and EBITDA/unit hovering around $2.7K/unit for the period, we believe CVNA has the headroom to accelerate growth and leverage fixed costs,” the analyst added. Carvana’s investments in infrastructure and network create a competitive advantage that allows it to maintain margins versus competitors, according to Gupta. — Ha-Kyung Kim 7AM: Oppenheimer Raises Target Price for Meta Meta shares are now “de-risked to print,” according to Oppenheimer, despite investors’ high expectations for the second half of 2024. The firm raised its target price for Meta shares to $525 from $500, suggesting the stock could rise 10.3% from Thursday’s closing price. Analyst Jason Helfstein noted that Meta has underperformed since the U.S. presidential debate on June 27. Since then, the company’s shares have underperformed the Nasdaq by 850 basis points on concerns about tariffs on Chinese advertisers, TikTok’s U.S. operations and Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s stance on regulating big tech companies. “As a result, we are less concerned about investor high expectations for the second half of the year, supported by a robust digital ad market,” Helfstein wrote in a client note on Thursday. Meta shares are up more than 37% year-to-date. META YTD MOUNTAIN META YTD — Hakyung Kim 6:24 a.m.: UBS thinks the footwear company could surge more than 50%. Footwear maker Wolverine Worldwide is “reinvigorating growth,” according to UBS. Investment Grade was raised to Buy from Neutral. Analyst Mauricio Serna also raised his price target to $20 from $13, indicating room for 57.6% upside from Thursday’s closing price. Serna noted he has growing confidence that sales growth will accelerate as Wolverine streamlines its portfolio. The portfolio changes have freed up resources, Serna said, “facilitating inventory reduction and debt paydown.” “WWW has a healthier foundation and leaner operations, which should result in 1) improved gross margins from fewer promotions, cost savings and inventory management, and 2) leveraged SG&A expenses from continued efficiencies, which should be partially reinvested to drive long-term growth,” Serna wrote in a Thursday note. — Hakyung Kim 6:07 a.m.: Barclays downgrades Molson Coors to underweight Barclays is bearish on Molson Coors due to a lack of compelling investment opportunities in the beverage and broader consumer staples sectors. The investment bank downgraded the brewer to underweight from equal weight. Barclays also cut its price target to $47 from $55, indicating an 11.4% decline from Thursday’s closing price. Year-to-date, the stock has fallen about 14%. However, according to Barclays, a tough industry backdrop and macroeconomic headwinds are likely to put further pressure on the stock. “On the one hand, we feel that TAP’s underperformance over the past few months has been enough to make some investors ask, ‘how low is too low?’ But on the other hand, we simply cannot see the stock performing as long as the market deems the company’s medium-term outlook credible,” analyst Lauren Lieberman said in a note. BUD YTD HIGH BUD YTD HIGH — Hakyung Kim 5:47 AM: Wall Street remains confident in Netflix Netflix’s strong second-quarter results and upgraded full-year outlook have analysts remaining bullish on the streaming giant’s growth prospects. The company reported second-quarter profit and revenue that beat expectations. Global subscriber and ad-supported membership growth also beat analyst expectations. Morgan Stanley reiterated its overweight rating on the stock.Analyst Benjamin Swinburne has a price target of $780 on the stock, suggesting a 20% upside potential from Thursday’s closing price. “Better-than-expected Q2 results strengthen our confidence that Netflix can achieve our expectations of double-digit revenue,” Swinburne wrote in a note on Friday. JPMorgan’s Doug Anmuth also reiterated his overweight rating and $750 price target on the stock. He highlighted Netflix’s shift in focus to ad monetization over membership numbers. The company will stop providing quarterly updates on membership numbers after 2025. Indeed, there will be a bounce, Anmuth said, after the company’s Q3 revenue outlook came in slightly below consensus estimates. “Nevertheless, our third-quarter revenue guidance for NFLX is +19% excluding currency, which we also project for full-year 2024. We continue to believe NFLX can drive robust subscriptions and advertising scale through healthy organic/secular growth and ongoing paid sharing benefits, and we expect advertising (excluding subscriptions) to reach over 10% of total revenues in 2027,” Ammus said in a client note on Friday. Wells Fargo, which has an overweight rating on Netflix, said the company “remains a clean story, growing consistently and gaining share.” Analyst Steven Cahall sees Netflix’s focus on revenue growth and margin expansion as a catalyst for continued share gains. “We believe simplicity and consistency make NFLX an easy stock to manage for long-term investors,” he said in a note. Cahall raised his price target to $758 from $726, suggesting about 18% upside from Thursday’s closing price. — Hakyung Kim 5:47 a.m.: Morgan Stanley upgrades Arm Holdings Morgan Stanley expects Arm Holdings to build on its strong performance so far this year. Analyst Lee Simpson upgraded the chipmaker to overweight from equal weight. His new price target rose to $190 from $107, implying a 20% upside from Thursday’s closing price. “We see Arm as one of the options in the emerging edge AI space that could see upside through custom silicon, new designs and enhanced capabilities,” Simpson wrote. “With GenAI in the spotlight and semiconductors being seen as an enabler for cloud AI infrastructure needed to support AI datacenters/servers, we believe the market may be missing out on new opportunities for Arm at the edge as focus on large-scale AI increases,” he added. “We see Arm products as key to the success of edge AI in mobile, automotive, PCs and more.” Arm Holdings is up more than 100% year to date.Shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading after the upgrade. ARM Year to Date ARM Year to Date — Fred Imbert
All the market-moving chatter on Wall Street on Friday
Services
© 2024 Business Investopedia. All Rights Reserved.