(This is Tech Zone Daily Pro’s live coverage of Monday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A major streaming company and a tech giant were among the stocks being talked about by analysts on Monday. Piper Sandler upgraded Netflix to overweight from neutral. Meanwhile, Jefferies lowered its rating on Apple to hold from buy. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:41 a.m.: Jefferies downgrades Apple Oversized expectations for the iPhone could hurt of Apple lower, according to Jefferies. Analyst Edison Lee downgraded the stock to hold from buy, and his price target of $212.92 implies more than 6% downside from Friday’s close. The analyst said near-term expectations for the iPhone 16 and 17 are “too high,” seeing weaker-than-expected initial demand. Lee also believes that the artificial intelligence capabilities of its smartphone technology are not likely to reach commercialization for another two to three years. “Unlike AI servers, smartphones lack high-speed memory and advanced packaging tech that allow fast data transfer between AP and memory, thus limiting their AI capabilities,” he wrote in a note to clients. “To expect an accelerated smartphone replacement cycle now due to AI is premature, in our view.” Apple has surged nearly 18% in 2024 and more than 33% in the past six months. AAPL YTD mountain AAPL in 2024 — Sean Conlon 5:41 a.m.: Piper Sandler upgrades Netflix to overweight Netflix’s high valuation is justified, according to Piper Sandler. Analyst Matt Farrell raised his rating on the stock to overweight from neutral. His price target of $800, up from $650, implies upside of 11.2% from Friday’s close. “The company is a clear leader in streaming. Notably, our prior Neutral stance was centered around valuation, but now, we appreciate the company is expensive for a reason,” Farrell said in a note. Indeed, Netflix trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 37.6, well above the S & P 500’s 24. That said, “moving forward, there are still levers to be pulled in the ads-free business (particularly around pricing), while the ads-tier has been largely de-risked heading into next year,” the analyst wrote. He added that, “in in a potentially weaker macro [environment], Netflix’s subscription based model becomes even more attractive, particularly given the upcoming content slate.” Not everyone was as optimistic on Netflix, however. Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar downgraded the streaming giant to underweight from equal weight. He kept his $550 price target unchanged, implying downside of more than 23%. “As evident over the past 2-3 years, the company has had to lean more heavily on new growth drivers to keep revenue growth in the double digits, and some of these, like paid sharing, are likely pulling forward future growth,” he wrote. “Even with these levers, growth is slowing and every lever now has corresponding trade-offs.” Netflix shares are up nearly 48% year to date. NFLX YTD mountain NFLX year to date — Fred Imbert
