Stewart Butterfield (C), co-founder and chief executive officer of Slack, and Allen Shim (2nd L), chief financial officer of Slack, ring the opening bell the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), June 20, 2019 in New York City.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Here are the biggest calls on Wall Street on Wednesday:
Baird initiated Slack Technologies as ‘outperform’
Baird initiated the work messaging service and noted Slack’s early penetration in the market as well as strong growth and competitive position.
“WORK has taken the team messaging and collaboration market by storm, often replacing traditional email use and improving team productivity. With penetration early, we are positive on the strong growth and competitive position. “
Mizuho upgraded ConocoPhillips to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’
Mizuho said the multinational energy corporation has made major strides to “improve” its unit cash margins.
“A true “Renaissance” play, COP is among the best-positioned for the new E&P model. We think this will be proven out with evolution of the cash return framework, with a view to their major November analyst meeting. “
Goldman Sachs initiated Fox as ‘conviction buy’
Goldman Sachs initiated Fox as conviction buy saying it had the ability to drive affiliate revenue higher amongst other things.
“We expect FOXA to reprice higher its affiliate fee contracts with pay TV operators, driving ample free cash for programming, strategic investments and share buybacks. We are bullish on FOXA’s early-mover advantage in the nascent US sports betting market, and our price target includes $4 per share for the Fox Bet JV. “
Wedbush raised its price target on Roku to $105 from $65
Wedbush said Roku has “substantial” growth opportunities.
“Roku has built an exceptional platform on the back of its players, and as it expands in the rapidly growing Smart TV category, it has positioned itself as best in class for OTT advertising and is poised for international expansion. “
Leerink upgraded AbbVie to ‘outperform’ from ‘market perform’
Leerink upgraded the stock after AbbVie announced it was acquiring Allergan and said it expects the company to get “even more” synergies.
“Based on AbbVie‘s new dividend yield of 6.5%, the sustainability and likely growth of that dividend through 2023 (at least) and the high probability that AbbVie will extract even more synergies from Allergan than was suggested yesterday, we are upgrading AbbVie to Outperform and maintaining our recent $88 target price for the stock. “
Needham upgraded Micron to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’
Needham upgraded the stock after Micron’s earnings report on Tuesday after the bell and said it saw a “bottoming EPS.”
“The company has seen normalizing inventory levels in the cloud, graphics, and PC end markets, as customers digest excess inventory. Another significant tailwind is MU’s resumption of shipments of certain products to Huawei in the last 2 weeks. “