Benzinga Bulls And Bears Of The Past Week: Shopify, Palantir, Apple, Meta, Twitter, Johnson & Johnson, American Express And More

Benzinga has examined the prospects for many investor favorite stocks over the past week.

• Last week's bullish calls included a top e-commerce platform and a software company behind a popular video teleconferencing app.
• A leading pharmaceutical company along with a microblogging/social networking service company were among the bearish calls seen.

Strong jobs numbers and an unemployment rate of 3.8% reported on Friday were not enough to push major indexes higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended its fourth week of losses and bond yields recorded their biggest one-week fall since March 2020 as the Russian military invasion of Ukraine intensified. The Dow finished the week down 1.3%, the S&P 500 also fell by 1.3% while the Nasdaq dropped by 2.8% for the week.

The price of front-month futures for Brent Crude Oil rose 25% this week to $118.11, closing at its highest level since 2013. Goldman Sachs analysts said Thursday that higher oil prices and the resulting spike in gas prices are the “key inflation risk for the United States.”

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

"Is High Growth Ready To Rally? Why This Investor Bought Shares Of Shopify, Palantir," by Adam Eckert, explains why a former fund manager is taking advantage of outsized declines by buying shares of Shopify Inc SHOP  and Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR.

In "Why Apple, Microsoft And Other Big Buyback Stocks Are Crushing The S&P 500's Returns," Wayne Duggan writes that analysts are expecting rising interest rates to weigh on earnings growth, so companies may start turning to more aggressive share buybacks to boost EPS, like Apple Inc AAPL and  Meta Platforms Inc FB did in the third quarter of 2021.

"Cathie Wood Snapped Up More Shares In Zoom And This Gaming Company On Thursday's Dip," by Rachit Vats, looks at why Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management scooped up more shares of social gaming platform Roblox Corp RBLX and videoconferencing developer Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM following a dip on Thursday.

For additional bullish calls of the past week, check out the following:

This Defense Stock Could Make Big Moves This Week

Why This Investor Bought Bank of America Stock

Nordstrom Stock Roars Higher After Q4 Beat: Technical Levels To Watch

The Bears

"Twitter Is Ramping Up Bitcoin And Ethereum Related Offerings But That's Not Enough To Impress Cathie Wood Right Now," by Rachit Vats, investigates the reason Cathie Wood-led Ark Investment Management sharply lowered its exposure in Twitter Inc TWTR by dumping 517,882 shares this week — estimated to be worth $18.4 million.

In "Why Pete Najarian Likes The Risk/Reward Potential In American Express Put Options," Adam Eckert writes about Market Rebellion co-founder Pete Najarian's concerns about American Express Co AXP stock even though it has outperformed most of the financial stocks over the last month or so.

"Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine Less Effective Against Hospitalization, French Study Shows," by Vandana Singh, reports on a large French study which finds the risk of hospitalization after vaccination with Johnson & Johnson's JNJ COVID-19 vaccine was about five times higher than those who received the Pfizer Inc PFE / BioNTech SE's BNTX shot.

For more bearish takes, be sure to see these posts:

Tesla Rival Lucid Cuts 2022 Production Target By Up To 40% Due To Extraordinary Supply Chain Issues

Ford Mustang Mach-E Sales Nearly Halve In February, Mark Bigger Drop Than Gas-Powered Version

Nio Analyst Sees Opportunities In 2022 And Beyond; So Why Is He Halving The Price Target?

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