(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Friday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A major U.S. bank and a social media company were among the companies being talked about by analysts on Friday. KBW upgraded Bank of America to outperform. Meanwhile, Piper Sandler reiterated Pinterest as a top pick, calling for 20% upside. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 8 a.m.: Evercore upgrades Shopify Evercore ISI thinks a recent pullback in Shopify presents an attractive entry point for investors. The firm upgraded the e-commerce stock to outperform from in-line and a $75 per share price target. Evercore’s forecast implies nearly 16% upside from Thursday’s close. “We believe there is a very resilient Long Thesis to SHOP shares, given its very large TAM (~$850B TAM), its very strong competitive position and up-market opportunity (as confirmed by our recent channel checks), its clear track record of successful product innovation (measured in part by its consistently rising Attach Rate), and the potential for materially ramping profitability (we believe FCF margins can rise from 12% today to high-teens levels by 2026),” analyst Mark Mahaney said. “We also believe that SHOP’s decision to lean into Social Media marketing to accelerate its International growth makes tactical and strategic sense,” he added. Shopify stock has slipped roughly 19% in 2024. — Brian Evans 7:48 a.m.: Morgan Stanley downgrades Twilio over lack of visible catalyst ahead Morgan Stanley is moving to the sidelines in Twilio over what is sees as softness in consumer health and enterprise software ahead. The firm downgraded the cloud communications stock to equal weight from overweight on Friday, with analyst Meta Marshall asserting a “given lack of NTM top line catalyst and majority of near-term operating leverage having been achieved” as cause for the move. Morgan Stanley also lowered its price target to $60 per share from $70, implying about 8% upside from Thursday’s close. “We remain mindful of cash balance affording share repurchases as a meaningful risk, but believe investor enthusiasm is more limited,” the analyst noted. Marshall that the firm is still optimistic that the stock can find an expanded runway for growth over the long-term. Shares have slipped nearly 27% in 2024. — Brian Evans 7:31 a.m.: Bank of America upgrades Hasbro to buy Hasbro’s push into digital gaming should soon become a reward for shareholders, according to Bank of America. Analyst Alexander Perry upgraded the toy stock to buy from neutral, saying in a note to clients Friday that the new business can help Hasbro’s earnings rebound in 2024 and 2025. “We do not believe consensus forecasts are fully accounting for the success of HAS’ digital gaming strategy with Monopoly Go! and expect the game to move off minimum royalty guarantees in 2Q, before generating ~$36mm in operating profit contribution per quarter in 2H,” the note said. The physical toy market is also showing signs of recovery, according to the note. Bank of America hiked its price target for Hasbro to $80 per share from $70. The new target is about 38% above where the stock closed Thursday. — Jesse Pound 7:15 a.m.: D.A. Davidson initiates Duolingo with buy rating D.A. Davidson thinks Duolingo is positioned to benefit from shifts in the online language learning space. “Duolingo has built an education platform with nearly 100M monthly active users that are aiming to learn a new language,” analyst Wyatt Swanson said. “DUOL is a leader in the online language learning space and is in the best position to benefit from the shift of offline to online learning, AI integrations, and English language learners shifting to learn online.” The firm initiated Duolingo with a buy rating and a $250 per share price target, implying about 26% upside from Thursday’s close. Duolingo has pulled back more than 12% in 2024. DUOL YTD mountain DUOL year to date “DUOL also has the ability to optimize AI tools to better teach to language learners, without them having to spend thousands of dollars for a tutor,” the analyst added. “We expect that over the next 12-18 months DUOL’s focus on AI, English learning content, and its continued focus on maximizing user engagement will help DUOL expand its large data moat and deepen its number one spot in the online language learning space.” — Brian Evans 6:58 a.m.: JPMorgan upgrades Zscaler, says shares are discounted JPMorgan is labeling Zscaler as a “disruptive zero trust leader at a discount” and