August has emerged as the busiest month in 2023 for Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, with a total deal value of $9.1 billion and an average transaction size of $481 million.
The flurry of activity is reminiscent of the heady days of SPAC enthusiasm with 19 new SPAC merger deals announced this month alone.
In the wake of Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS)'s latest earnings report, Bank of America analysts have expressed concerns about the retail giant's persistent sales decline in a challenging macroeconomic environment.
Earlier this week Gap Inc (NYSE:GPS) reported a disheartening 8% drop in sales to $3.5 billion for the second quarter, falling towards the lower end of the previously forecasted guidance.
Bank of America Securities analysts continue to see favorable risk/reward for shares of Intuit Inc going forward as they viewed the financial software company’s fourth-quarter financial results as being generally “healthy” although its full-year 2024 guidance was “mixed”.
In a note to clients, they raised their price objective on Intuit to $580 per share from $530, while reiterating their ‘Buy’ rating, “to reflect the better small business outlook and potential for upside to derisked consumer tax outlook from here”.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), the electric vehicle (EV) behemoth, is not just about cars anymore.
According to a recent note from Wedbush Securities, the company's supercharger network is becoming a significant part of its valuation, hinting at a broader strategy.
Tesla's decision to open its supercharger network to other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) like General Motors (GM), Ford, and Mercedes-Benz suggests a vision beyond just selling vehicles.
Wedbush's analysis highlights Tesla's multi-faceted approach.
The company's supercharger network, energy business, AI-driven autonomous path, unmatched battery ecosystem, and global production scale are all pieces of a larger puzzle.
Analysts at Bank of America (BoA) have reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating for chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) on their belief its artificial intelligence (AI) opportunities are accelerating and can help offset macroeconomic impacts elsewhere.
In a note to clients following the Nvidia rival’s second-quarter results, the analysts highlighted that Marvell has a favourable combination of assets in terms of data centers and infrastructure, several of which have AI exposure, including electro-optics, ethernet switching, custom application-integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, and data processing units.
NVIDIA Corp shares have been a top performer on the Nasdaq thus far in 2023, surging 230% year to date as of Thursday’s close, as the chipmaker’s market valuation has now surpassed $1 trillion.
On Wednesday, NVIDIA reported second-quarter fiscal 2024 earnings of $2.70 per share, surpassing the $2.08 consensus forecast, on better-than-anticipated revenue of $13.51 billion that was at the top end of the company’s own guidance.
Analysts at Wedbush forecast Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)'s supercharger segment could be a $10 billion to $20 billion business, making up 3% to 6% of the electric vehicle (EV)-maker’s total revenues by 2030.
They wrote that Tesla has agreed to double its current network of 5,000 superchargers under the Biden administration’s $7.5 billion charging network.
Splunk Inc (NASDAQ:SPLK) had a ‘good’ quarter and could be setting the groundwork for upgrades in the future, according to analysts at California-based stockbroker Wedbush.
The cloud-data firm saw its stock rise 14% on Thursday after its financial results beat expectations.
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) stock has more room to run according to analysts at California-based stockbroker Wedbush which has raised its price target to $600, up from $490.
Alongside an outperform rating, the new target sees some 25% further upside to the chipmaker’s current price.
Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON) has been hit by a wave of investor concerns after a disappointing earnings report and a bleak growth outlook.
Analysts at Bank of America downgraded the company's stock from Buy to Neutral on Thursday and slashed the price objective from $13 to $6.50.
Analysts at Wedbush have upgraded their rating on AMC Entertainment Holdings (NYSE:AMC) following the cinema chain’s 10-to-one reverse stock split.
They upped their rating from ‘Underperform’ to ‘Neutral’ and awarded AMC a post-reverse split 12-month price target of $19, up from $2.
Microsoft Corp’s recent agreement to license the cloud gaming rights to all Activision Blizzard Inc (NASDAQ:ATVI) titles to Ubisoft on an exclusive global basis outside of the European Economic Area could be sufficient to eliminate anticompetitive concerns of UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), according to Wedbush Securities analysts in a note to clients.
