Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: FAANGS, Ford, Visa And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.


• The bullish calls this past week included FAANG stocks and other blue chips.


• A financial giant and merging chip stocks were among the week's bearish calls.


 

The big three U.S. indexes ended another wild week 5% or more lower due to stalled stimulus talks, a resurging pandemic and uncertainty around the upcoming election, which prompted one big retailer to prepare for civil unrest.

Last week's earnings crush brought mostly positive results from the FAANGs and other big tech stocks, even while those big techs were defending themselves before Congress. The fight against COVID-19 saw a couple of setbacks last week, and the semiconductor merger frenzy continued.

Through it all, Benzinga continued to examine the prospects for many of the stocks most popular with investors. Here are a few of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that are worth another look.

Bulls

Although iPhone revenues came in softer than expected, analysts overall remain positive about Apple Inc. AAPL, according to Shanthi Rexaline's "Apple Analysts On Q4 Results, iPhone 12 Product Cycle, Buying The Dip." See the company's upside value drivers and how it is stepping into a new growth curve.

In "Amazon Q3 Roundup: Analyst Sees Path For Stock To Hit $5K," Chris Katje discusses why analysts remain bullish on Amazon.com Inc. AMZN going into the holiday quarter. See why it has more going for it than just e-commerce, and why the stock could be worth as much as $5,000 a share.

"Wall Street Reacts To Ford's Strong Q3: 'Investors Are Getting Excited'" by Jayson Derrick examines the reaction to the Ford Motor Co. F return to profitability. One analyst provides six takeaways from the earnings report, and another sees the results being duplicated across the industry.

In Wayne Duggan's "General Electric Jumps On Earnings Beat, FCF Guidance 'Well Ahead Of Buy-Side Expectations'," see why one analyst believes the free cash flow numbers from General Electric Co. GE are encouraging after it reported a surprise profit this past week.

Priya Nigam's "Bed Bath & Beyond Analyst Drops Bear Thesis On Retailer's Improved Outlook" is focused on how Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BBBY has strengthened its balance sheet and its near-term prospects have improved. Plus, the retailer plans to repurchase $675 million worth of its shares.

For additional bullish calls in the past week, also have a look at these posts:

• JPMorgan Charts Bull Case For S&P If Trump Wins


• Which E-Commerce Stock Will Grow The Most By 2025?


• Why Cruise Line Stocks Are Trading Higher Today


 

Bears

The U.S. Department of Justice is considering filing a lawsuit in a bid to stop a Visa Inc. V acquisition over antitrust concerns. So says "DOJ Considers Blocking Visa's Acquisition Of Fintech Firm Plaid: Report" by Aditya Raghunath. See why some fear the acquisition could stifle competition in the fintech space.

Wayne Duggan's "How Large Option Traders Are Playing AMD Following Xilinx Buyout, Q3 Earnings" shows how the Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD buyout of Xilinx Inc. XLNX prompted some sizable bearish bets by options traders.

In Priya Nigam's "BofA Cuts Caterpillar Target, Earnings Estimates," see why a key analyst lowered expectations for Caterpillar Inc. CAT stock when "pockets of improvement" were not enough to boost the heavy equipment maker's mixed third-quarter results.

"PlayStation 5, New Xbox Are Headwinds For GameStop: BofA" by Chris Katje says that the momentum in GameStop Corp. GME stock may be short-lived. Will the recent deal with Microsoft really bring much in the way of profits? Have investors overreacted?

Be sure to check out the following additional bearish calls:

• US Did Not Benefit From Trade War With China: WSJ


• Grocery Prices A Concern As Coronavirus Cases Surge


• Jim Cramer On Potential Lockdown, Buying Opportunity In Stocks


 

At the time of this writing, the author had no position in the mentioned equities.

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