Apple, Twitter, Amazon among those getting the neutral treatment from Rosenblatt
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With apologies to Billy Joel, Rosenblatt Securities analyst Barton Crockett must have woken up on Tuesday in a neutral state of mind.
That's because Crockett initiated coverage on a raft of big-name tech companies, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) with neutral ratings based on a handful of industry and company-specific reasons.
Crockett set a price target of $184 a share on Apple's (AAPL) stock in addition to setting his neutral rating on the company's shares. Crockett said that while Apple (AAPL) saw its Mac and iPad businesses get a boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the company had a strong new iPhone release last year, it is facing new obstacles coming from China, where many of its products are made.
Crockett said recent COVID-related lockdowns in China "appear unlikely to fully abate any time soon," and that the situation has an impact on both Apple's (AAPL) supply lines and product demand.
"This, to me, looks like loose threads on Superman's cape," Crockett said.
For Twitter (TWTR), Crockett set a $48-a-share target price on the company's stock as the social-media giant battles with Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has made an unsolicited bid to acquire Twitter (TWTR) for the equivalent of about $43 billion. Crockett said Twitter (TWTR) will likely view Musk's offer "with horror," and that Musk will probably have to boost his offer if he wants it to succeed.
With his neutral rating and $3,000-a-share price target on Amazon (AMZN), Crockett took a critical view of the company's online retail business. Crockett said that Amazon Web Services remains strong, but he is "unconvinced" that the retail side of Amazon's (AMZN) business will pick up soon after stalling at the end of 2001.
"Amazon's rivals have upped their retail game considerably with click [and] brick features consumers like, and Amazon can't match with its small store footprint," Crockett said.
The other companies that Crockett gave neutral ratings include Pinterest (PINS), with a $21-a-share price target; Spotify (SPOT), which got a target price of $150 a share; Comcast (CMCSA), and its $51-a-share price target; and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), to which he assigned a price target of $354 a share.
Netflix (NFLX) will be in the spotlight after Tuesday's market close, as the streaming TV kingpin is set to deliver its first-quarter results. And as is often the case with Netflix (NFLX), new subscriber numbers will drive investor sentiment about the company's prospects.