(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Friday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A cybersecurity company and an industrial stock were among the names being talked about by analysts on Friday. D.A. Davidson initiated Palo Alto Networks with a buy rating. Meanwhile, Jefferies increased its price target on Ingersoll Rand. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 8:53 a.m.: Morgan Stanley upgrades three metals stocks, including Alcoa Seeing “continued mining sector tailwinds,” Morgan Stanley upgraded Alcoa , Freeport-McMoRan and Peru’s Compania de Minas Buenaventura to overweight late Thursday. Alcoa will benefit from a tighter bauxite and alumina market and steps it’s taking to “increase productivity, reduce costs, and optimize its asset portfolio,” analysts led by Carlos de Alba wrote. “Copper supply challenges,” a brighter outlook for gold and an expanded Grasberg mine will help boost Freeport, Morgan Stanley said. BVN will get a lift from an “operational turnaround, strategic investor,” the 79-page report said. Meanwhile, Ivanhoe Mines (IVN) was downgraded to equal weight from overweight, “to take profits following a strong move that has led to a more balanced risk-reward.” — Scott Schnipper 7:28 a.m.: Bernstein downgrades Northrop Grumman Bernstein moved to the sidelines on Northrop Grumman , with few key catalysts in the near-term to hang hopes on. Analyst Douglas Harned downgraded the defense stock to market perform from outperform and slashed his price target to $477 from $535. Still, that new price target implies shares rising 9.8% from Thursday’s close. “Opportunities are still there,” Harned wrote in a Friday note to clients. “But, the catalysts for investors will come later.” In the longer-term, he said the company should still be in a “winning position” when it comes to technology and the nuclear triad. A move away from Congressional gridlock can also boost the stock, Harned said. But for now, Harned said a break is warranted. The analyst also pointed to free cash flow yield, an area Northrop Grumman trails its peers in. Another reason for concern is the fact that the B-21 bomber will lose money from low-rate initial production contracts through 2030, he said. Shares shed 0.8% in Friday premarket trading. The stock has slipped more than 7% in 2024, bucking the broader market’s uptrend. — Alex Harring 7:16 a.m.: Bernstein raises Apple price target to $240 Bernstein sees more room for Apple to run following its recent rally. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi hiked his price target by $45 to $240, which now reflects upside potential of 14.5%. Sacconaghi also has an outperform rating on the mega-cap technology stock. Apple has run up nearly 10% since its developers conference earlier this month, during which it announced a slate of artificial intelligence projects. It has outperformed the S & P 500 by 13% since second-quarter earnings, per Sacconaghi’s calculations. “We believe the principal reason for incremental investor enthusiasm for AAPL is that investors now believe Apple can be a leader in AI, not a laggard,” he said. Now, he said Apple could see earnings per share in the range of $7.50 to $8 for the 2025 fiscal year. That would place it in a multiple of between 30 and 32-times, which leads to the new price target. However, Sacconaghi warned that some AI benefits could take longer to materialize for the company than some are anticipating. He also noted that the stock is no longer considered inexpensive compared with recent history. Apple rose marginally before the bell. Shares are up nearly 9% in 2024, underperforming the broader S & P 500’s gain of more than 14%. — Alex Harring 7:15 a.m.: MicroStrategy can keep rallying, TD Cowen says MicroStrategy has more space to climb after acquiring more bitcoin, TD Cowen said. Analyst Lance Vitanza hiked his price target by $430 to $1,880, which reflects the potential for shares to climb 28.3% from Thursday’s close. Vitanza also has a buy rating on the cryptocurrency stock. Vitanza’s price target raise comes after MicroStrategy acquired around 12,000 bitcoins through a convertible note offering. The total came out to nearly $786 million, with an average price of $65,883. “This is not a short-term trading strategy but rather reflects management’s belief that bitcoin will ultimately prove a superior store of value,” Vitanza said. “The company remains an attractive vehicle for investors looking to gain Bitcoin exposure, in our view.” That means there’s more upside ahead following MicroStrategy’s huge run this year, with shares climbing more than 130% already in 2024. And that builds on last year’s monster rally of more than 345%. — Alex Harring 6:53 a.m.: Oppenheimer moves off sidelines on Nike, forecasts 25% rally Oppenheimer turned bullish on Nike after a rough period. Analyst Brian Nagel upgraded shares of the athletic clothing maker to outperform from perform and reinstated the stock as a top mega-cap pick. Nagel also lifted his price target by $10 to $120, which now suggests shares have upside of 25.6%. Nagel’s upgrade comes after he said the company has struggled with external and internal hiccups that have hurt sales growth and profit expansion. But he said Nike is now on a better path, pushing him to take a more constructive view that has a time horizon of intermediate to longer-term. “Challenges persist for NKE,” he wrote in a Friday note to clients. “That said, we are increasingly of the view that multiples at which shares trade and nearer-term