Here are the biggest voices on Wall Street on Thursday: Barclays reiterates its underweight rating on Apple Barclays said it will maintain its underweight rating on Apple through early 2025. The bank added that the tech giant’s earnings report in late January will be “mixed at best.” “2024 was another year in which most of the stock performance was driven by multiple expansions, despite a weaker-than-expected iPhone 16 launch and increased regulatory risk. 2025 saw record earnings announced for the December quarter. Investors should buy the downside in the plumbing supply company’s stock, said Morgan Stanley, which upgrades Mr. Ferguson from equal weight to overweight. “We believe there is an improvement in our BBM (Best Business Model) ranking, our US exposure, approximately 20% upside in our PT following recent poor performance, and fundamental end-market stability through the second half of 2025. Morgan Stanley upgrades Ver Biotechnology to overweight from equal weight, given signs of improvement. In upgrading the biotech company, Morgan Stanley said its cancer drug VIR-5500 had shown “promising initial activity and tolerability” in clinical trials. “We believe our early data will lead to early platform risk mitigation and we believe activity may improve as dose escalation continues. (T-Cell Engager) We upgrade to overweight with $20 points as we believe it de-risks the platform.” Baird reiterates Tesla’s outperformance. He stated that he would maintain an outperform rating. “TSLA: We expect valuation to be one of the main bearish arguments in 2025, with a pullback driven by several unknown factors.” Goldman Sachs Reiterates Amazon as a Buy The company said it supports the stock price ahead of earnings later this quarter. “Our Buy ratings on AMZN and CHWY continue to favor e-commerce companies exposed to low discretionary categories and high repeat behavior as online spending remains volatile across discretionary categories and low-income households. It reflects your preferences. Bank of America Reiterates Dell Acquisition Bank of America says it remains committed to holding Dell stock following a series of investor meetings at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. . “DELL expects to drive significant growth in 2025, driven by at least mid-single-digit MSD growth in AI servers and the rest of its traditional portfolio.” Bank of America, Reiterating Alphabet as a Buy The company said the search giant remains in the best position for the long term. “We believe Alphabet is well-positioned for the long term with cutting-edge AI technology that can be applied to search, YouTube, and cloud businesses.” Needham names CyberArk as top candidate. Security companies are top contenders in 2025 and are “well-positioned for sustained momentum,” he said. “We have identified CyberArk as a top security candidate for CY25 and plan to place it on the Needham Conviction List.” UBS Reiterates Acquisition of Costco He said there had been a “significant acceleration”. “Overall, we believe we continue to offer compelling value, quality and innovation.” Evercore ISI Reiterates NVIDIA Outperform Rating He maintained an Outperform rating on NVIDIA stock following the Electronics Show presentation. “The announcements in the keynote and follow-up analyst Q&A demonstrated that NVDA provides comprehensive full-stack solutions, solidifies its position as an AI ecosystem supplier of choice, and recognizes the value created to date. It confirms our view that 70-80% can be earned in this era of computing.” Cantor Fitzgerald, Sentinel One Overweight. With the launch of Sentinel One, Kantar said cybersecurity companies are gaining market share traction. “We initiate coverage with an overweight rating and a 12-month price target of $30 based on 8.6x FY26 EV/Sales.” JPMorgan reiterates Exxon Mobil as overweight; He says he is bullish on Exxon’s earnings report on the 31st. demand recovery). Goldman Sachs upgraded Bill.com, saying it expects “macro relief” for payments fintech companies after acquiring it from upgraded Bill from neutral Goldman. “However, several factors are re-accelerating sales trends and improving the outlook for ultimate profitability, including 1) recent improvements in customer acquisition trends and 2) TPV (total value paid) trends. These are improving and could benefit from increased business optimism in 2025.
