UBS has initiated coverage on a group of fitness stocks, assigning ‘Buy’ ratings to Planet Fitness (NYSE:PLNT) and Life Time (NYSE:LTH) and ‘Neutral’ ratings to Xponential Fitness (NYSE:XPOF) and Modern Golf (NYSE:MODG).
They noted growing consumer interest in health and wellness, especially among Gen Z, with 82% of US consumers now considering health and wellness a top priority, up from 50% in 2022.
GE Vernova (NYSE:GEV) is expected to report strong third quarter results, supported by continued growth in gas turbine orders, according to analysts at Bank of America.
The firm forecasts $12.4 billion in third-quarter orders, representing a 1.33x book-to-bill ratio and roughly 3% above the $12 billion consensus.
Bank of America analysts raised their price objective on Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, ETR:AMD) to $300 per share from $250 following what they called “positive” company announcements at the 2025 Open Compute Project (OCP) Conference in California.
In a note to clients on Friday, the analysts wrote that they now see greater visibility into the deployment and ramp outlook of MI450 Series 'Helios' racks launching in the second half of 2026, supported by key industry customers such as Oracle, Meta, and OpenAI.
Jeffries analysts struck a cautious tone regarding Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC, ETR:KHNZ), given what they consider to be the company’s persistent retail sales and volume softness, a weak consumer spending environment, and uncertainty around its pending split into two entities.
In a note to clients, the analysts wrote they “remain on the sidelines,” while reducing their target price on Kraft Heinz stock by 5% to $24 per share with a ‘Hold’ rating.
Jefferies analysts have raised their price target on Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL, ETR:ORC) to $400 from $360, noting that the company appears poised for a new growth phase driven by artificial intelligence infrastructure.
This represents upside of 28% from Oracle’s share price at the analysts’ time of writing.
Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW)’s third-quarter earnings set a positive tone for the fourth quarter by exceeding analyst expectations fueled by robust trading revenue, asset management fees, and net interest income.
The US brokerage and wealth management firm posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.31 for the third quarter, above the $1.26 forecast by Deutsche Bank and the $1.24 consensus estimate.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS, ETR:GOS) analysts have highlighted potential benefits for Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT, ETR:WMT) following the retailer’s recent partnership with OpenAI, which allows customers to complete purchases directly within ChatGPT.
The analysts note that Walmart has been accelerating its AI initiatives over the past year, including the August hiring of Daniel Danker as executive vice president of AI acceleration, product, and design, tasked with driving AI transformation across the company.
Wedbush analysts believe IMAX Corp (NYSE:IMAX) warrants a premium valuation, given what they called the “trifecta” of upcoming filmed-for-IMAX (FFI) titles across geographies, global footprint and margin expansion.
In a note to clients on Friday, the analysts wrote that they expect the company will be poised to surpass peak earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margins in the next two years.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS, ETR:GOS) has upgraded Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’, saying the information services company’s deepening integration of generative AI across its legal, tax and corporate software businesses positions it for sustained growth and multiple expansion.
The bank set a 12-month price target of $186 for Thomson Reuters’ US-listed shares, which is more than 20% upside, and C$258 for its Toronto listing, citing accelerating organic revenue growth and a widening competitive moat anchored by proprietary data and editorial expertise.
Shares of Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) dropped sharply following comments from US president Donald Trump about reductions in the prices of weight loss drugs.
During a White House event focused on fertility treatments and drug pricing, Trump suggested that the cost of drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic (semaglutide), used for diabetes and weight management, would soon be “much lower.”
It has been a while since Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM, ETR:FOO), the US software group best known for its customer management tools, had investors properly excited. But Goldman Sachs thinks that may be about to change.
After a strong showing at its annual analyst day, the bank says the company has laid out a convincing path to grow revenues beyond $60 billion by 2030, while lifting operating margins from around 34% today to roughly 40%.
Markets have spent much of autumn caught between nerves and relief, and Goldman Sachs thinks that tug-of-war could define the months ahead.
After a spell of optimism that the US economy might cruise into 2026 in decent shape, investors were jolted last week by renewed US-China trade tensions.
UBS analysts have boosted their price target on ‘Buy’-rated Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) to $245 from $225, pointing to intensifying shortages in the memory market.
Micron shares traded up 5.6% at about $203 on Thursday afternoon, having surged more than 140% in the year to date.
