(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Thursday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A retail giant and a bank were among the stocks being talked about by analysts on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised its price target on Walmart to $75, reiterating its outperform rating on shares. Jefferies, meanwhile, upgraded Capital One Financial to buy from neutral. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:42 a.m.: Jefferies upgrades Capital One Financial Capital One Financial is a “win-win” investment by itself or when combined with Discover Financial, according to Jefferies. Analyst John Hecht upgraded the banking stock to buy from neutral. His price target of $165, up from $145, implies upside of nearly 22% over the next 12 months. “Standalone, we see upside given forward-thinking strategic positioning, which has resulted in COF being ahead of the curve in credit performance and in a position to lean into markets such as auto,” Hecht wrote. “The DFS opportunity is transformative, accretive, and provides optionality adding to the potential upside.” Capital One announced in February it will acquire Discover Financial for more than $35 billion. The deal is expected to close late this year or early 2025. Shares of Capital One have lagged this year, rising just 3.3%. COF YTD mountain — Fred Imbert 5:42 a.m.: Oppenheimer hikes price target on Walmart, supports premium valuation for shares Walmart shares are still positioned for steady outperformance, according to Oppenheimer. Analyst Rupesh Parikh reiterated his outperform rating and lifted his price target by $6 to $75, which suggests shares could climb 11.8%. This year, the stock is up 27.7%, outperforming the S & P 500 by a wide margin. “We expect a multi-year profit boom to continue driven by strong management execution, momentum in WMT’s core geographies, and further scaling of higher margin alternative revenue streams (media, membership, marketplace, etc),” Parikh wrote in a Thursday note. Walmart already proved these efforts successfully in the first quarter, during which they had sales growth of 6% and operating income growth of roughly 14%, Parikh added. Moving forward, he expects the retailer to continue posting strong levels of profit growth, supporting a premium valuation for shares. Parikh also expects a continued positive tone from Walmart’s management on driving alternative revenue streams and margin expansion, using the benefits of automation, for example. Coupled with grocery store gains and increasing international footprint, the analysts expects Walmart to boast about 4% sales growth on average and operating income growth of more than 4% over time. WMT YTD mountain WMT year to date — Pia Singh
https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107184544-16747496442023-01-26t145953z_511800203_rc2eyy9caty4_rtrmadp_0_usa-stocks.jpeg?v=1676375808&w=1920&h=1080
Source link
