(This is Tech Zone Daily Pro’s live coverage of Friday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) An e-commerce giant and a snack maker were among the stocks being talked about by analysts. Evercore ISI raised its price target on Amazon to $240, implying more than 25% upside ahead. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley downgraded PepsiCo to equal weight. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:49 a.m.: Evercore ISI hikes Amazon price target Evercore ISI is betting big on Amazon’s streaming service. Analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated his outperform rating and raised his price target from $225 to $240, which implies 26.4% upside. The stock is up nearly 25% year to date. Mahaney also said the e-commerce giant remains the firm’s leading large cap long pick. AMZN YTD mountain AMZN year to date “We focus on Amazon’s ramped up focus and opportunity with Prime Video,” Mahaney said in a note to clients. “Amazon has ramped up its content on Prime Video (e.g. more NFL games including a WildCard Playoff game, 66 regular season NBA games in ’25, and, especially, the 2024 PPA World Championships). And monetizing that content via advertising has become a higher priority.” According to Mahaney, Amazon Prime Video will generate between $3 billion and $5.9 billion in total sales next year, potentially driving an acceleration in Amazon’s total ad revenue growth next year. The analyst noted that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call that its advertising revenue was at a $50 billion run rate, and that the company was “at the beginning of what’s possible in our video advertising.” — Pia Singh 5:49 a.m.: Morgan Stanley downgrades PepsiCo Don’t expect PepsiCo shares to make much headway going forward, according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Dara Mohsenian downgraded the snacks and beverage giant to equal weight from overweight. His price target of $185 implies upside of just 6% from Thursday’s close. He cited “lingering [organic sales growth] risk and building EPS risk from US topline softness, driven by both muted category growth, as well as PEP market share losses, with little signs of a pickup post recent greater spending/promotion.” “We upgraded the stock to Overweight back in March at what we thought was a good entry point, expecting OSG would inflect in H2 as Pepsi cycled easier comparisons, Quaker recall issues dissipated, and PEP’s pricing power would reemerge on a relative basis vs HPC peers,” Mohsenian said. “However, that fundamental call was wrong.” PepsiCo shares are up just 2% in 2024, lagging the broader market. PEP YTD mountain PEP year to date — Fred Imbert