US holiday retail sales are expected to be up 3.5% to 4% over last year as consumer spending has remained resilient amid economic challenges, analysts at Wells Fargo believe.
This forecasted growth would be below the long-run annual average of 4.7% and slightly under the 4.3% average over the prior expansion from 2010 to 2019, reflecting expected consumer restraint due to higher prices and tighter budgets.
UBS analysts called Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX, ETR:NFC) a “secular winner,” as the streaming service is benefitting from a “strong” content line up that is supported by rising audience engagement.
They believe the company’s membership growth, pricing, and increased advertising revenue will sustain its double-digit revenue growth.
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) will report its third quarter earnings next Tuesday before markets open, with Wedbush analysts expecting the automaker to deliver solid revenue for the period despite challenges in its EV business and tariff costs.
They project Q3 revenue of $45 billion, pointing to strength across GM’s electric vehicle (EV) and internal combustion engine (ICE) segments. This is above the Wall Street consensus of $44.2 billion.
Victoria's Secret & Co. (NYSE:VSCO) has strong leadership momentum, innovation, a healthy full-price mix, and traffic-driving opportunities heading into the second half of the year, according to analysts at Jeffries.
In a note to clients on Thursday, the analysts raised their target price on Victoria's Secret by 15% to $35 per share while maintaining their ‘Buy’ rating.
Gold has rarely glittered quite this brightly. After a year in which the metal has surged about 60%, setting roughly 40 new record highs, investors have been piling in... and not just into bullion.
Silver, platinum and gold miners have all been caught up in the rush as traders search for extra leverage to the rally.
Anyone hoping that the artificial intelligence boom might be losing momentum will find little comfort in Wedbush’s latest dispatch from Asia.
Analyst Dan Ives and his team returned from a supply chain tour across Taiwan and the region, brimming with optimism and a few raised eyebrows at just how hot demand has become.
Allergy Therapeutics PLC (AIM:AGY, OTC:AGYTF) has given investors something to cheer about. The AIM-listed biotech climbed 3.3% to 8.25p after reporting encouraging progress in its early-stage trial for a peanut allergy vaccine.
The company said its phase I/IIa study, called PROTECT, has now safely completed dosing in healthy volunteers at the highest planned levels, with no signs of serious side effects or tolerability issues.
AstraZeneca PLC (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN) investors might want to take a deep breath. Deutsche Bank has turned bearish on the UK drugmaker, cutting its rating from Hold to Sell and trimming its price target to £105 from £110, well below the current share price of 12,548p (down 1%).
Its analysts say it is time to get “explicitly negative” on the stock, arguing that the post-pandemic golden run for AstraZeneca’s oncology pipeline has started to fade.
PayPal Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:PYPL, ETR:2PP) is heading into its third quarter earnings report with investors still waiting for signs of a meaningful turnaround in its branded payments business, according to Jefferies analysts.
The firm believes that while overall payment volumes are likely to show modest upside, the company remains “stuck” amid limited visibility into when branded growth might accelerate and with risks building to Street expectations for 2026.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS, ETR:GOS) is entering a new phase of operational transformation dubbed “OneGS 3.0,” focused on artificial intelligence and centralized efficiency, following what Jefferies described as a “constructive” third quarter marked by surging deal activity and durable trading momentum.
Jefferies said it raised its 2026 earnings estimate for Goldman Sachs by about 1% to $54.45 a share, citing improving capital markets conditions and the firm’s deepening pipeline of investment banking mandates.
Wedbush analysts believe consumer sentiment towards generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has been positive and has mostly improved since their last survey.
Their findings are based on Wedbush’s third quarter 2025 Consumer Internet Survey of more than 1,000 US consumers to measure sentiment and adoption of autonomous vehicles (AV) and consumer-facing genAI applications.
Bank of America maintained a ‘Neutral’ rating on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) after the company posted third-quarter results slightly above expectations and hinted at a strategic MedTech shake-up.
In a note Wednesday, the bank highlighted that J&J’s third-quarter revenue and earnings per share beat consensus by roughly 1%, driven largely by stronger-than-expected performance from its Stelara biologic.
Wedbush analysts believe Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, ETR:AMD) has provided future certainty around graphics processing unit (GPU) demand following newly announced agreements that promise to substantially lift the company’s future GPU revenues.
