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☆ Google is 'going on the offensive:' What analysts are saying after latest Alphabet earnings
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Analysts from major firms, ranging from UBS to Bank of America, were encouraged by accelerated growth in Google Search, Cloud and YouTube seen in the previous quarter. GOOGL YTD mountain Google stock this year. Sandler kept his overweight rating and increased his price target by $27 to $200, which implies 28% potential upside from Thursday's close. Jefferies's Brent Thill maintained his buy rating and upped his price target by $20 to $200, saying shares are trading at an attractive valuation. His target price suggests only about 11% potential upside from Thursday's close.

Persons: Doug Anmuth, Anmuth, Ross Sandler's, Sandler, Jefferies's Brent Thill, Oppenheimer, Jason Helfstein, Justin, Ken Gawrelski, Gawrelski Organizations: Google, UBS, Bank of America, YouTube, JPMorgan, Barclays, –, buybacks, & &

Microsoft and a major chemical stock were among Friday's biggest analyst calls. He also lowered his price target by $1 to $25, which implies shares can fall roughly 19% from Thursday's close. Sandler increased his price target by $27 to $200, which implies 26.6% potential upside. JPMorgan: Analyst Mark Murphy added $30 to his price target, which is now at $470. He also hiked his price target to $61 from $55, which implies upside of 8% going forward.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Mobileye, Adam Jonas, Jonas, — Pia Singh, Stifel, Stanley Elliot, Elliott, Alphabet's, Oppenheimer, Jason Helfstein, Ross Sandler, Sandler, Brent Thill, Google's, Justin Post, Post, Wall, Raimo Lenschow, Wells, Michael Turrin, MSFT, Turrin, Mark Murphy, Murphy, Keith Weiss, Weiss, Jeffrey Zekauskas, Zekauskas, Dow, Fred Imbert Organizations: CNBC, Microsoft, JPMorgan, Dow Inc, TAM, Caterpillar, Google, Barclays, –, Jefferies, Bank of America, DOW Locations: Israel, Thursday's, reaccelerate, Wells Fargo

☆ Wall Street stands by Meta even as costs rise and the stock sells off, cites AI leadership
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Wall Street analysts are standing by Meta Platforms despite Thursday's sell-off. The analyst cut his price target to $480 from $535 a share, noting that building and creating new products is no easy — or quick — feat. The adjusted price target reflects nearly 3% downside from Wednesday's close. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak retained his overweight rating and $550 price target, saying the firm remains "buyers through Meta's investments." Meta isn't alone in this feat, with Nowak expecting competitors to undertake similar steps as more AI opportunities arise.

Persons: Doug Anmuth, Benjamin Black, Black, Citi's Ronald Josey, Goldman Sachs, Eric Sheridan, Morgan Stanley, Brian Nowak, Meta isn't, Nowak, Bank of America's Justin Post, Ross Sandler, Mark, Zuckerberg, Sandler Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America's, Barclays

☆ AI could boost these stocks with customer support needs, Barclays says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

One of the leading emerging use cases for artificial intelligence could be automating customer support requests, according to Barclays. At a time when some investors are beginning to doubt the AI momentum, some companies are now experimenting with AI for customer support and consumer-facing features. These support levels involve escalations from solving simple customer service problems, and can entail trouble-shooting with support technicians and the involvement of engineers, if needed. Lyft stands to be the biggest beneficiary of AI automating customer support requests, assuming that it can move just over a third of its Level 2 and 3 human-based customer service requests to AI. To be sure, it's still early days for companies that could benefit from deploying AI as part of their customer support, Barclays found.

