Stock Markets February 8, 2026

Analysts’ Weekly Calls: Downgrades and Upgrades Tilt Sentiment Across Tech, Retail and Finance

JPMorgan, BofA, Mizuho and others repriced expectations for Best Buy, SoFi, Booking, Qualcomm and Amazon

By Leila Farooq BBY SOFI BKNG QCOM AMZN
Analysts’ Weekly Calls: Downgrades and Upgrades Tilt Sentiment Across Tech, Retail and Finance
BBY SOFI BKNG QCOM AMZN

This week Wall Street firms issued a string of influential ratings changes that shifted investor expectations across consumer electronics, fintech, travel bookings, semiconductors and cloud services. JPMorgan and BofA trimmed coverage on several large-cap names citing cyclical headwinds and product-cycle risks, while upgrades from JPMorgan and Mizuho highlighted momentum in digital banking and opportunity in travel shares following recent sell-offs. The analyst notes reflect concerns about hardware cycles, memory-price volatility, handset volumes, and cloud competition alongside optimism around customer growth and fee diversification in fintech.

Key Points

  • JPMorgan downgraded Best Buy to Neutral and set a $76 December 2026 price target, citing difficult comps, computing headwinds and memory-price risk that affect a large portion of sales.
  • JPMorgan upgraded SoFi to Overweight ($31 target) based on record member and deposit growth, guidance for adjusted EBITDA in 2026 and a nearly $40 billion loan portfolio contributing to GAAP earnings.
  • Mizuho upgraded Booking to Outperform with a $6,000 target, highlighting a roughly 30% upside and arguing valuation and rising 2027 EPS estimates present a buying opportunity.

Overview

This weekly roundup summarizes the principal analyst actions and the rationale they presented for major U.S. stocks. The items that follow cover new ratings, adjusted price targets and the key operational or market risks each firm emphasized. The coverage includes comments from JPMorgan, Mizuho, Bank of America (BofA), and DA Davidson on Best Buy, SoFi, Booking Holdings, Qualcomm and Amazon.


Best Buy - JPMorgan lowers rating to Neutral, assigns $76 target

JPMorgan moved Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) down from Overweight to Neutral and set a price target of $76, a December 2026 target that the firm maps to roughly 12x P/E and 5.5x EV/EBITDA on the firm’s 2026 estimates. The bank highlighted several cyclical and product-specific pressures that it expects to weigh on near-term performance.

Key concerns include an anticipated difficult fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, pronounced unique lapses in the second and third quarters that may choke off any broad consumer recovery, and notable weakness in computing categories. JPMorgan suggested that temporary tax stimulus could briefly lift demand, but warned it may only produce a short-lived blip. The analyst called out a 2.3-point comparable-sales boost tied to the Switch 2 and flagged a significant Windows 10-related replacement tailwind that culminates in October.

Memory-price moves were described as especially damaging to the computing mix, which the firm said represents more than 35% of Best Buy’s sales. The store’s exposure to televisions - noted as 20%+ of sales - and appliances - about 11% - was also cited as a source of vulnerability amid weak housing and a tight price-capability environment. JPMorgan characterized the stock as effectively capped, with sellers positioned above the share price able to limit any sustained rally.


SoFi - JPMorgan upgrades to Overweight, $31 target

JPMorgan upgraded SoFi (NASDAQ:SOFI) to Overweight and lifted the firm’s price target to $31, arguing that the share-price pullback following the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call presents an attractive entry point. SoFi shares had declined roughly 10% since the company’s Jan. 30 earnings call even as the broader S&P 500 showed little movement, according to JPMorgan.

The upgrade rests on the firm’s view of sustained momentum: record member and deposit growth, and guidance for adjusted EBITDA in 2026 that the analyst sees as exceeding expectations. JPMorgan pointed to substantial marketing investment through 2025 and the first half of 2026 designed to attract and engage higher-quality customers. The firm also emphasized SoFi’s nearly $40 billion loan portfolio as a significant source of GAAP earnings even when excluding non-cash fair-value gains, in addition to growing fee income from its Tech Platform and expanded services such as SoFi Plus.


