👀 VERA Good Outlook

Plus, analysts are out on this AI stock, and not because of DeepSeek...

Happy Sunday to everyone on The Street. 

Well, folks, it finally happened. President Donald Trump’s long-promised tariffs went into effect yesterday: 25% on imports from Mexico to Canada, and, in a surprising change of tone, just 10% on goods from China.

Must be why my local grocery store’s avocado stand looks like a toilet paper aisle in March 2020. And they called me a doomsday prepper. 😤

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Atacicept Gets an Attaboy

A Big Bet on Vera

You might not have heard of Vera Therapeutics (VERA). But Goldman Sachs (GS) seems to think it might soon be a household name.

The bank initiated coverage on the clinical-stage biotech company with a Buy rating and a target price of $58 — suggesting around 56% upside. Analyst Paul Choi believes Vera’s recent pullback presents a particularly attractive entry point. Shares have dropped more than 11% since the start of the year.

Choi expects upcoming study results for atacicept, Vera’s leading drug candidate for autoimmune kidney diseases, to confirm its competitive advantage and reinforce investor confidence. For reference, Choi’s ratings yield an average return of approximately 7.5%, per TipRanks.

Attaboy, Atacicept

Choi is optimistic about atacicept’s long-term prospects, expecting strong sales growth in the back half of the 2020s.

Goldman’s projections suggest commercialization could begin as early as next year, with significant revenue potential as the market for autoimmune kidney treatments grows. 

Choi also highlighted Vera’s best-in-class profile and competitive moat, positioning it ahead of rivals.

A VERA Good Outlook

Beyond strong fundamentals, Choi points to potential strategic interest in Vera due to recent M&A activity in the biotech sector. He sees the possibility of partnerships or acquisitions as larger pharmaceutical companies look to expand their pipelines. 

With a substantial lead in its category and positive trial data, Vera is drawing attention from both institutional investors and potential industry partners. The majority of analysts covering the stock already have Buy ratings on Vera, reinforcing Goldman’s bullish outlook.

Are you bullish or bearish on Vera Therapeutics (VERA) over the next 12 months?

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Barclays Can’t Keep Victoria’s Secrets

Bringing Sexy Back

America's largest lingerie chain has struggled in recent years. But Barclays believes Victoria’s Secret (VSCO) is well-positioned to pull up its stockings and push up its bras. 

The firm’s analyst Adrienne Yih upgraded the stock from Equal Weight to Overweight. In her note, "Bringing Sexy Back," she increased the bank's price target to $53. That implies more than 45% upside from last week’s closing price of around $36.

Hillary Super-powered

One reason for Barclays' optimism is Hillary Super, the new CEO of Victoria's Secret. With three decades of retail experience, Yih believes Super is the right person to unclip the brand's wings. 

Yih also pointed to data from Barclays' proprietary promotional tracker that suggests the underwear giant can now sell more products at full price. 

That end to discount-driven sales is one of three critical factors the analyst thinks will ignite Victoria's Secret's passions. The other two are positive promotional inflection and positive comp inflection.

Underwear, Everywhere, All at Once

The consensus on Victoria’s Secret is not so rosy. Six analysts say the stock is a Hold, and two put it at Underperform. And earlier this month, Morgan Stanley (MS) cut its target from $44 to $40 with an Equal Weight rating.

But Barclay’s isn’t alone in its bullishness either. JPMorgan (JPM) also upgraded Victoria's Secret from Underweight to Neutral last year. It set a $45 target price, per MarketBeat.

Are you bullish or bearish on Victoria’s Secret (VSCO) over the next 12 months?

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DeepSeek Is the Least of AMD’s Concerns

AMDown

Investor sentiment is cooling on Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) — and not just due to the DeepSeek sell-off. 

Bank of America, HSBC, and Wolfe Research have all downgraded the global semiconductor stock in recent months, and another analyst just joined their ranks. 

On Jan 28, Melius Research cut AMD from a Buy to a Hold and slashed its price target from $160 to $129 — an unlucky $13 higher than Friday’s closing price of $116.

Competition Is Coming

This past week, the AI industry was rocked by DeepSeek, China’s shockingly cheap open-source LLM. In response, sector leader NVIDIA (NVDA) saw the sharpest single-day loss of market cap in US history.

But somewhat surprisingly, it’s not DeepSeek that has analysts worried for AMD’s prospects. Despite the eye-popping losses, Melius said that NVIDIA is still a cause for concern — and the cut is long overdue. 

The firm’s analyst Ben Reitzes noted the AMD downgrade is a move he should have made months ago, warning NVIDIA is going to “‘come for them’” on several fronts: its x86 server business and PC chip market.

NVIDIA’s Not Finished

Reitzes believes the chip giant could take market share from AMD in both computer processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). 

NVIDIA recently announced it is developing a desktop computer. The analyst believes that could signal a move into the high-end PC market, which may leave a dent in AMD’s growth prospects. 

Melius also pointed out that AMD's data-center GPU business will not perform as well as expected this year. Consequently, the firm sees “AMD’s multiple moving from a premium to a discount.”

A lot of analysts have said AI doubts are overblown. But if Melius is to be believed, the same may not hold true for AMD.

Are you bullish or bearish on AMD (AMD) over the next 12 months?

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Are you bullish or bearish on Tempus AI (TEM) over the next 12 months?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐂 Bullish

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🐻 Bearish

And, in response, you said:

  • 🐂 Bullish — “Barely bullish (no play on words or pun intended).”

  • 🐻 Bearish — “A bubble is going to burst.”

Are you bullish or bearish on Roku (ROKU) over the next 12 months?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐂 Bullish

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🐻 Bearish

And, in response, you said:

  • 🐂 Bullish — “Easy to use and has just about everything ”

Are you bullish or bearish on Curtiss-Wright (CW) over the next 12 months?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🐂 Bullish

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🐻 Bearish

Reply

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