Benzinga's Bulls And Bears Of The Week: Alibaba, Apple, Nio, PayPal, Verizon And More

• Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.
• Last week's bullish calls included the iPhone maker, a semiconductor play, a top telecom.
• An e-commerce giant, an electric vehicle maker and a biotech were among the bearish calls seen.

August ended this past week with the seventh straight month of gains for the S&P 500, the longest streak since 2017. The markets remain near all-time highs, despite growing uncertainty about the post-pandemic economic recovery. Friday's disappointing employment report seemed like evidence of that and suggests that the spread of the Delta variant has had a significant economic impact. The report also increased the uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve may begin to taper its $120 billion a month bond purchasing program.

The Nasdaq ended last week with a less than 2% gain, while the S&P 500 was fractionally higher and the Dow Jones industrial average was essentially flat. For August, the Nasdaq was up less than 5%, the S&P 500 over 3% higher, and the Dow saw less than a 2% gain.

Trading volume and other activity is expected to pick up after the holiday weekend, as investors and analysts return from final summer vacations to what some consider the rockiest period of the year for the stock market.

Benzinga continues 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.

The Bulls

"Apple Isn't A 'Perfect Story,' But It Is A 'Great Investment': Gene Munster" by Adam Eckert explores the reasons why Apple Inc. AAPL could be trading at $200 a share by next year.

Also read Why Apple's Smartphone Shipments Are Set To Grow At More Than Double The Pace Of Rivals In 2021.

In Wayne Duggan's "Is Now The Time To Buy These 6 Undervalued Communication Services Stocks?" discover why Verizon Communications Inc. VZ and others offer attractive value opportunities.

In "4 Broadcom Analysts Dive Deep Into Chipmaker's 2 Key Growth Areas, Valuation And Near-Term Catalysts," Shanthi Rexaline reveals which analysts feel Broadcom Inc. AVGO stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings For Broadcom offers more on what analysts think about this semiconductor maker.

Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI is among the higher quality global brands and it currently has a tailwind. So says Priya Nigam's "Levi Strauss Is Attractive From 'Tops' To 'Bottoms,' Wells Fargo Says."

Chris Katje's "Why 2 Asana Analysts Raised Price Targets After Earnings" discusses takeaways from the latest quarterly report from software-as-a-service provider Asana Inc ASAN.

The Bears

"Cathie Wood's Ark Nearly Erases Alibaba Stake, Sells $3M In Google — Here's What It Bought Instead On Wednesday" by Rachit Vats examines why this former Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA bull has moved to the sidelines.

Be sure to check out This Cannabis Company Has A Better 5-Year Return Than Ford, Alibaba, Facebook And Zynga as well.

In "BofA Bullish On EV Battery Value Chain, But Not US-Listed Lithium Stocks," Wayne Duggan looks at reasons for the bearishness on Livent Corp LTHM and other U.S.-listed EV battery investments.

Underperformance by NIO Inc. NIO has raised serious concerns regarding its near-term trajectory, according to "What's Ailing Nio? Chinese EV Stock Underperforms Domestic Peers In August" by Shanthi Rexaline.

On the other hand, see This Chinese EV Maker Has A Better 1-Year Return Than Twitter, Square, Zoom And PayPal.

Adam Eckert's "Why Jon Najarian Prefers Square Over PayPal, Expects Ethereum To Flip Bitcoin This Year" shows why the latest PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL move into cryptocurrency did not impress everyone.

In Priya Nigam's "BofA Downgrades Alkermes After Stock Rally: 'We Don't See A Favorable Catalyst Pathway'," find out why biotech stock Alkermes Plc ALKS now looks expensive.

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

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