Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: JPM reiterates Texas Instruments as overweight JPM lowered its price target on the stock to $195 per share from $230 but said it is sticking with Texas Instruments following earnings on Wednesday. “Texas Instruments delivered better-than-expected Mar-Qtr results (revenue/ margins/earnings) and provided a solid 2Q outlook.” Bank of America reiterates IBM as buy The firm said IBM remains a defensive holding following earnings on Wednesday. “Reiterate Buy as we continue to view IBM as a defensive investment with improving rev growth, which in turn drives higher cash flow that can be re-invested for more M & A thereby driving structurally more growth over time.” Goldman Sachs reiterates ServiceNow as buy Goldman Sachs raised its price target on the stock to $1,150 per share from $1,050 following earnings on Wednesday. “We reiterate our Buy rating and raise our Price Target to $1,150 on ServiceNow following strong F1Q results with outperformance on all key metrics.” Bernstein reiterates AT & T as outperform Bernstein said AT & T is a “safe haven” following earnings on Wednesday. “Subscriber count is up, more subs are bundling, and margins are expanding – all ahead of expectations.” Argus reiterates Tesla as buy Argus said shares are too compelling to ignore at current levels. “Looking ahead, despite a much weaker-than-expected 2025 first quarter, we expect Tesla to ‘manage through’ the currently difficult landscape within the global EV industry and emerge as a winner, highlighted by a refreshed product line-up, including a new ‘affordable’ electric vehicle, the Model 2, which we had been advocating for.” Deutsche Bank reiterates Meta as buy The firm lowered its price target to $650 per share from $800 ahead of earnings next week. “Since the 4Q print, Meta stock has pulled back given the macro uncertainty and strong positioning, underperforming the market, declining 24% vs the S & P 500 at -12%. Our Ad checks indicate that while there was some weakness in consumer discretionary spending beginning in mid-Feb before the tariff announcement, ad spend on Meta was strong in the 1Q.” HSBC upgrades TE Connectivity to buy from hold HSBC upgraded the electronic conductor manufacturer following earnings and said it sees “Improving AI exposure, limited tariff risk and attractive valuation.” “The company emphasized in the earnings conference call that it is largely protected from the ongoing tariff war as 70% of its production is localized to the markets it sells into. TE Connectivity expects tariffs to increase its costs by 3% in 3QFY25, which management expects to largely offset by implementing 2% price hikes and securing a 1% favorable effect of tariff-efficient sourcing.” JPMorgan upgrades Cadence Design Systems to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it sees “high quality defensive growth” for the computer software company. “We are upgrading CDNS to Overweight from Neutral given the CY24 underperformance in the stock combined with the YTD pullback (down 12%), which we believe creates an attractive entry point for this high-quality defensive growth business and offers ~20%+ upside to our new $325 price target.” Bank of America reiterates Apple as buy The firm lowered its price target to $240 per share from $250 but said it is standing by the stock. “We expect Apple to report upside to revenue estimates driven by some pull forward of demand (driven by tariff worries).” Piper Sandler reiterates Nvidia as overweight The firm said it is sticking with the stock despite reports that U.S. chip controls could benefit Nvidia rivals. “The economic war with China is set to continue with the Trump Administration and efforts from both sides to make it harder to do business will likely not stop in the future. As such, any future generations of compute chips for China from NVDA will most likely come under threat in our view.” Deutsche Bank upgrades M & T Bank and Huntington Bancshares to buy from hold Deutsche Bank upgraded several regional banks on Thursday and said they are attractive. “Post 1Q results, we remain confident that banks stocks have bottomed and we upgrade our ratings on HBAN / MTB to Buy from Hold. We see more upside within the large regionals vs. the mega caps mostly given lower P/E valuations.” Citi reiterates Amazon as buy Citi said it is sticking with the stock ahead of earnings on May 1. “While we recognize the visibility challenges from tariffs and macro, Amazon remains a core Internet holding and with shares trading at 25x our ’26E GAAP EPS and 10x our ’26E EV/EBITDA, we reiterate our Buy rating & $225 TP.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Chipotle as buy Goldman Sachs said it is standing by Chipotle following earnings on Wednesday. “Overall, management presented a cautious tone on near-term trends, indicating that traffic would likely remain negative in 1H25 driven by elevated levels of uncertainty impacting consumer spending.” Goldman Sachs reiterates Microsoft as buy Goldman Sachs said Microsoft is well positioned for artificial intelligence ahead of its earnings report on April 30. “We reiterate our Buy rating while lowering our PT to $450 ($500 prior) as we mark-to-market our multiples.” Piper Sandler upgrades Edwards Lifesciences to overweight from neutral Piper Sandler said in its upgrade of Edwards that it sees a path to double-digit growth for the life sciences company. “We are upgrading shares of EW to OW (from N) and increasing our price target to $80 (from $73).” Wells Fargo reiterates Goldman Sachs as overweight Wells Fargo said the investment banking giant is well positioned for growth. ” GS is one of the best banks at investing for organic growth and reflects a leveraged play on growing capital markets, albeit w/the risk that the trade war derails activity more than we’ve already reflected in our lower earnings estimates.” D.A. Davidson upgrades Utz to buy from neutral D.A. Davidson said the snacks category is “firming.” “While acknowledging the challenging tape across Food, we see favorable risk-reward for UTZ, pointing to the following 1) share of salty snacks is firming, amidst easing category promotion and the company’s strength in non-tracked channels 2) UTZ has over delivered on supply chain transformation, which could yield upside revisions if the company sustains recent share momentum…”
