The S&P 500 (SP500) closed in the red on Friday, after the week saw earnings reports from tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms.
For the week, Nasdaq (COMP:IND) rose 0.4%, while and Dow (DJI) fell 0.7%, respectively.
Wall Street had a slew of upgrades and downgrades from analysts. Here are some of the major calls for the week:
Morgan Stanley gets bullish on J&J
Morgan Stanley upgraded Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) to Overweight from Equal-Weight, noting that the pharma giant sits in a “higher growth” group relative to its peers.
Analyst Terence Flynn projects the company’s revenue and earnings per share to record a ~5.5% and 12% CAGR over 2026-2030, respectively, indicating a favorable growth outlook compared to its biopharma rivals and positioning JNJ “in the ‘higher growth’ cohort.”
Flynn raised his PT on the stock to $262 from $200 per share, noting that J&J is trading at a ~3x discount to the S&P 500.
Applied Materials upgraded on increased WFE spending
Applied Materials (AMAT) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral by Mizuho Securities as they expect the firm to benefit from rising capital expenditures in the U.S., Taiwan, and Japan.
The brokerage also increased its price target on the stock to $370 from $275. It further projected that WFE spending will increase by 13% year over year in 2026 and another 12% in 2027.
“With strong AI demand driving leading-edge tool spend at <2nm, we now see China’s share of global WFE declining to 23-25% in 2026-27E and a smaller drag on AMAT (~30% of AMAT revs), though still a substantial business with legacy PCVD, Sputtering, and Conductor etch,” said analyst Vijay Rakesh.
HSBC moves to the sidelines on Pinterest
HSBC Global Investment Research downgraded Pinterest (PINS) to Hold from Buy, citing a softer near-term outlook after the company cut jobs by 15% to reallocate resources to AI-focused roles.
“PINS’ main profit-generating N. America region has been a particular sore point as ARPU grew only 6% y-o-y over 9M25, lagging behind peers despite multi-year investments in AI capabilities by PINS that span advertiser, creator, and consumer tools and features,” the brokerage said.
PINS’ price target was cut from $34.50 to $24.90.
Sandisk receives bullish view after quarterly results
BofA and Wells Fargo raised PT on Sandisk (SNDK) after fiscal second quarter results beat estimates.
“While we clearly missed the SNDK momentum, at these levels we think we’re starting to find peak EPS power ($70-$80/sh.),” said Well Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers and raised PT to $675 from $380, while keeping Equal Weight rating on the shares.
Similarly, BofA kept its Buy rating on Sandisk’s stock and raised PT to $850 from $390, citing “massive” Q3 guidance and strong demand across the board.
Needham upgraded AppLovin (APP) to Buy from Hold and established a $700 PT on the stock. “We are increasing our ecommerce estimates for ’26E to $1.45B vs. $1.05B prior, which includes sequential growth in 1Q as we now assume the growth in advertisers from the self-service launch and ramp up in spend more than offsets typical 1Q seasonality,” the brokerage said.
Morgan Stanley increased its price target on Lumentum (LITE) to $350 from $304, ahead of its quarterly results. “With LITE up ~100% since FQ1 results in early November, it is of little surprise that the name was the highest volume for incremental investors as we closed out the year,” said Morgan Stanley analysts Meta Marshall and Mary Lenox.