(This is CNBC Pro’s live coverage of Friday’s analyst calls and Wall Street chatter. Please refresh every 20-30 minutes to view the latest posts.) Major tech-related companies were front and center on analysts’ minds Friday. Analysts around Wall Street reacted to results from Amazon, Meta Platforms and Apple. On Amazon, a Goldman Sachs analyst said the company is positioned “as a leader in all aspects of secular growth within our Internet coverage.” Elsewhere, Bank of America raised its price target on Nvidia, calling for more than 25% upside. Check out the latest calls and chatter below. All times ET. 5:57 a.m.: Analysts see big gains ahead for Meta following earnings report Meta appears have to given investors a buffet of reasons to buy into the stock. There’s the better-than-expected quarterly financial results, the tripling of profit, the first-ever dividend, the expectation of muted hiring for the longer term and the focus on artificial intelligence. Shares soared more than 16% before the bell on Friday. Here’s what got analysts particularly excited and catalyzed many to make significant increases to target prices: Barclays analyst Ross Sandler reiterated his overweight while raising his price target by $150 to $550, now implying an upside of 39.3% from Thursday’s close: “The META story continues to shine relative to mega cap tech, and we think the winning streak can continue for the foreseeable future, attracting more long-term investors (yes, we still think META is under-owned vs. peers).” Deutsche Bank analyst Benjamin Black kept his buy rating while increasing his target to $525 from $450, which now reflects a 33% upside over Thursday’s closing level: “Looking back just one year, we believe the company has clearly demonstrated strong execution, decisive cost discipline, and in our view has significantly built credibility in its ability to successfully navigate a challenging environment and has now positioned the company for durable growth.” Stifel analyst Mark Kelley has a buy rating and raised his price target to $527 from $405, now showing a 33.5% upside: “The company is firing on all cylinders and continues to hammer home the notion that this will be a more efficient and leaner organization going forward, despite the heavy AI investment cycle that is well underway. Commentary across Reels, Advantage+, and Shopping were positive, and we expect the next wave of advertiser-focused AI tools to keep this momentum going. The icing on the cake is the dividend that will bring in a new class of investors, and should enable another re-rating for shares.” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik, who has an outperform rating and upped his target by $100 to $535, which now reflects a 35.5% upside: ” Revenue growth and guidance likely put to rest the biggest hangup of owning Meta into decelerating growth, but we were more impressed with the long-term vision laid out. Skeptics like to question ‘who still uses Facebook?’, but the Facebook app continues to grow users across all regions adapting to changing consumer tastes and needs, Meta’s family of apps continues to expand (Threads, Quest), while newer AI initiatives show the promise of a durable future. Perhaps just like the famed Patek slogan, ‘you never actually own Meta’s stock, you merely look after it for the next generation’.” — Alex Harring 5:45 a.m.: Wall Street sees a lot to like in Amazon’s earnings report Amazon surpassed earnings expectations for the fourth quarter, sending shares up more than 6% before the bell Friday and garnering praise from Wall Street analysts. The e-commerce giant earned $1 per share on revenue of $170 billion in the quarter, while analysts polled by LSEG anticipated 80 cents and $166.2 billion. Amazon also announced Rufus , a shopping assistant that utilizes artificial intelligence. Many analysts showed bullish sentiment following the reports through increased price targets. Here’s what some told clients: Goldman Sachs analyst Eric Sheridan, who reiterated his buy rating and raised his price target by $20 to $220, now implying upside of 38.1%: “We continue to see Amazon positioned as a leader in all aspects of secular growth within our Internet coverage. … In total, every key metric that Amazon is measured against exceeded expectations and we come away from this earnings report with an increased confidence interval in our medium/long term thesis of Amazon’s key platform drivers.” Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik, who kept his outperform rating and hiked his target price $25 to $200, 25.6% above Thursday’s closing level: “After stressing over what the Amazon results would be post Google sell-off, we read the earnings press release with gusto. Every number we checked looked good.” Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak, still overweight with a raised price target by $15 to $200, once again implying a 25.6% upside: ” AMZN’s results and guide speak to how improving execution, cost discipline, and an AWS recovery are leading to outsized EBIT and free cash flow revisions.” RBC Capital Markets analyst Brad Erickson, who still has an outperform rating and raised his target for shares by $35 to $215, reflecting a 35% upside: “Better-than-feared AWS growth and meaningful EBIT upside put AMZN on the doorstep of unlocking tens of billions of free cash flow over the next few years which bulls have been waiting for. Most encouraging to us is that in spite of strong numbers where Street EBIT estimates should move solidly higher, several of the most important, incremental drivers have really only just begun.” — Alex Harring 5:45 a.m.: Bank of America hikes Nvidia price target Don’t expect Nvidia to lose momentum anytime soon, according to Bank of America. BofA analyst Vivek Arya raised his price target on Nvidia to $800 from $700 per share, while reiterating his buy rating on the stock and calling for a strong fourth quarter report later this month. The new target implies upside of nearly 27%. “Early days, but results from top US cloud customers suggest solid motivation for spending in genAI,” the analyst wrote. “Enterprise genAI adoption has yet to kick off and become more material in CY25, with NVDA benefitting from its widespread availability on public clouds, and unique partnerships with ServiceNow, SAP, VMWare, Dell, HPE and others.” Nvidia, the best-performing S & P 500 stock of 2023, is off to a roaring start this year, soaring 27%. NVDA YTD mountain NVDA year to date — Fred Imbert
