Here are Thursday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: UBS upgrades Diageo to buy from neutral UBS said it sees brand momentum for the beverage company. “We see upside risks to Diageo’s US business; our analysis shows its sell-out trends are running +3.6%, significantly outperforming a still weak Spirits industry, and the strong growth momentum behind key brands Don Julio and Crown Royal can be sustained.” Goldman Sachs downgrades General Dynamics to sell from neutral The firm said it sees too many negative catalysts. “We downgrade General Dynamics (GD) to Sell from Neutral as we see fundamental challenges in all four segments: DOGE at Technologies, margins at Marine, lower supplementals at Combat, delivery and margin headwinds at Gulfstream.” UBS downgrades Nucor to neutral from buy UBS said the steel company has a “stretched” valuation. “We downgrade NUE to Neutral (from Buy), $156/sh PT (from $171).” Bernstein reiterates Apple as outperform Bernstein said it’s cautious on more Apple’s continuing rollout of Intelligence features in 2025. “On net, we believe the initial agentic features that Apple will debut in April may be more modest than bulls may be hoping for, and that it may take time for smartphone vendors to develop compelling features that see strong adoption.” JPMorgan upgrades Brookfield Renewables to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said it’s bullish on shares of the renewables company. “We are upgrading Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP) and Brookfield Renewable Corp (BEPC) to Overweight from Neutral, owing to our view that the company’s leading access to capital positions it to accelerate investment in projects/platforms and the company’s scale and diversification provide a relative safe haven in the sector.” Morgan Stanley names Alcoa a top pick The firm said the metals and mining company is a new top pick in 2025. ” Alcoa is taking several actions to increase productivity, reduce costs and optimize its asset portfolio, while the risks surrounding bauxite mining in Western Australia have declined.” Wells Fargo reiterates McDonald’s as overweight The firm said it’s a top idea heading into the holiday’s and 2025. ” MCD our top large cap restaurant idea. Recent traffic checks are improving, the E. coli case is closed, and we see pot’l for U.S. comps to exit Q4 back in the +LSD% range (via McRib, etc).” Wells Fargo downgrades Blackstone to equal weight from overweight Wells downgraded the stock mainly on valuation. ” BX is a leader across the alts spectrum, including in wealth—a key growth driver for coming years. But valuation is getting stretched, and we see little upside to EPS with potential risk to performance fee expectations in 1H25.” TD Cowen downgrades Adobe to hold from buy TD Cowen downgraded the stock following earnings on Wednesday. “Net net, the long tail of users is the biggest rev driver for ADBE , and with the MT [medium term] focus on proliferating free users before leaning into monetization, we don’t see GenAI helping to bend the growth curve in the foreseeable future.” KeyBanc upgrades Charter to overweight from sector weight KeyBanc said free-cash flow is set to jump for the cable company. “We upgrade CHTR to OW and establish a $500 PT.” KeyBanc downgrades T-Mobile to sector weight from overweight KeyBanc downgraded the stock on valuation. “We downgrade T-Mobile based on valuation, which we think has become stretched, and we’re unwilling to raise our price target to justify the valuation.” Bernstein reiterates Apple as outperform The firm said it’s sticking with its outperform rating on the stock. “On net, we believe the initial agentic features that Apple will debut in April may be more modest than bulls may be hoping for, and that it may take time for smartphone vendors to develop compelling features that see strong adoption.” Mizuho reiterates Nvidia as outperform Mizuho said Nvidia is a beneficiary of GenAI power demand. “We believe this could lead to the rise of modular data centers to push AI ramps forward; positive for NVDA , AVGO, CRDO, MU and DELL.