(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Thursday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) A chipmaker and an auto giant were among the stocks being talked about by analysts on Thursday. Bank of America reiterated Nvidia as a top pick, noting the recent decline in the stock creates a buying opportunity. Meanwhile, Wolfe Research downgraded General Motors to peer perform. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 6:10 a.m.: Morgan Stanley downgrades StoneCo Morgan Stanley thinks market oversaturation could pressure StoneCo moving forward. The firm downgraded the financial technology stock to underweight from equal weight. Its price target of $7 implies more than 44% downside. Shares have plunged more than 30% in 2024. “We expect a significant slowdown in [total payment volume] growth at Stone, on the back of saturation in digital payments. Stone’s market share gains should slow down, because it has a large share in MSMB and as saturation leads to increased competition,” analyst Jorge Kuri said. The analyst also forecast 40% to 50% downside for the broader field of Brazil digital payment stocks as saturation takes hold. “We see diminishing operating leverage due to rising sales & marketing expenses in a more competitive market,” the analyst added. “And, we think, banking, credit, & software are unlikely to offset the decline in the payments business given their relative small size.” — Brian Evans 5:42 a.m.: Wolfe downgrades General Motors Wolfe Research is moving to the sidelines on General Motors given the automaker’s unclear outlook into 2025. The firm downgraded the Detroit-based automaker to peer perform from outperform. Shares of General Motors have added more than 34% in 2024. GM YTD mountain GM year to date Analyst Emmanuel Rosner tied some of the uncertainty moving forward to the company’s struggle to expand margins and recover some of the losses its experienced from still sluggish electric vehicle demand. “Despite Mgmt’s targets for reaching positive margins next year, investors remain skeptical given soft demand trends and high EV-structural costs,” Rosner said. However, the analyst cautioned “we see potential for GM to outperform peers in 2H24 on less downside risk to estimates, and a potential catalyst at the Oct. CMD if Mgmt can instill confidence in the 2025 earnings outlook, and/or articulate a path to reducing EV losses.” — Brian Evans 5:42 a.m.: Bank of America reiterates Nvidia as a top pick Investors should buy Nvidia after the stock’s recent dip, according to Bank of America. Analyst Vivek Aria reiterated the chipmaker as a top pick and a price target of $165, which implies upside of 55.4% from Wednesday’s close. He also has a buy rating on the stock. Nvidia shares have dropped 14% this quarter, as traders unwind some positions in the early winners of 2024. More recently, some reports point to potential antitrust pressure the company could be facing — though Nvidia on Wednesday denied it received a subpoena from the Justice Department. Still, the stock is up more than 114% year to date. NVDA YTD mountain NVDA year to date “We maintain that (see prior report) skepticism about AI capex and monetization is an understandable but fruitless endeavor at-least until 2026,” Arya wrote. “AI capex is not just driving new business opportunities, it’s also critical in protecting existing moats and large profit pools in search, social and enterprise (chat, copilot) workloads. The tech industry will give itself at least another 1-2 years of intense buildout of NVDA Blackwell chip with its 4x lift in AI training and 25x+ lift in inference.” — Fred Imbert
Thursday's analyst calls: Buy the Nvidia dip, General Motors gets downgraded
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