Persons: Ross Sandler, Klarna, Sandler, GoDaddy, Roblox's, it's, We've Organizations: Barclays, Web Services, Google, FactSet

Elsewhere, Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia, calling for more than 25% upside. 7:07 a.m.: Deutsche Bank deals latest blow to regional bank after earnings disappoint Deutsche Bank joined the post-earnings dogpile on New York Community Bank . Analyst Bernard von-Gizycki downgraded the regional bank to hold from buy and slashed to price target to $7 from $15. Analyst Alicia Yap upgraded the consumer internet stock to buy from neutral and raised her price target by $6 to $50. — Alex Harring 5:45 a.m.: Bank of America hikes Nvidia price target Don't expect Nvidia to lose momentum anytime soon, according to Bank of America.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Bernard von, Gizycki, — Alex Harring, There's, Alicia Yap, Sea's, Shopee, Alex Harring, what's, Tim Cook, Brandon Nispel, AAPL's, AAPL, Morgan Stanley, Erik Woodring, we're, Tim Long, Piper Sandler, Harsh Kumar, Meta, Ross Sandler, Benjamin Black, Mark Kelley, Bernstein, Mark Shmulik, LSEG, Rufus, Eric Sheridan, Brian Nowak, outsized, Brad Erickson, Vivek Arya, Fred Imbert Organizations: CNBC, Apple, Bank of America, Nvidia, Deutsche Bank, New York Community Bank, von, Investors, Traders, Citi, Nasdaq, Conference, Barclays, Vision, Meta, Wall Street, Amazon, RBC Capital, Enterprise, SAP, VMWare, Dell Locations: Wall, New, Thursday's, Friday's premarket, China, genAI, CY25

Analyst Oliver Chen also maintained his buy rating for Ulta stock, simultaneously lifting his price target to $580 from $570. Deutsche Bank: Reiterate buy rating and $450 price target, implying 10% upside. Kallo's price target of $300 implies that Tesla stock could rally more than 56% from its Tuesday closing price. Citi analyst Christopher Danely also stood by his buy rating on the stock while lifting his price target to $192 from $136. Analyst Jeffrey Adelson downgraded the company to underweight from equal weight and cut his price target to $6.50 from $7.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, TD Cowen, Ulta, Oliver Chen, ULTA, Chen, — Lisa Kailai Han, Goldman Sachs, Kash Rangan, Baird, Tesla, Ben Kallo, Elon Musk's, Toshiya Hari, Hari, Christopher Danely, Vivek Arya, Danely, Arya, Harlan Sur, Kannan Venkateshwar, Venkateshwar, Eric Sheridan, Sheridan, Justin Post, Ross Sandler, Sandler, Ronald Josey, Josey, Morgan Stanley downgrades, Jeffrey Adelson, Adelson, SOFI, SoFi, Fred Imbert Organizations: CNBC, Google, Microsoft, SoFi Technologies, Deutsche Bank, Citi, Barclays, Tesla, Devices, Wall Street, AMD, Bank of America, Barclays downgrades Verizon Barclays, Verizon, Venkateshwar, Bulls, Morgan Stanley downgrades SoFi Locations: Ulta

☆ Why some Wall Street analysts say to consider buying the post-earnings dip in Meta Platforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Wall Street analysts are standing by Meta Platforms despite the post-earnings sell-off, with some recommending using the pullback to scoop up the stock. "Let's be clear, there's still a lot to get excited about," said Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik. META 1D mountain Meta shares slump post-earnings Shares were last down about 4%. "We believe Meta continues to execute well & remains disciplined, and we would be buying the pullback in Meta shares," said JPMorgan's Doug Anmuth. "While all advertising may be impacted by geopolitical activity, advertising allocation remains a relative game and we believe META's differentiation gap is widening vs most peers," he said.

Persons: Bernstein, Mark Shmulik, Meta, Doug Anmuth, Ronald Josey, Evercore, Mark Mahaney, Ross Sandler, Morgan Stanley's Brian Nowak, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Meta, Facebook, Wall Street, Tech, Barclays

☆ Morgan Stanley says Apple is about to unveil a $20 billion platform, raises price target
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Apple 's highly anticipated augmented and virtual reality product could generate a solid payoff for the iPhone maker over the long haul, according to Morgan Stanley. Given this setup, the analyst hiked his price target to $190 a share, reflecting about 5.5% upside from Thursday's close. AAPL YTD mountain Apple shares in 2023 The revised price target comes ahead of the company's Worldwide Developers Conference next week, where many expect the technology giant to reveal its mixed-reality headset. He expects the Apple headset will offer a range of specialized features over competitors. Other Wall Street firms also appear bullish on Apple's headset prospects, with Jefferies' analyst Andrew Uerkwitz lifting his price target on shares to $210 from $195.

