It was another upbeat week for stocks as back-to-back gains on Thursday and Friday more than made up for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve-driven selloff . Wall Street analysts had a lot to say about our portfolio names as Big Tech earnings dominated the action. Here are five big calls of the week and our Club takes, too. 1. Microsoft Wall Street’s call: Barclays raised Microsoft’s price target to $475 per share from $421 after the software and cloud giant’s earnings release after the closing bell Tuesday. That implies a 17.6% upside from Friday’s opening price. The analysts cited Microsoft’s artificial intelligence prospects as a tailwind. A great quarter doesn’t always initially generate a positive move. Microsoft shares fell 2.7% on Wednesday but finished the week strong at another closing record high. MSFT YTD mountain Microsoft (MSFT) year-to-date performance “We can see that AI is really starting to impact numbers positively for MSFT. A 6% growth benefit to Azure in Q2 is double compared to Q1, and is helping to offset underlying Azure growth that has not rebounded yet,” analysts, who have a buy-rating on the stock, wrote in a Wednesday note. “With more benefits from Copilot still to come plus a potential recovery, MSFT remains an exciting story.” The Club’s take: Microsoft’s AI prospects are a large part of our investment thesis. This week’s earnings highlighted the power of AI, as well as the strength in its cloud computing unit, Azure. We’re upbeat on long-term monetization opportunities and recurring revenue streams from the company’s generative AI tool, Copilot — an add-on that can help users navigate the Office 365 suite. We increased our price target to $450 from $400. 2. Alphabet Wall Street’s call: Goldman Sachs raised Alphabet’s 12-month price target to $171 per share from $164 after earnings. That reflects a 21.3% premium to Friday’s opening bell. Goldman maintained its buy rating. Alphabet shares sank 7.5% on Wednesday, the day after the late Tuesday print, which saw weakness in advertising. The stock rose modestly on Thursday and Friday but was still below Monday’s record high close. GOOGL YTD mountain Alphabet (GOOGL) year-to-date performance “In total, we see this quarter as a combined set of messages with stable/strong digital advertising and media consumption trends, solid upside surprise in terms of segment level Operating Income margins & some nuance around one-timers,” analysts wrote on Wednesday. The Club’s take: We raised our price target on Alphabet’s following its post-earnings slump. The Club maintained a 2-rating on shares, meaning we’d be buyers on a pullback, and bumped up the PT to $160 from $140 apiece. Quarterly results , released Tuesday evening, were strong in certain areas and shouldn’t have dinged the stock as much as it did. While advertising sales missed the mark, we’re encouraged by a rebound in cloud profitability. To be sure, Jim Cramer did end up musing on Friday whether it’s necessary to own all of the Super Six tech stocks. He raised questions about Alphabet after Meta Platforms’ strong ad numbers. 3. Meta Platforms Wall Street’s call: Meta Platforms received tons of price target increases Friday. Citi analysts, who have a buy rating on the tech name, hiked their PT to $525 apiece from $440 following knockout quarterly results, which were out after the bell Thursday. Meta shares jumped more than 20% on Friday to a new record-high close. META YTD mountain Meta Platforms (META) year-to-date performance Citi cited a “strengthening advertisement market” as a tailwind, along with “AI & product catalysts strengthen engagement as revenue growth reaccelerates and profitability expands meaningfully.” The analysts added, “Meta’s 4Q23 results & 1Q outlook exceeded expectations across most all metrics as growing engagement and broad-based advertising strength delivered accelerating revenue growth and materially expanding margins.” Keys here, as they see them, are “benefits from a multi-year product cycle that remains in its early days.” The Club’s take: Meta had a blowout quarter — so we’re not surprised that analysts are bullish on results, too. Investors also cheered the Facebook parent’s decision to declare its first-ever dividend. We’ll be watching in the quarters ahead to see how the company executes on artificial intelligence efforts. CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems dead set on spending billions on high-powered Nvidia chips to keep the AI train rolling at Meta. 4. Nvidia Wall Street’s call: Bank of America boosted Nvidia’s price target to $800 per share from $700 ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings later this month. NVDA YTD mountain Nvidia (NVDA) year-to-date performance “Expect NVDA to maintain dominance in AI inference also,” analysts wrote in a Friday note. “We forecast the data center AI accelerator market to grow from $43bn in CY23 to over $160bn by CY27E, likely an even contribution from training/inference. We expect NVDA to hold 90% share in training and achieve > 50% share in inference.” The Club’s take: Wall Street continues to snap Nvidia stock, and we don’t blame them. It’s hard not to be bullish on the chip maker, as shares continue to hit all-time highs. Friday was another record close. The company has maintained its dominance in the graphics processing units (GPU), the cutting-edge, high-demand chips used to run AI. We expect Nvidia to continue doing so as more companies begin building out their AI infrastructure plans as the Club noted in Friday’s commentary . 5. Costco Wall Street’s call: Oppenheimer raised Costco’s price target to $760 per share $695 on Friday. Analysts maintained their buy rating on shares, which closed Friday at a new record high. COST YTD mountain Costco Wholesale (COST) year-to-date performance “We believe fundamental momentum is poised to accelerate from here with COST’s demonstrated ability to drive grocery share even in low inflationary/deflationary backdrops, an improving outlook for its non-foods offering on easier comparisons and moderating inflation, and a potentially strengthening middle to higher income consumer,” the analysts wrote on Friday. The Club’s take: We’re glad analysts are seeing the upside for Costco stock. The consumer retail name continues to sell quality goods at cheaper prices, driving customers to sign up for new memberships. This adds a consistent stream of revenue for the Club holding as well. The latest quarter brought the special dividend we had been waiting for. The other catalyst that’s also overdue is a membership fee increase. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long META, NVDA, COST, GOOGL, MSFT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., January 29, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
It was another upbeat week for stocks as back-to-back gains on Thursday and Friday more than made up for Wednesday’s Federal Reserve-driven selloff. Wall Street analysts had a lot to say about our portfolio names as Big Tech earnings dominated the action. Here are five big calls of the week and our Club takes, too.