raising its outlook on the security firm. Analyst Brian Essex upgraded Zscaler to overweight from neutral and raised his price target to $230 per share from $205. JPMorgan’s forecast implies more than 27% upside from Thursday’s close. The stock has slipped roughly 18% in 2024. “Zscaler is exposed to the largest Security market as a best-of-breed Zero Trust Network Security vendor founded on next generation cloud-centric architecture,” Essex said. “Zscaler is exposed to top CIO spending priorities as one of the best positioned vendors that we cover to benefit from the migration of compute from on premise environments to cloud environments, as the global threat environment continues to accelerate,” he added. — Brian Evans 6:25 a.m.: JPMorgan upgrades Adobe, forecasts ‘smoother sailing ahead’ JPMorgan thinks Adobe is poised for “smoother sailing ahead” after the company’s strong second-quarter results, which surpassed Wall Street estimates. The bank upgraded the software stock to overweight from neutral on Friday, and raised its price target to $580 per share from $570. JPMorgan’s forecast implies more than 26% upside from Thursday’s close. “Overall, we view Adobe as a well-differentiated software vendor that is likely to benefit from ongoing IT vendor consolidation efforts, with a high-quality management team, elite profitability structure, aggressive buyback trajectory, and as benefiting from a well-diversified, large install base that potentially lends it to be less vulnerable to short-term macroeconomic gyrations,” analyst Mark Murphy said. “We see a decent likelihood that investors are stuck in a Firefly trough of disillusionment currently, and our sense is that monetization could start to gradually build in the 2H and into next-year,” the analyst added. Adobe stock has pulled back more than 23% in 2024. Shares were nearly 15% higher in premarket trading on Friday. — Brian Evans 6:04 a.m.: Loop Capital raises Costco price target Loop Capital is more bullish on Costco after a store tour in Los Angeles. “We see a team focused on value and volume, with increasing store level adjustments to maximize relevance club by club,” analyst Laura Champine said. Champine reiterated a buy rating on the wholesaler and raised its price target to $940 per share from $890. Loop’s forecast implies more than 11% upside from Thursday’s $845.96 close. “Though deflation can challenge comp, field management reports a commensurate or greater lift in volumes as an offset,” Champagne added. Costco stock has climbed roughly 28% in 2024. — Brian Evans 5:40 a.m.: KBW upgrades Bank of America on strong net interest income forecast Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst David Konrad thinks Bank of America could be reaching a inflection point on net interest income which could drive the stock higher going forward. The analyst upgraded shares of BofA to outperform from market perform and raised his price target to $46 per share from $37. KBW’s forecast implies more than 17% upside from Thursday’s close. “With expectations now of only one cut in 2024 coupled with improved back book benefits, we expect 4Q24 NII to increase 5% from our 2Q24 estimate,” Konrad said. “Although BAC is considered asset sensitive in a parallel shift, we believe the curve will slowly turn positive over the next two years. Moreover, BAC’s cumulative deposit beta of 53% is in line with peers; however, due to floating rate liabilities, its total liability beta is elevated to peers (76% vs. 59%) mitigating the impact of declines in the short end of the curve,” the analyst added. Bank of America shares are up 16% for 2024. BAC YTD mountain — Brian Evans 5:40 a.m.: Piper Sandler reiterates Pinterest as a top pick Investors should stay bullish on Pinterest even after the stock’s already solid year-to-date gains, according to Piper Sandler. Analyst Thomas Champion reiterated the social media company as a top pick. He has an overweight rating and a price target of $52, implying upside of 20% over the next 12 months. To be sure, Champion acknowledged that some advertising metrics — including ones from an Amazon partnership — have recently been soft. However, “we would remind investors (1) we expect testing / ramping to fluctuate, (2) the auction naturally offsets, and (3) the majority of 1Q24 strength was driven by 1P improvements. We also recently spoke with the company & came away constructive.” Pinterest shares are up more than 16% year to date. PINS YTD mountain PINS year to date — Fred Imbert
