(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Wednesday analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) Alphabet and a Chinese electric vehicle maker were among the names being talked about by analysts on Wednesday. Analysts reacted positively to Alphabet’s AI-related announcement at a developer conference. Meanwhile, JPMorgan upgraded Nio to neutral from underweight. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:38 a.m.: Deutsche Bank downgrades Six Flags Entertainment in ‘mechanical’ move There isn’t much upside left in Six Flags at the moment. Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Woronka lowered his rating on Six Flags to hold from buy and lowered his price target to $27 from $29, implying upside of just 1%. Six Flags said in November 2023 the company would merge with Cedar Fair, with shareholders in the latter entity controlling the majority stake in the new company. “Although we continue to have confidence that the planned merger with FUN will be consummated, Buy-rated FUN (the surviving entity, in a new C-Corp structure in this otherwise merger of equals) is our preferred way to gain access to the anticipated benefits of the transaction,” Woronka added. “However, in the near term, SIX’s stock price should effectively remain tethered to that of FUN until the merger is consummated (or unexpectedly terminated) given the fixed exchange ratio, and we don’t feel a need to effectively be “double long” the transaction, in the event that circumstances or expectations change,” the analyst noted. Six Flags stock has ticked up nearly 7% in 2024. SIX YTD mountain Six Flags ytd — Brian Evans 6:30 a.m.: Analysts expect a strong quarter from Nvidia KeyBanc analyst John Vinh doesn’t see a demand slowdown for top artificial intelligence play Nvidia ahead of quarterly results on May 22. “Despite anticipation of next-generation Blackwell GPUs in the 2H, we see limited signs of a demand pause and expect NVDA to report F1Q results and F2Q guidance meaningfully above expectations,” Vinh said. The analyst reiterated an overweight rating on the stock as well as a $1,200 per share price target, implying more than 31% upside from Tuesday’s close. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri also expects a first-quarter beat, specifically driven by stronger-than-expected lead times preceding results. “As lead times have come in substantially, we see enough room for NVDA to post FQ1E (April) revenue potentially as high as $26B (data center ~$22-23B) and potentially guide to ~$27-28B in total revenue (data center ~$25-26B) – both good enough to keep the stock biased higher, in our view,” Arcuri said. The analyst has a buy rating on Nvidia with a $1,150 per share price target, or about 26% upside ahead. Nvidia stock has added more than 84% in 2024. — Brian Evans 5:44 a.m.: Alphabet to remain a leader among AI-driven businesses after developer conference, Goldman Sachs says Alphabet’s I/O developer event has Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan convinced that the firm will cement its position as one of the leaders in artificial intelligence-driven businesses. “We came away increasingly constructive on Alphabet’s long-term strategic positioning in a number of key end markets and continue to see the company as the leading collection of AI/machine learning-driven businesses in our coverage universe,” Sheridan wrote on Wednesday. “In our view, as the AI large language (foundational) model layer shows less incremental improvements with each iteration, we see the best-positioned companies as those that can seamlessly integrate AI features into consumer-facing and enterprise-facing products to generate wide-scale adoption,” he cautioned. Google on Tuesday unveiled updates to its Gemini AI model along with new search features, including AI Overviews, which summarize answers to search questions. Sheridan reiterated a buy rating on Alphabet stock alongside a $195 per share price target, which equates to roughly 15% upside from Tuesday’s $170.34 close. Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein also said the event should “assuage fears” over the company’s AI competitive position. “Relative to OpenAI’s limited product demo the day before, we believe GOOG demonstrated its strong competitive position, driven by an essentially unlimited R & D budget, access to the largest user & data library, and 10 years of machine learning focus,” said Helfstein, who reiterated his outperform rating. Brent Thill of Jefferies also noted the company delivered “some gems” at the event. “We believe generative AI will ultimately give GOOGL an expanded role in search, as ‘Google will 1715769886 do the Googling for you.'” Alphabet stock has added 22% in 2024. — Brian Evans 5:44 a.m.: JPMorgan upgrades Nio to neutral The outlook for Nio is improving, but it’s still murky, according to JPMorgan. Analyst Nick Lai upgraded the Chinese electric vehicle maker to neutral from underweight. He also raised his price target on U.S.-listed shares to $5.40 per share from $4.80, though the new forecast calls for a 6% decline over the next year. The stock has been on a tear recently, surging 48% over the past month. However, it’s down more than 36% year to date, as the global EV market faces waning demand. NIO YTD mountain NIO YTD Lai had downgraded Nio to underweight in February due to slowing sales momentum. Now, the analysts sees two catalysts that could continue the stock’s recent surge: “1) Chinese government stimulus policy to boost auto demand including NEV which NIO should also benefit from; and 2) NIO’s latest battery as a service (BaaS) strategy by lowering buyers’ monthly rental fee (by ~25%) has not only successfully boosted store traffic and BaaS take rate … but also driven its sales momentum.” Shares popped more than 3% in the premarket following the rating change. — Fred Imbert
