By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Now time for some of today’s trending tickers. We’re watching Salesforce, Disney, and Spotify. Joining me now, we’ve got Yahoo Finance senior reporter Alexandra Canal. Allie, first up here, we got to talk about Salesforce. Salesforce getting two analyst calls today. The stock upgraded to neutral from sell at Guggenheim. Firm no longer says that the company is a sell, but they’re not super bullish either. Guggenheim is removing its price target as the stock fell to its prior price target, and the analyst say they have ongoing concerns about Dreamforce adoption. But the company has made management changes, and although full-year revenue guidance is below expectations, currency fluctuations are helping just a little bit. We’re also watching DA Davidson downgrade the stock to underperform from neutral. The firm there saying that they believe Salesforce is quote neglecting its core business in an effort to pursue a premature AI opportunity. Fighting words there. Shares right now down by about 5%. Yeah.
01:31 Speaker B
And shares have really struggled this year. We’re down about 30% compared to the 12% decline of the S&P 500. So not great. Like you alluded to, Brad, the Guggenheim upgrade note, it felt a little bearish to me. Uh the crux of it had to do with guidance coming in closer to expectations due to foreign exchange tailwinds now that we have the dollar at these 2022 lows. The analyst saying that FX has materially flipped from a 40 basis point or more headwind to an 80 basis point tailwind for the year, and that’s going to help the company achieve its guidance for subscription revenue despite all that macro uncertainty that we have, which could potentially weigh on IT spend. Now, on the flip side, the DA Davidson downgrade focused on the company neglecting the core business and that focus on agent force, which is that AI-powered platform, does make strategic sense, but that betting the company on AI is too early and that agent force may not even fit the definition of an AI agent. And this was a quote that really stuck out to me. Betting the whole company on this effort may be at the expense of the other 98% of the company’s business. So, uh what’s interesting is Guggenheim called out agent force and it’s no as well, despite the upgrade saying that traction remains questionable, perhaps more so today, and it continues to see a tough path ahead when it comes to this adoption. So, a lot to see what what the earnings uh bring about next month.
03:40 Speaker A
Yeah, with today’s move factored in as well, CRM, ticker symbol CRM and Salesforce becomes the biggest year to date laggard among mega cap tech stocks out there.
04:01 Speaker B
Yeah, I mean tech has just been brutal this year.
04:12 Speaker A
Absolutely. We’re continuing to watch that. Plus, we’re also watching this note from Wolf Research that has a pair of upgrades this morning. Starting with Disney, raised to outperform from peer perform. The firm setting a $112 price target. That’s about 24% upside from the stock’s last close. The analyst says that Disney’s business remains quote, objectively good and competes in growing markets. Meanwhile, the analyst says it’s trading at a discount here. Shares right now seeing even more of a discount. Down 1.5%.
04:58 Speaker B
Yeah, and the analyst saying Disney isn’t getting the benefit of today’s macro doubt, which was interesting to me because it called out advertising and the parks and experience business, and we know during times of economic uncertainty, what’s the first to go? Those advertising budgets, and that could really weigh on linear television companies like Disney, for example. And then when you think about the park side of the equation, it’s expensive to go to the parks. It’s expensive to go on these cruises, and if we’re seeing consumers pull back that discretionary spend, that’s going to weigh on Disney as well. But the analyst saying that recession risks are mostly priced into the stock price at this point, and that any drawdown would be temporary because of Disney Disney’s ability to cyclically recover and expand productivity over time. But this is a very crucial year for Disney. We have the selection of a new CEO replacing Bob Iger next year. So this year, 2025, that’s when they’re going to be making these big decisions. So, you know, Disney also has struggled this year, down 25%. We’ll see if they can turn it around before that new CEO comes in.
06:13 Speaker A
The speculation engine is going to be spinning with whatever names.
06:20 Speaker B
As we are at this point in time.
06:23 Speaker A
Yes, exactly. We will see exactly who gets thrown in to that rigmarole of wondering whether or not they’re going to get selected. Uh also here, lastly, while we have you here, Allie, Wolf, they have an upgrade on Spotify to outperform with a $160 price target, 13% upside from the stock’s last close. The analyst saying developments since the firm’s last downgrade has renewed their optimism about gross margins, and the firm cites compounding subscriber pricing and new product growth. Shares of Spotify here, they’re down right now by about 9/10 of a percent.
07:20 Speaker B
But since the start of the year, they’re up 27%. You talk about some of these companies that are defensive plays right now, Netflix being one of them that we’ve been hearing from a lot of Wall Street analysts. Spotify as well. I mean, they’re just far and above their peers. They’re now creating a super fan tier, they’re doubling down on audiobooks, they’re expanding their podcast endeavors. So it’s this entertainment flywheel effect that’s still very cheap. A lot of analysts for Spotify see a lot more room to run when it comes to the pricing of it all, and considering all the uncertainties that we’re dealing with today, that’s huge. The analysts saying that Spotify’s multiple and consensus forecasts reflect widespread optimism. The stock does not fully discount Spotify’s long-term potential, and they see the company is positioned to drive pricing growth faster than the cost of inflation. So it’ll be interesting to see how this company continues to evolve, and whether or not they continue to raise prices even if we’re seeing some shakiness on the consumer side. But I think for a company like Spotify that is just so ingrained in people’s everyday lives, they’re going to pay one or $2 more for access here.
08:50 Speaker A
All right, just reminded me. I got to update my workout playlist. Allie, thanks so much.
09:06 Speaker B
Of course.
09:08 Speaker A
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