Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, Alphabet, Dell, Cisco, Netflix, Texas Roadhouse, J.M. Smucker & more
Here are Friday’s biggest calls on Wall Street: Stifel upgrades RXO to buy from hold Stifel said its sees “idiosyncratic levers” for the asset-light transportation company. “We’re upgrading RXO to Buy as we see a more favorable setup emerging into the balance of 2026, with the company positioned at the intersection of improving brokerage fundamentals and healthy idiosyncratic levers.” HSBC upgrades Cisco to buy from hold HSBC upgraded Cisco following the company’s recent earnings report. “Upgrade to Buy, raise TP to USD137.00 (from USD77.00) on stronger AI infrastructure momentum, better earnings visibility.” Read more. Stephens upgrades Aveanna to overweight from equal weight Stephens said it sees multiple expansion for the healthcare stock. “AVAH’s o perations sit on the ‘right’ side of the care continuum as a low-cost, high-quality care provider with a focus on serving a high-need, high-acuity population.” Deutsche Bank upgrades BWX Technologies to buy from neutral Deutsche said in its upgrade of BWX Technologie s that it’s firing on all cylinders. “The company remains focused on disciplined execution, strict program management, mission focus, and long-term strategic planning. This is bearing fruit today, with strong growth in the near-term and we believe accelerating growth opportunities in the medium-long-term.” Evercore ISI initiates J.M. Smucker as outperform Evercore said the food company has plenty of upside. “We are initiating Smucker’s w ith an Outperform rating and $117 price target” Citi upgrades CH Robinson to buy from neutral Citi said buy the dip in the transport company. “We upgrade CHRW to Buy from Neutral with its recent sell-off from its February peak offering upside as it moves into our target return range with opportunity for share gains.” Read more. Bank of America reiterates Alphabet as buy Bank of America said it’s bullish heading into the company’s developer’s conference next week. ” Alphabet will kick off its annual developer event on May 19 with the keynote at 10am PST. While the event is developer-focused and unlikely to include financial updates, we expect a broad slate of AI announcements centered on next-gen Gemini LLM capabilities, Gemini powered O/S improvements, deeper Gemini integration across products, search utility improvements, and smart glasses capabilities” Loop initiates Vertiv as buy Loop said the digital infrastructure and data center company has more room to run. “Initiating Buy and $500 PT as we believe this is just the beginning for this best-of-breed technology innovator that has already built intriguing fly-wheel effects and has had the arms of the Gen AI ‘Cool Kids Club’ wrapped around it. VRT holds a two-day Analyst next week 5/19 – 5/20 and we expect them to noticeably (and yet still conservatively) increase their target model.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Applied Materials as buy Morgan Stanley said the stock is having an “exceptional year” following earnings on Thursday. “AMAT is firing on all cylinders in 2026, and we are raising our full-year systems growth forecast from 28.6% to 34.2%.” Morgan Stanley reiterates Netflix as overweight Morgan Stanley called the stock “best in show” following Netflix’s upfront presentation. ” Netflix announced at their upfront that they are expanding their ad-tier offering by an additional 15 countries from the original 12, which should help them get further reach and go from ~80% of the global premium video ad market to ~90% in 2027. The expansion is a win/win/ win with clear positives for Netflix ,advertisers, and consumers.” TD Cowen reiterates Nvidia as buy TD Cowen raised its price target on the stock to $275 per share from $235. “Positive on NVIDIA into earnings as we continue to see strong fundamentals and a compelling narrative supported by ongoing hyperscale CapEx expansion and NVIDIA capturing a disproportionate share of that spend.” Raymond James upgrades Arista Networks to outperform from market perform Raymond James said it sees growth improving for Arista. “We upgrade Arista to Outperform based on our view that sales/growth improves in 2027 and beyond as Arista expands into new applications like scale-across and gains share in the AI-backend and campus.” Morgan Stanley downgrades Viking Holdings to equal weight from overweight Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock following earnings. “We downgrade VIK to EW from OW as our bull thesis has largely played out and valuation has re-rated, leaving a more balanced risk reward and fairly valued stock.” Goldman Sachs upgrades Oric Pharmaceuticals to buy from early-stage biotech Goldman said the biotech company has promising cancer treatments. ” ORIC Pharmaceuticals is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing small-molecule cancer therapies designed to Overcome Resistance In Cancer (ORIC) treatments…” TD Cowen upgrades First Energy to buy from hold The firm said buy the dip in the energy company. “We are upgrading FE t o Buy from Hold. While we understand why the stock has been weak of late, we believe that it is overdone, Positive attributes in FE’s favor include lower rates compared to peers, robust transmission investment opportunities, and likely generation needs in WV.” RBC upgrades Texas Roadhouse to outperform from sector perform RBC said in its upgrade of Texas Roadhouse that concerns about rising beef prices are overdone. “Our thesis is based on two key points: 1) Increasing potential for beef prices to be less unfavorable driving upside to investor out year margin expectations. Despite uncertain timing of herd rebuilding, risk/reward skews favorably, in our view. 2) Durable traffic growth with potential for upside driven by share gains from both retail and steakhouse competitors.” DA Davidson initiates Eastern Bankshares as buy DA said it likes the regional bank’s wealth management business. “Initiating coverage of EBC with a BUY rating and $24 PT.” JPMorgan reiterates Dell as overweight JPMorgan raised its price target on Dell to $280 per share from $205 ahead of earnings. “We are expecting Dell to raise its earnings guidance for FY27 (Jan-end) again from the already raised outlook of 25% growth, although more modest in this case, on account of flow-through of the beat in F1Q27 but constrained by supply visibility which still needs to catch up to the higher demand outlook for AI servers in particular.” Wedbush initiates Solventum as outperform Wedbush said the healthcare company is “compelling.” “We are initiating coverage on Solventum with an OUTPERFORM rating and a $94 price target as we believe shares represent a compelling, multi-catalyst special situation offering asymmetric upside potential.”