Persons: Morgan Stanley, Erik Woodring, Woodring, Jefferies, Andrew Uerkwitz, Ross Sandler, Sandler, — CNBC's Michael Bloom Organizations: Apple, Conference, Apple Watch, Apple's, TAM, Barclays

☆ What the loss of Samsung search engine business could mean for Alphabet's stock
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

A weekend report from The New York Times said Samsung is thinking of switching its default search engine to Microsoft's Bing. Samsung represents roughly 27% of the smartphone market and has a 60% share of Android phones, according to Barclays. Barclays estimates that Samsung represents about $20 billion of Google's gross revenue and $7.3 billion of operating income. If the cellphone maker were to move away from the search engine, Google may have to recapture 70% of lost queries organically to recoup the lost operating income, the firm found. He thinks Google will remain the search engine heavyweight and successfully integrate Bard to rival Bing's use of ChatGPT.

☆ Analysts laud Meta Platforms' focus on efficiency, say the stock is transitioning from 'doghouse to pedestal'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Meta Platforms is turning its focus toward efficiency, and analysts seem to like the narrative shift from the battered technology giant. "Our management theme for 2023 is the 'Year of Efficiency' and we're focused on becoming a stronger and more nimble organization." META YTD mountain Meta Platforms shares have already surged 27% this year Analysts also seemed to praise the company's move to lower its outlook for capital expenditures and operating expenses. The word "efficiency" came up over 25 times on the company's earnings call, according to Morgan Stanley's Brian Nowak. The analyst has an outperform rating on Meta and hiked his price target to $275, which implies upside of nearly 80%.

☆ Internet analysts are focusing on one big stock as their favorite 2023 comeback story
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

And Facebook parent Meta Platforms could be the next battered stock to make a recovery, according to analysts on Wall Street. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite tumbled a whopping 33% , with big names like Tesla , Meta and semiconductor stocks among the worst performers. META 1Y mountain Meta Platforms shares tumbled more than 64% in 2022 But tech stocks aren't out of the woods just yet. Wolfe Research also views Meta Platforms as a stock to buy, especially heading into fourth-quarter earnings. Any information or commentary that rationalizes that investment case could push the stock up, according to Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald.

☆ Wall Street analysts see short-term pressure for Alphabet following earnings miss
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Carmen Reinicke | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Revenue also came in short at $69.09 billion where Wall Street analysts anticipated $70.58 billion. Those weaker-than-expected results were driven by a slowdown in ad spending and a slip in revenue at YouTube, areas where analysts expected growth. Citi analyst Ronald Josey cut his price target on the company to $120 from $140 to reflect slower revenue growth and margin pressures. A leaner Alphabet Alphabet announced that it would slow hiring in the coming quarter in a move to increase efficiency. "We believe advertising, content and product sales are converging, and GOOGL appears to be ahead of this trend, which is promising."

☆ Bernstein downgrades Snap, says it's unclear what's next for the social media stock after latest earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Analyst Mark Shmulik downgraded the social media stock to market perform from outperform, after Snap reported a disappointing third-quarter revenue results and softening user engagement numbers. Apple's data privacy update in 2021 that limited the ability of social media companies to track users online has continued to hurt the company. The social media company reported third-quarter revenue grew 6% from the prior year, which is the first time Snap reported single-digit growth since its IPO in 2017. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs reiterated its neutral rating on the social media stock, saying shares of Snap will be "range bound for the short/medium term." Morgan Stanley remained underweight on the company, saying the company is dealing with "over reliant on branded, less proven spend, high execution risk with management/strategic change" against a more challenging economic backdrop.

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