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Equifax to overweight from equal weight The firm said the consumer credit company is a winner in 2025. “Upgrading EFX to OW on an improving consumer credit and regulatory environment.” HSBC initiates Roblox as buy HSBC said Roblox is “coming of age.” “Online video gaming giant Roblox has long been popular with kids, and is now winning over investors too.” Wells Fargo downgrades Hershey to underweight from equal weight Wells said it sees too many negative catalysts ahead for Hershey. “Downgrade HSY to UW from EW, PT $160. The past week (cocoa diaries…HSY/MDLZ assessment) has crystallized a simple fact: HSY is on the precipice of historic EPS pressure in 2025 and (now) into 2026…and Street EPS needs to come down substantially.” Citi adds American Airlines to the focus list Citi said it’s bullish on the airline. “Against this backdrop, the lack of consensus on Buy-rated American’s potential could mean material share price upside from earnings surprises. As such, Citi adds American Airlines to the Focus List.” Goldman Sachs names Woodward a top pick Goldman named Woodward a top idea in 2025 and says the aerospace and defense company is well positioned. “The company’s Industrial business has pieces that can create quarterly volatility, but it also has a potential much larger secular growth business in power generation, while core margins in the segment are moving higher.” Benchmark initiates Penske as buy Benchmark said it’s bullish on the transport and trucking company. “We are initiating coverage of Penske Auto Group (PAG) with a Buy rating and $185 PT. TD Cowen names Amazon as top idea TD Cowen said the e-commerce giant is a top idea in 2025. “We see 3 key drivers for AMZN shares in ’25: i) Cont’d Op Margin expansion, driven by AWS & Adv, with eCommerce benefiting from lower cost to serve; ii) Accelerating AWS rev growth; & iii) Growing net cash leads to cap allocation options.” JPMorgan upgrades Xcel Energy to overweight The firm said the utility company has room to run. “While wildfire liabilities have weighed on XEL, we see room to run following a positive 3Q24 update. Baird initiates Palantir as neutral Baird said the stock’s valuation is full right now. ” PLTR is focused on providing AI firepower to western institutions, supercharging data platforms for commercial enterprises and western governments.” Deutsche Bank upgrades Coca-Cola, Keurig Dr Pepper and Pepsi to buy from hold Deutsche said in its upgrade of several beverage stocks that it sees the “potential for accelerating trends heading into 2025 it resides in restaurant/c-store traffic and more impulse purchasing.” “Becoming more positive on Non-alcoholic Beverage names (upgrading KO, PEP , and KDP to Buy to join our Buy-rated outlook on MNST and PRMB)..” JPMorgan reiterates Disney as overweight The firm said Disney is a top idea in 2025. “Overall: see upside to estimates and think DIS can get into beat and raise pattern. Content flywheel working, company a streaming winner.” Bank of America initiates Box as buy The cloud company has an attractive outlook. “We are initiating on Box Inc at Buy with a $40 PO, implying upside potential of 24%. As the leading enterprise data repository, we think it is well positioned for AI monetization opportunities as the market transitions from simply storing data and documents to extracting value, insights and increased productivity by leveraging AI.” JPMorgan initiates Celsius Holdings as overweight JPMorgan said it’s bullish on the beverage company. “We initiate coverage of Celsius Holdings (CELH) with an OW rating. Why now? Category trends are improving and the stock is trading at a third of its peak of $96 in Mar ’24.” Bank of America upgrades Constellation Energy to buy from neutral The firm said shares of the energy company are “compelling.” “We raise our rating on Constellation Energy Group (CEG) to Buy from Neutral. We believe CEG offers a unique investment opportunity, with sustained double-digit growth, an asset mix and business model that provides clean, baseload generation, and a compelling valuation relative to peers. Goldman Sachs upgrade Parsons to buy from neutral Goldman said the defense, intelligence, and infrastructure engineering firm is “unique.” “We upgrade Parsons to Buy from Neutral. Parsons is unique in the peer group in that 40% of the company is critical infrastructure, which is currently seeing strong growth, and we expect will be unaffected by the government spending reduction efforts we see as bringing risk to DoD and Federal Civilian agencies (Fed Civ).” Jefferies initiates Emerson Electric as buy The firm said it’s bullish on the electric industrial company. “Our stock picks focus on companies poised to benefit from US factory investment: EMR is nearing the completion of its portfolio transformation that should support higher growth + margins.” Goldman Sachs reiterates AT & T as buy The firm said the telecom company is a top idea in 2025. “T remains our top stock pick for 2025. We believe AT & T can continue to deliver strong performance in 2025.” Morgan Stanley upgrades Jazz Pharmaceuticals to overweight from equal weight Morgan Stanley said it’s bullish on the company’s cancer drug, Ziihera. “We upgrade JAZZ shares to Overweight (from Equal-weight).”
Thursday’s top Wall Street analyst calls like Nvidia