Benzinga's Weekly Bulls And Bears: Airbnb, Apple, Kroger, Starbucks, Tesla And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• The week's bullish calls included the iPhone maker, the leading electric vehicle maker and a couple of reopening plays.
• Cruise and solar stocks, as well as retailers, were among the bearish calls that were seen.

The big U.S. indexes ended this past week in the red, led by the nearly 5% pullback in the Nasdaq. While the Federal Reserve said it wouldn't raise rates, the 10-year Treasury rose above 1.5% for the first time in a year on rising fears of inflation.

Earnings reports kept rolling out, with some winners and some losers. Tech stocks continue to struggle, even as the White House looks to help with the semiconductor shortage.

The drama at GameStop and other Reddit stocks caught a second wind last week.

COVID-19 vaccinations continue to ramp up, despite production woes and with a third vaccine seemingly on the way. Speculation grows on when life for Americans will return to normal.

In other corporate news, an aerospace giant faced new setbacks, a social media leader kissed and made up with Australia, Disneyland will reopen on a limited basis, a snack and beverage giant announced new product offerings and the iPhone maker will hike its dividend.

Meanwhile, Wall Street looks forward to March.

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

In "Why Apple Will Hit A $3 Trillion Market Cap By The End Of 2021," Shanthi Rexaline focuses on why an unprecedented iPhone upgrade cycle means Apple Inc AAPL could be on track to hit another milestone in terms of market capitalization.

"Cathie Wood Terms Tesla Dip 'Very Healthy,' Piles On 240,548 Shares For Ark" by Shivdeep Dhaliwal examines why three Ark Investment exchange-traded funds are loading up on Tesla Inc TSLA shares.

In Jayson Derrick's "BMO Says Starbucks Is A 'Reopening Beneficiary,' Upgrades To Outperform," see why Starbucks Corporation SBUX is well positioned to show greater than expected upside.

Phil Hall's "4 Airbnb Stock Analysts On Q4 Results, 2021 Outlook: 'The Best Way To Play A Travel Recovery'" discusses why Airbnb Inc ABNB analysts were not put out by declining revenue results.

Kohl's Corporation KSS shareholders should benefit from recent developments. So says Priya Nigam's "BofA Raises Kohl's Target As Activist Investor Group Seeks Board Control."

For additional bullish calls of the past week, also have a look at the following:

• Mounting Threats And Strong Sales Keep The Cybersecurity Industry Attractive
• Jim Cramer Says 'Not Too Late' To Bet On These Reopening Plays
• If You Like SolarEdge, Check Out These 3 Companies

Bears

In Wayne Duggan's "Is Now The Time To Buy Royal Caribbean Stock?" find out why analysts remain skeptical even though investors overlooked last week's abysmal fourth-quarter earnings from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL and drove up the price. 

"BofA Turns Bearish On Kroger Ahead Of Tough Comparisons" by Jayson Derrick makes the case that coming sales numbers at Kroger Co KR are likely to suffer, compared to last year's surge in stockpiling.

Rising rates could put the squeeze on SunPower Corporation'sSPWR margin expansion, according to "Credit Suisse Downgrades SunPower On Valuation, Disappointing Q1 Revenue" by Priya Nigam.

Melanie Schaffer's "BofA Sees Pressures Ahead For Dollar Stores" shows why Dollar General Corp. DG and Dollar Tree, Inc. DLTR could suffer as the reopening economy improves.

For additional bearish takes, be sure to check out these posts:

• Bill Gates On Investing In Bitcoin: 'If You Have Less Money Than Elon, You Should Probably Watch Out'
• Charlie Munger Talks Bitcoin, SPACs And GameStop Mania: 'It Must End Badly, But I Don't Know When'
• Why Doug Kass Says ARK Invest Unwind A 'Bona Fide Market Risk Now'

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

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Photo by Michael Kubalczyk on Unsplash.