Notes
MORNING BID
🔸 Apple ( $AAPL) plans to invest $500B in the U.S. over 4 years, boosting AI, silicon engineering, and skills development, including a new Houston facility for Apple Intelligence servers and 20,000 R&D jobs.
🔸 Disney’s ( $DIS) “Captain America: Brave New World” topped box office in week 2 with $28.2M, down from $100M debut over 4 days in week 1.
🔸 Microsoft ( $MSFT) is canceling U.S. datacenter leases, possibly signaling excess AI capacity, per TD Cowen; also claims a quantum computing breakthrough, but physicists doubt it, per WSJ.
🔸 Twilio ( $TWLO) upgraded to overweight from equal-weight by Morgan Stanley, citing strong execution for growth and margins.
🔸 Alibaba ( $BABA) plans to invest $52B in AI and cloud infrastructure over 3 years, surpassing its last decade’s spending.
🔸 Domino’s ( $DPZ) Q4: EPS $4.89 (est. $4.90), revenue $1.44B (est. $1.47B), comp store sales up 0.4% (est. 1.63%), international comps up 2.7%; dividend raised 15% to $1.74/share, gross margin steady at 39.2%.
🔸 Nike ( $NKE) upgraded to Buy from Hold by Jefferies, citing a strong recovery in the next 2 years.
🔸 Target Hospitality ( $TH) notified that the U.S. government will end its Pecos Children’s Center agreement, effective around Feb 21, 2025.
🔸 Wingstop ( $WING) upgraded to Buy from Neutral by Guggenheim.
🔸 CF Industries ( $CF) upgraded to Neutral from Underperform by Bank America, PT $84, seen as fairly priced with balanced risk/reward after selloff.
🔸 Newmont ( $NEM) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight by JPMorgan.
🔸 Westlake Chemical ( $WLK) Q4: EPS $0.06 (est. $1.08), sales $2.84B (est. $2.97B), operating income $66M (-9.6% y/y), EBITDA $416M (+6.7% y/y, est. $524.5M).
🔸 Berkshire Hathaway ( $BRK.B) Q4 EPS $13,695 (vs. $26,043 last year); 2024 investment gains: $3.1B after-tax in Q4, $79.6B full year; 2023: $330M Q4 loss, $3.6B full-year gain; no stock buybacks in Q4.
Equitable Holdings ( $EQH) offers to buy up to 46M AllianceBernstein ($AB) units at $38.50 each, totaling $1.8B, a 7.8% premium over Feb 21 closing price.
🔸 NMI Holdings ( $NMIH) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform by Keefe Bruyette.
🔸 BioCryst ( $BCRX): ORLADEYO trial shows positive results for kids aged 2-12 with hereditary angioedema; real-world studies confirm significant attack rate drops in patients with C1-INH deficiency and normal C1-INH.
🔸 Summit Therapeutics ($SMMT) teams up with Pfizer ($PFE) to test ivonescimab with Pfizer’s cancer therapies ( ADCs) across tumor types; Summit supplies the drug, Pfizer runs the studies.
$APLT: Baird's target price adjustment: $14 to $5.
RBC's target price change: $12 to $4, rating shift from outperform to sector perform.
$ADSK: Citigroup's slight target price increase: $358 to $361.
$BFb: Barclays' target price reduction: $53 to $49.
$CF: Berenberg's target price elevation: $69 to $74.
$CRWD: Citigroup's significant target price hike: $300 to $400.
$DSGX: RBC's target price upgrade: $115 to $133.
$DOMO: TD Cowen's minor target price lift: $9 to $10.
$EQIX: Truist Securities' substantial target price increase: $935 to $1,090.
$GNL: Truist Securities' target price reduction: $8.50 to $8.
$SJM: Citigroup's target price rise: $134 to $137.
Barclays' target price elevation: $121 to $126.
$PASG: Wedbush's initiation of coverage with outperform rating, target price set at $4 from a previous $3.
$PEB: Stifel's target price adjustment: $15 to $16.25.
$PFE: Berenberg's target price uptick: $27 to $29.
$PLL: BMO's target price increase: $9.50 to $14.
$PLYM: Truist Securities' price target cut: $27 to $22.
$RDNT: Truist Securities' target price boost: $80 to $94.
$SW: JP Morgan's target price adjustment: $65 to $69.
$SBEV: H.C. Wainwright's target price decrease: $1 to $0.50.
$TXNM: Barclays' target price elevation: $46 to $52.
$ULTA: Citigroup's target price increase: $345 to $390.
$URBN: Citigroup's rating upgrade to buy from neutral, target price rise from $42 to $59.
$VYGR: Wedbush's initiation of coverage with outperform rating, target price set at $11 from $7.
$WMG: Citigroup's target price adjustment: $31 to $34.