Booking Holdings - Mizuho raises to Outperform, keeps $6,000 target

Mizuho upgraded Booking Holdings (NASDAQ:BKNG) to Outperform from Neutral and retained a $6,000 price target, signaling what it sees as roughly 30% upside from current levels and describing a sharp bull/bear skew. The firm noted that shares have fallen about 16% since a prior launch event, while peers showed mixed returns over the same period (Expe +6%, ABNB -1%, Nasdaq +2%).

Analysts at Mizuho pointed to rising 2027 EPS estimates, which the firm said are up about 4%. Mizuho dismissed concerns that generative AI would reroute travelers directly to hotels in a way that meaningfully harms Booking’s model, and highlighted valuation metrics: Booking traded at roughly 17.8x consensus next-twelve-months P/E, about one standard deviation below its three-year average of 20.6x, and near 16x Mizuho’s 2027 GAAP EPS estimate. The firm presented the recent pullback as another buying opportunity for investors who missed the earlier sell-off.


Qualcomm - BofA trims to Neutral, lowers target to $155

Bank of America downgraded Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) from Buy to Neutral and reduced its price target from $215 to $155, which the bank said corresponds to roughly 13.5x fiscal 2027E P/E versus a prior multiple near 17x. BofA framed the change around a materially weaker outlook for handset demand and related pressure on QCT revenues.

The analyst noted that handsets accounted for about 74% of QCT revenue and that unit volumes now appear set to decline by roughly 15% this year rather than the milder -2% the market had previously considered. BofA warned of volatile memory prices and competitive pressures including gains by Samsung and moves from other chip suppliers, factors the firm said contribute to a projected -1.5% decline in QCT revenue in fiscal 2026. Despite a lower valuation benchmark - cited as roughly 12x fiscal 2027E in one phrasing - the firm argued that near-term catalysts are limited.


Amazon - DA Davidson moves to Neutral, cuts target to $175

DA Davidson downgraded Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) to Neutral from Buy and reduced the firm’s price target to $175. The analyst expressed concerns about the competitive dynamics in cloud computing and the firm’s ability to translate scale into the highest-growth AI workloads.

DA Davidson contrasted Amazon Web Services’ 24% growth rate to faster growth at Google Cloud (48%) and Microsoft Azure (39%), attributing part of the performance gap to advances in AI infrastructure and model primacy elsewhere. The bank also raised questions about retail-side integration of AI: the absence of deep Gemini or ChatGPT-style integrations for merchants, in the firm’s view, could allow merchants on rival platforms to capture leads and ad dollars.

DA Davidson observed that Amazon’s capital expenditures have climbed past $200 billion and referenced the possibility of a large external investment - noted as $50 billion toward OpenAI in the firm’s analysis - as an example of heavy spending to secure AI position. The analyst said revenue growth is tracking near 13%, with backlog increases, yet cautioned that the company faces intensified competition in both cloud and retail execution.


Concluding perspective

This week’s analyst moves underscore a pattern: firms are sharpening their lenses on product cycles, memory-price swings, handset demand, cloud competition and the quality of customer acquisition. Upgrades and downgrades came with concrete price-target adjustments and accompanying valuation metrics that investors can use to re-evaluate exposure by sector.

For investors, the takeaways are clear: hardware-heavy retailers may remain sensitive to volatile component costs and replacement cycles; fintech names with accelerating loan and deposit growth can warrant premium multiples when fee diversification improves; travel-booking businesses can offer entry points after sharp sell-offs if valuation and earnings revisions align; semiconductor exposure tied to handsets faces a near-term demand test; and cloud incumbents must show they can keep pace with AI-accelerated peers or risk margin and share pressure.


Note: All ratings, price targets, multiples and growth figures reported here reflect the views as presented by the named analysts and firms during the referenced week.

Risks

  • Memory-price spikes and computing weakness could materially hurt Best Buy’s margins and sales mix, impacting consumer electronics and retail sectors.
  • A marked contraction in handset volumes and intensified competition could deepen revenue declines for Qualcomm’s QCT business, affecting semiconductors and mobile supply chains.
  • Cloud competition and slower AI workload capture by Amazon Web Services could constrain growth and margin expansion for Amazon, with implications for cloud infrastructure and retail monetization.

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