1. The Nasdaq looks like it’s going to take a breather at the open after gaining ground in three of the last four sessions. Tech stocks continue to drive the index higher in 2023. Club names Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) all hit 52-week highs Monday. Apple (AAPL) topped its 52-week high Friday, and the company is nearing a $2.8 trillion market cap. Still no debt ceiling deal. Club holding Palo Alto Networks (PANW) is out with earnings after the bell Tuesday.
2. Jefferies boosts GOOGL price target to $150 per share from $130. Keeps buy rating. Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT “opened people’s eyes” about the potential of artificial intelligence.
3. Jefferies analysts take MSFT price target to $400 from $350. Keeps buy rating. Add stock to Jefferies “Franchise Pick” list. The analysts say MSFT in best position to capitalize on AI.
4. Bank of America raises Club holding Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) price target to $120 from $105. Keeps neutral rating. The analysts cite the soon-to-be-launched cloud-optimized Bergamo chip.
5. Our other semiconductor stock, Nvidia (NVDA), gets a price target boost to $300 from $225 at Stifel. The analysts keep holding rating ahead of NVDA’s quarterly release after the bell Wednesday.
6. TD Cowen raises Eli Lilly (LLY) price target to $500 from $430. Keeps outperform (buy) rating. The analysts see many drivers such as diabetes, obesity and Alzheimer’s disease. PET scans used to identify biomarkers and that benefits newest Club name GE Healthcare (GEHC). We still love LLY. But as it hit all-time highs this week, we took some profits Monday out of prudence after a big run.
7. It’s weird. Club name Ford (F) is No. 2 in U.S. electric vehicle sales (behind Tesla) with great products, but there are still so many doubters. After Monday’s Ford investor day, I’m still not one of them.
8. Lowe’s (LOW) cut full-year revenue guidance. Pro contractors looking better. But Lowe’s exposed more the weakening do-it-yourself crowd. However, the home improvement chain’s first-quarter beat.
9. HSBC increases Chevron (CVX) price target to $198 from $192. Keeps equal weight (hold) rating. Morgan Stanley keeps PT at $189 but upgrades to buy from hold. I agree with the analysts who cited PDC Energy (PDCE) as a great deal. But only a firm with the scale of Chevron could feel that positive about Colorado.
10. Zoom (ZM): How good was it really? The stock, which saw a kneejerk after-hours spike on the quarter, quickly turned lower. Enterprise is 57%, plus 13% growth but that’s slowing. Several price target cuts.
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