Midday movers: Apple climbs, Humana slumps, and more

Northland Capital Markets Downgrades AMD (AMD) to Market Perform, 'AI is Big, Its Really Big, Just Not as Big as Investors are Thinking'

Northland Capital Markets analyst Gus Richard downgraded AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) from Outperform to Market Perform.

The analyst comments "AI chip growth in CY23 benefited from the ChatGPT moment, ASP increases, double ordering, and Chinese companies stockpiling. We forecast AI chip... More

NVIDIA (NVDA) Mentioned Positively at Melius, 'stand-alone software revenue is at a $1B run rate right now but it could be at a $3B'

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Mentioned Positively at Melius.

The analyst comments "Nvidia launched DGX Cloud in 3/23 to give "every enterprise instant access to AI Supercomputer from a browser" on leading clouds for a cost of $36,999 per instance per month. Amgen, CCC Intelligent Solutions and... More

Jefferies sidelined on Hertz (HTZ) as EVs limit near-term profitability

Jefferies downgraded Hertz (NASDAQ: HTZ) to a Hold rating (From Buy) and cut their 12-month price target to $8.00 (From $12.00) as they believe EV repair issues, higher opex and DPU may limit the rental car companys near-term profitability.

Jefferies recognizes that the stock is currently 10% lower than its 52-week low,... More

Meta Platforms' (META) Zuckerberg hints company is spending billions on NVIDIA (NVDA) AI chips

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) is said to be spending billions of dollars on NVIDIA's (NASDAQ: NVDA) computer chips as part of the company's AI efforts.

Mark Zuckerberg revealed in an Instagram post Friday that the company is building... More

Micron Technology (MU) Reiterated as Top Pick at Citi

Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) Reiterated as Top Pick at Citi

The analyst comments "We are turning positive on semiconductors given the stabilization in the PC, wireless and server end markets (combined 56% of semi-TAM). With semi units down 20% YoY in 2023, the worst unit correction... More

Evercore ISI Adds Apple (AAPL) to Tactical Outperform List

Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani reiterated an Outperform rating and $220.00 price target on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

The analyst comments "Apple stock has underperformed over the last few weeks (YTD down 2% vs. S&P500 down 0.2%) driven by worries ranging from China demand to watch bans to regulatory risk. We think Apple should be able to report modest upside to Dec-qtr and guide March-qtr in the zip-code of street expectations gross-margins could be a wild card in march-qtr, street is modelling GMs flat in March q/q (historically AAPL has guide for... More

Fastenal (FAST) shares gain following earnings, revenue beat

Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST) shares rallied Thursday after reporting its latest quarterly earnings, topping profit and revenue consensus estimates.

The wholesale distributor of industrial and construction supplies reported Q4 EPS of $0.46, $0.01, better than the analyst estimate of $0.45. Revenue for the quarter came in at $1.76 billion, up 3.7% YoY and above the consensus estimate of $1.75... More

Morgan Stanley upgrades Hertz (HTZ) as rental company addresses EV challenges

Morgan Stanley upgraded Hertz Global (NYSE: HTZ) to an Outperform rating (From Equal-Weight) and cut their 12-month price target to $15.00 ($16.00) after the rental company announced that they would be 20k Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) units from its 60k... More