All the market-moving Wall Street chatter from Thursday
(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 medical device maker and a discount retailer were among the stocks being talked about by analysts. Piper Sandler initiated Abbott Laboratories with an overweight rating. Meanwhile, JPMorgan downgraded Five Below to sell from neutral. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:25 a.m.: Jefferies recommends buying NextEra Energy Partners despite buyout concern Jefferies came out of the gates optimistic on NextEra Energy Partners . Analyst Julien Dumoulin-Smith initiated coverage of the Florida-based renewable energy stock at a buy rating. Dumoulin-Smith’s $28 price target suggests 8.4% in upside over Wednesday’s closing level. Concerns around the stock are tied to the fact that NextEra needs to handle $3.75 billion in buyouts tied to convertible equity portfolio financing between 2025 and 2032, the analyst said. That can lead to a whopping 50% dividend cut. But Dumoulin-Smith said the market has already “digested” this scenario. He said the company should see a “surprisingly high” average dividend yield of 7% over that seven-year period. “We think the market is underappreciating NEE potentially driving a more constructive outcome and shares trading below DCF, suggesting upside potential pending a resolution,” Dumoulin-Smith told clients in a Wednesday note. Following this call, NextEra Energy Partners advanced more than 2% in Thursday’s premarket trading. Shares have dropped about 15% in 2024. NEP YTD mountain NEP year to date — Alex Harring 6:19 a.m.: Barclays initiates Hertz at underweight Barclays is opening coverage on Hertz with concern at top of mind. Analyst Dan Levy initiated the car rental stock at underweight. Levy’s $3 price target suggests the penny stock can lose 18.9% from where it finished Wednesday’s session. “HTZ faces a challenging situation,” Levy told clients in a Thursday note. “Accordingly, we believe HTZ stock will remain under pressure for the time being.” Levy noted that Hertz is in the midst of a fleet overhaul with many electric vehicles being replaced, while simultaneously redoing its systems. Liquidity is a large concern going forward, he said, and EBITDA and free cash flow are both under pressure for the time being. Hertz shares fell more than 1% before the bell Thursday. The stock has tumbled more than 64% this year. Elsewhere, Barclays initiated coverage of competitor Avis at an equal weight rating. While the stock has plummeted 52% in 2024, it popped more than 5% in Thursday’s premarket. — Alex Harring 5:54 a.m.: AI helps HubSpot compete, BofA says Bank of America is keeping an eye of HubSpot’s artificial intelligence work. Following the software company’s analyst day, BofA’s Brad Sills reiterated his buy rating. Sills’ $580 price target reflects the potential for shares to jump 15.1% over Wednesday’s closing level. Sills pointed to the announcement of Breeze, its AI platform. He said this should widen the company’s competitive moat, leading the analyst in turn to raise his targets for earnings per share in both 2025 and 2026. “HubSpot remains in AI ‘proliferation first, monetization later’ mode,” Sills wrote to clients in a Wednesday note. But, “given the depth and breadth of the offerings, [the company] could enter monetization period perhaps as early as H2FY25.” Shares have slid more than 13% in 2024, pulling back after more than doubling last year. — Alex Harring 5:46 a.m.: JPMorgan says to sell Five Below JPMorgan turned bearish on Five Below , citing challenges that are hard to surmount for the value-focused retailer during a tough year. Analysts Matthew Boss downgraded shares to underweight from neutral. While Boss raised his price target by $6 to $95, that still implies 5.2% downside from Wednesday’s close. Boss pointed to the fact that a basket of Five Below products has seen sales decline year over year for all but one of the last 10 quarters. The retailer also should see headwinds to 2025 margins because of labor costs while it tries to “right” the course of the business, working specifically on things like pricing and product. Boss’ call is unusual on the Street. The majority of analysts polled by LSEG have a buy-equivalent rating, and none before this had one that’s equal to underperform or sell. This downgrade comes amid a rough year for the stock, with shares diving around 53%. If that performance continues, 2024 would mark Five Below’s worst year on record. FIVE YTD mountain FIVE year to date — Alex Harring 5:46 a.m.: Piper Sandler says Abbott Laboratories is a buy There’s an attractive buying opportunity in Abbott Laboratories shares, according to Piper Sandler. Analyst Adam Maeder initiated coverage of the medical device maker with an overweight rating. His price target of $131 implies upside of 14%. Abbott shares have lagged the broader market, rising just 4%, while the S & P 500 is up more than 17%. Maeder pointed to headwinds from lawsuits related to baby formula that allegedly caused necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants. Still, “with ABT trading at 22.3x consensus 2025 adj. EPS, we see an attractive entry point into what we believe is one of the higher quality large-cap medtech names,” Maeder said. “We see a pathway to durable HSD top-line growth and expect ABT to return to double-digit adj. EPS growth in 2025 (and there forward). We couple this financial profile with a consistent dividend and solid past track record in recessionary environments and, ultimately, we see a versatile large-cap name that’s undervalued,” the analyst said. ABT YTD mountain ABT year to date — Fred Imbert