In a note Wednesday, the analysts raised their target price on AMD to $270 per share from $190, while reiterating their ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock, based on the company’s likely revenue path over the next few years.
Ecora Resources PLC (LSE:ECOR, TSX:ECOR, OTCQX:ECRAF) has edged closer to a long-awaited payday from its stake in the Santo Domingo copper project, after Capstone Copper confirmed a $360m investment from Orion Resource Partners for a 25% holding.
RBC calls the move a “key milestone” towards a construction decision expected in the second half of 2026, with project financing and detailed engineering now the next steps.
A pair of new contracts has given a lift to IXICO PLC (LSE:IXI, OTC:PHYOF), the London-listed neuroscience data specialist whose shares trade at just 12p.
The company has secured work on the development of a blood-based biomarker diagnostic test, a fast-growing area of research that could make screening for neurological conditions far simpler and cheaper.
Spending on cybersecurity remained resilient in the third quarter, with enterprise budgets running ahead of last year’s pace and government shutdown fears turning into a surprise tailwind for deal activity, according to a Wedbush report.
Roughly 86% of corporate cyber budgets have been used so far this year, compared with about 67% at this point in 2024, Wedbush said, suggesting more companies are locking in long-term security contracts despite tighter IT spending elsewhere.
Accelerating momentum in AI-focused equities and the so-called “FX debasement trade” are two themes that have dominated market movements since early September, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS, ETR:GOS) analysts.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, the firm highlighted that technology and AI-exposed stocks have materially outperformed broader indices year-to-date, while gold and other precious metals have surged as investors seek hedges against currency debasement.
Goldman Sachs analysts believe StubHub Holdings Inc (NYSE: STUB) is “positively levered” to the large and growing ticketing market.
In a note to clients, they initiated coverage of the global online ticket platform with a ‘Buy’ rating and a 12-month target price of $46 per share.
JP Morgan analysts remain bullish on Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and expect the company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) growth to accelerate during the second half of the year, driven by core cloud growth and AI led by Anthropic and Project Rainier.
In a note to clients on Tuesday, the analysts wrote that they also see Amazon benefitting from better-than-expected consumer spending, while viewing its valuation as being attractive on a price-to-earnings and free cash flow basis.
StubHub may be best known as the resale site where fans offload concert or sports tickets, but Wedbush thinks the company’s next act could be much bigger.
The bank has initiated coverage with an “outperform” rating and a $25 price target, arguing that StubHub is evolving from a pure resale marketplace into a diversified ticketing platform with a credible shot at disrupting the primary market.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) heads into its third-quarter earnings later this month with momentum on multiple fronts.
Citi expects the focus to remain on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the pace of its ongoing capacity buildout, even as the retail business continues to gain market share across categories from electronics to groceries.
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP, ETR:YCP) may not have the flashiest story in the oil patch, but RBC thinks the steady hand is paying off.
Ahead of third-quarter results, the broker keeps its “outperform” rating and lifts its price target to $118 from $113, citing consistent free cash flow, strong shareholder returns, and a resilient balance sheet.
Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) third-quarter update later this month is shaping up to be another test of how fast the tech giant can turn its artificial intelligence ambitions into hard cash.
Citi expects the numbers on October 29 to beat Wall Street’s forecasts, helped by steady advertising growth and strong demand for Google Cloud services.
Wedbush Securities is anticipating that the latest flare-up in US-China tensions will settle quickly, with analysts describing the recent market sell-off as a chance to buy into technology leaders.
Analyst Dan Ives said investor fears of a renewed trade war following China’s rare earth export restrictions are overdone, and highlighted signs pointing toward diplomatic cooling.
If the autumn gold rush has started to feel a bit too smooth, Deutsche Bank thinks your instincts are on point.
Its technical gauge of “trendiness” suggests the September to October rally has likely peaked in momentum, after running for 29 trading days versus an average of about 19 over the past three years.
Following AstraZeneca PLC's (LSE:AZN, NASDAQ:AZN) agreement with the US government on 'most favoured nation' drug pricing at the end of last week, analysts said the discounts were not as big as some were expecting but will still hit profits.
The White House announced the deal on Friday, after markets closed in New York, with confirmation of the deal shared with investors on Monday.