Notable analyst calls this week: Boeing, Apple and Visa among top picks

The S&P500 (SP500) closed in the green, as the market this week witnessed a strong jobs report and an escalating war of words between U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, signalling an end of their bromance era.

For the week, Nasdaq (COMP:IND) rose 0.3%, while Dow (DJI) showed marginal gains.

Wall Street had a slew of upgrades and downgrades from analysts. Here are some of the major calls for the week:

Boeing upgraded on trade support, defense boost

Boeing (NYSE:BA) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral by BofA, pointing to a strengthening production momentum, improving free cash flow prospects and the aircraft maker’s growing role in global trade negotiations.

BofA analyst Ron Epstein highlighted Boeing’s inclusion in recent trade deals as a strategic asset for the Trump administration, citing aircraft orders tied to agreements with the United Kingdom, Qatar, UAE and the recent lifting of China’s ban on Boeing jets.

Epstein added, this “favored trade mechanism” status may set a precedent for Boeing to benefit from future international negotiations.

Apple gets rare rating cut from Needham

Needham downgraded Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) to Hold from Buy amid concerns over earnings growth, iPhone competition and more.

“Despite AAPL’s premium valuation, it is growing [revenues] and margins slowest among its Big Tech competitors,” analyst Laura Martin said, expressing concern about Apple’s valuation.

With an iPhone replacement cycle not likely to happen in the next 12 months, revenue growth could be at risk, added Martin, noting that $170 to $180 is a better entry level for investors.

JPM upgrades Pinterest on user growth,

J.P. Morgan upgraded Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) to Overweight from Neutral, praising the image-sharing social media platform for growing its users, improving its monetization and ARPU, and driving profitable growth. The brokerage hiked PT to $40 from $35.

“Importantly, we believe PINS is leveraging its full-funnel ad approach and automation/AI capabilities — including Performance+—to capture a greater share of ad spending,” JPM said, adding that the company has seen “solid MAU growth” and JPM expects upside to multi-year profit from faster revenue growth and cost discipline for PINS.

Constellation Energy downgraded after Meta nuclear deal

Citi downgraded Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG) shares to Neutral from Buy, citing limited near-term upside following the stock’s recent rally and news of its power purchase agreement with Meta.

“This deal has broad implications on the power markets as it signals future contracting activity,” Levine wrote, but he believes much of the benefit from such agreements is priced into Constellation’s stock price, which has surged since Citi’s upgrade in April.

The brokerage sees a “balanced risk to the upside and the downside” for the stock, maintaining a High Risk classification due to volatility in power prices, policy uncertainty, and execution challenges related to plant restarts.

Bank of America stayed bullish on Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD) with a Buy rating and is still optimistic about the company’s unique and valuable assets, despite noting that WBD shares have significantly underperformed its expectations and the broader market.

Mizuho upgraded Visa (NYSE:V) to Outperform from Neutral on the premise that the U.S. consumers will increase their spending in categories where they’re more likely to pay with a card than cash.

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) was in focus as BofA maintained its Buy rating after a meeting with management. Analyst Vivek Arya said the tone of the meeting with Nvidia CFO Colette Kress and an investor relations executive was “very positive,” as demand and customer interest across both the enterprise and cloud remain strong.

Bank of America named Chewy (NYSE:CHWY) as its top Internet SMID cap idea. The firm pointed to consistent share gains against the pet industry, exposure to non-discretionary and subscription-like sales, as well as margin expansion amid the online retailer’s mix shift into pet health and sponsored ads. Jefferies also downgraded the stock to Hold from Buy, citing valuation concerns and that the company is unlikely to materially raise full-year guidance when it reports Q1 results next week.