Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Apple, Kroger, Nike, Oracle, Tesla And More

• Benzinga has featured looks at many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• Bullish calls included a couple of FAANG stocks.
• Bearish calls included a beverage giant and an electric vehicle leader.

The big U.S. indexes ended the past week 2 percent or so higher, even as investors kept an eye on such things as the woes at Boeing and Facebook and the ongoing Brexit drama. Also, a fresh bribery scandal, a major winter storm and another mass shooting had some effect on the markets.

As usual, Benzinga continues to examine the prospects for many investor favorite stocks. Here are just a few of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that may be worth another look.

Bulls

"4 Reasons Morgan Stanley Loves Apple" by Wayne Duggan provides one analyst's specific reasons for optimism about the first quarter at Apple, Inc. AAPL. See what the current investor sentiment suggests about the iPhone maker going forward.

One key analyst suspects targeted efforts to improve retail margins will drive an impending inflection for Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN, according to Elizabeth Balboa's "Amazon Wins Another Bull After KeyBanc Upgrades Stock."

Priya Nigam's "AT&T Could Find Upside With Earnings Growth, Delevering, Raymond James Says In Upgrade" suggests that the prospects of earnings growth and a strong de-levering story likely will lend upside to AT&T Inc. T shares ahead.

In "Cowen Says Nike Has The Edge On Adidas, But Both Stocks Have Upside Ahead," Brett Hershman points out that Nike Inc NKE has the upper hand in the fierce brand competition with its rival. How much will its North American revenues grow?

For additional bullish calls, also have a look at Nomura Instinet Upgrades Facebook, Says More Regulation Will Be 'Net Positive' and Jefferies Expects CBD Beauty Market To Reach $25 Billion In 10 Years.

Bears

In Wayne Duggan's "Tilson Vs. Left: Short Sellers Place $10,000 Bet On Tesla's Profitability," meet the two high-profile short sellers making a friendly bet for charity on whether Tesla, Inc. TSLA will turn a profit in any quarter of this year.

Dave Royse's "HSBC Downgrades Coke: 'If The Bottlers Aren't Happy, Nobody's Happy'" questions how The Coca-Cola Co KO, as it tries to modernize and hedge against changing tastes, will deal with a holdover profit-splitting model with bottlers.

Oracle Corporation ORCL is rewarding shareholders at the expense of investing in growth. So says "Oracle Can't Keep Up $10B In Buybacks Per Quarter, Nomura Instinet Says In Double Downgrade" by Shanthi Rexaline.

"Wells Fargo Comes Away Disappointed From Kroger's Management Meeting" by Priya Nigam points out that lack of transparency has made one top analyst hesitant about Kroger Co KR going forward.

Be sure to check out Gordon Haskett: General Electric Bull Thesis 'Dubious And Lacking Basic Intuition' and Street Reacts To Dick's Sporting Goods Q4 Earnings, Stock Drop: Stay On The Sidelines for additional bearish calls.

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