Under its original order, the CMA noted that the acquisition of Activision would give Microsoft an unfair competitive advantage in the cloud gaming market— namely that its ownership of Activision games would unfairly benefit Microsoft’s Game Pass service by allowing that service to release the games to cloud gaming subscribers at the same time as the games were to be otherwise released on consoles and PC.
Analysts of JD Sports Fashion PLC (LSE:JD.) believe it is “unwarranted” for investors to read across from Dick's Sporting Goods' (NYSE:DKS) profit warning to the British fashion retailer.
The fall in JD Sports shares of more than 8% on Tuesday came after the US sporting retailer posted poor second-quarter results and said it would be cutting around 250 corporate jobs.
Canadian banks are entering the third quarter of 2023 facing headwinds tied to persistently higher interest rates, Bank of America has warned.
As the major Canadian financial institutions get set to report their quarterly earnings at the end of the week, a new report from Bank of America (BofA) highlighted concerns over rising interest rates and regulatory scrutiny for Canadian banks.
The third quarter will be critical for base metal miners as many companies need to catch up to achieve their annual production guidance, offsetting a weaker start to 2023, analysts at Stifel believe.
Following the release of second quarter earnings by eight miners under their coverage, the analysts noted several themes from the quarter, including that production guidance was generally weighted toward the second half of 2023, with most companies producing less than half of their annual guidance in 1H 2023.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment is a live entertainment pure play with upside, according to analysts at Bank of America.
The firm initiated coverage of MSGE, which owns Madison Square Garden along with other venues including the Chicago Theater, with a Buy rating and a 12-month $41 price target.
Peloton Interactive Inc (NASDAQ:PTON) could see a $15 million headwind to its gross profit for the fourth quarter due to the recall of defective bike seats during the period, analysts at the Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) (BoA) believe.
The fitness equipment company will report its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings before the stock market opens on Wednesday, August 23.
Analysts at Couloir Capital have initiated coverage on Kootenay Silver Inc. (TSX-V:KTN) with a positive outlook on the Mexico-focused silver miner for the next 12 months on their thesis that significant further upside remains to Kootenay's already sizeable resources.
The analysts noted that Kootenay’s main focus is the Columba project where the company has planned a three-phase drill program totalling 50,000 metres and expects to publish a maiden resource after the first two phases of drilling.
The update from Seeing Machines Ltd (AIM:SEE, OTC:SEEMF) showed revenue well ahead of expectations and the latest KPIs “reinforce the continuing healthy trends and high rates of growth for the company”, said broker Stifel, reiterating its ‘buy’ rating.
With revenue now expected to be 7% better than consensus, this equates to 49% growth for the year and with recurring revenues up 27%, this altogether “is an impressive achievement and shows the progress the company is making”, said analysts Annabel Hewson and Peter McNally as they took over coverage of the stock.
In a recent note, UK brokerage Peel Hunt has spotlighted the potential of Seeing Machines Ltd (AIM:SEE, OTC:SEEMF), the advanced computer vision technology firm. The brokerage firmly believes that the company's shares are undervalued, suggesting they are worth 12p each, a figure that's more than double the current trading price. But what's driving this bullish assessment?
For the uninitiated, Seeing Machines has been making waves in the tech industry with its AI-powered operator monitoring systems. These systems, designed to enhance transport safety, have been installed in over a million vehicles globally. The company's financial performance for the year ending 30 June 2023 was nothing short of impressive. The company reported a revenue of US$57.8 million, marking a 49% increase from the previous year. To put this into perspective, this figure exceeded the market's consensus estimate, which was around US$54 million.
Block Inc (NYSE:SQ)’s merchant-facing platform’s near-term growth prospects will likely be negatively impacted by Bill.com’s 2023 year-end financial results, its metrics, full-year 2024 guidance and cautious commentary, according to Wedbush Securities analysts.
In an update to clients, the analysts noted that they believe BILL’s strategy of selling financial automation software to small-to-medium-sized (SMBs), including solutions for managing financial workflows, including payables, receivables, and spend and expense management is comparable to Block’s model of monetizing its merchant eco-system.