financial expectations for NKE are now largely ‘derisked’ and poised to rebound gradually, as efforts on the part of senior leadership to refocus on product innovation and brand-building take hold.” Shares advanced more than 1% before the bell on Friday. The stock has dropped around 12% in 2024, putting it on track for its third straight losing year. — Alex Harring 6:48 a.m.: Align shares can soar more than 35% in rebound rally, Piper Sandler predicts Align Technology could be in for a big bounce, but has less room to run than previously believed, according to Piper Sandler. Analyst Jason Bednar kept his overweight rating on the dental health stock while slashing his price target by $45 to $330. Still, Bednar’s price target implies shares can rally around 36% over the next year. “Barring a surprise uptick in our data next month, it seems likely shares of ALGN will move more off macroeconomic developments until management reports 2Q results in late July,” Bednar wrote in a Friday note to clients. “But we do think current fear combined with 2Q results that are simply in line with Street could help form the beginning of a relief rally.” Bednar said orthodontic data has appeared mostly stable in recent months. Though he hasn’t yet made a prediction for second-quarter results, the analyst said an in-line quarter with the full-year outlook reiterated should be enough to send shares up. That would be welcome news for the stock, which has tumbled more than 11% so far in 2024. — Alex Harring 6:24 a.m.: Analysts stand behind Pure Storage following conference Pure Storage shares are still worth snapping up coming out of the data management company’s internal conference, according to Guggenheim. Analyst Howard Ma reiterated his buy rating on the data storage stock. His $72 price target suggests shares can add 9.2% over the next 12 months. “Although no financial targets were discussed (as expected), the product strategy and proof points that senior management articulated give us increased confidence in Pure’s long-term opportunity,” Ma told clients in a Friday note. Ma pointed to management commentary around the new Pure Fusion virtualization technology as being “one of the biggest innovations in the storage industry in decades.” The company also appears close to announcing a key advancement in the hyperscaler design space, he said. With all of this in mind, he said the company could reaccelerate in the near-term to see 20% or higher on growth and its free cash flow margin. “We believe it is Pure’s software prowess that underpins its potential to become a key storage supplier to hyperscalers and preferred architecture for AI workloads, both opportunities that we have said are likely in the billions,” he said. Similarly, Evercore ISI’s Amit Daryanani reiterated his outperform rating following the gathering. Daryanani’s $75 price target implies 13.7% upside. “We think PSTG is well positioned to sustain double-digit top line growth in the out-years boasting multiple growth drivers,” he said in a Thursday note. — Alex Harring 5:56 a.m.: Jefferies raises Ingersoll Rand price target The outlook for Ingersoll Rand is looking brighter after a recent acquisition, according to Jefferies. Analyst Stephen Volkmann reiterated his buy rating on the industrial stock and raised his price target to $110 from $105. The new target implies upside of 18%. Ingersoll Rand closed its acquisition of ILC Dover, a $2.3 billion deal, earlier this month. “While the market has been factoring in cyclical recovery and margin upside from integration synergies, we see additional margin upside and significant capital deployment opportunities that are not yet in the numbers,” the analyst wrote. “Margin upside is driven by 1) a larger funnel of integration projects, 2) increasing mix toward aftermarket and higher-margin businesses, and 3) continued longer-term lean/productivity initiatives,” he added. Ingersoll Rand shares have popped more than 20% year to date. — Fred Imbert 5:56 a.m.: D.A. Davidson opens coverage of Palo Alto at buy D.A. Davidson named Palo Alto Networks a top idea, citing its three cybersecurity platforms. Analyst Rudy Kessinger initiated coverage at a buy rating and named the stock to the firm’s best picks list. Kessinger’s $380 price target implies a 22.2% upside from Thursday’s close. Kessinger said one of the key reasons for optimism is that the company is firing on three cylinders when it comes to cybersecurity, while competitors are only focused on just one. He also called Palo Alto’s total addressable market minimally penetrated, while noting that it can grow from $104 billion last year to $210 billion in 2028. Kessinger said Palo Alto has captured just around 7% of its total addressable market, far below the 20% or more seen by leaders of other information technology categories. “PANW has best-of-breed cybersecurity technology across Network Security / SASE, Cloud Security, & Security Operations / Endpoint Security, something no other cybersecurity vendor can say,” Kessinger wrote in a Thursday note to clients. “While there is room for greater integration within each platform & between each platform, PANW still enables greater vendor consolidation than any other pure play cybersecurity vendor in the market.” Palo Alto shares have climbed 5.5% this year. While the stock has underperformed the broader market in 2024, that gain builds on the surge of more than 110% seen over the prior year. PANW YTD mountain PANW year to date — Alex Harring
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