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3 hours ago
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This week in stocks: Why BMO Capital Markets thinks Costco shares still have room to run
Every weekend, the Financial Post breaks down the most interesting developments in this week's world of investing, from top performers to surprising analyst calls and stocks you should have on your radar. Here's this week's edition. Do investors at BlackBerry Ltd. (BB) finally have something to cheer about? That's something analysts were musing about after shares of the smartphone pioneer turned cybersecurity play popped by nearly 12 per cent on Wednesday, following an earnings report that showed a first-quarter profit had turned positive. The Waterloo, Ont.-based company also 'slightly' hiked its revenue forecast for the year. Though the stock pared some of its gains, BlackBerry shares still closed out the week up 4.7 per cent per cent at $6.21 in Toronto. BlackBerry had been among the Top-10 gainers on the S&P/TSX composite index as late as Thursday. The upbeat earnings lead Bloomberg Intelligence analysts to hazard that the tech firm 'may be finding its footing' and were followed by a handful of price target increases. The biggest hike on the Toronto-listed shares came from CIBC Capital Markets, which raised its target to $8.24, a 30 per cent premium to Friday's close. The S&P500 hit a new all-time high on Friday despite renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and Canada and analysts are optimistic that there are more gains to come on both sides of the border before the year is out. This week, Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, reconfirmed his base case for the TSX to hit 28,500 this year, hinging the forecast on several factors including 'relatively resilient' Canadian growth, falling interest rates and improving stock valuations. 'Our view in terms of Canadian equities remains resolute. Namely, Canada continues to provide strong relative value, a converging growth profile with the U.S. and improving equity flows,' Belski said in a note. The TSX is up 7.9 per cent year to date and almost 18.9 per cent since Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs announcement in early April. Belski's base case implies an additional seven per cent return by year end, and though he thinks U.S. markets will be stronger through the end of the year, he still has the TSX as the net winner for 2025. Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) has been one of the market's top performers over the past decade, but don't let its big run scare you away. BMO Capital Markets food retail analyst Kelly Bania said the stock has more room to grow and confirmed Costco as a top pick in a note out this week. Her refreshed rating is based on three major announcements made recently by the company: a $10 monthly credit on same-day Instacart orders for executive members; extended shopping hours, also for executive members; and a standalone gas station test taking place in California. 'These new benefits and perks highlight Costco's extreme membership value proposition, particularly the key executive membership base, which accounts for 47 per cent of members but 73 per cent of sales,' Bania said. Bania has set a price target of US$1,175, a level the stock topped on Feb. 13 before slumping in March. Year to date, Costco is up 7.5 per cent and closed Friday at US$985.14. Nike Inc. (NKE) The sports-giant is back in the running after its latest earnings appeared to show Nike's year-long sales slump is coming to an end. Deutsche Bank AG analyst Krisztina Katai lifted her target to US$77 Friday from US$71. Nike jumped 15 per cent on Friday and was trading at US$72.04. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) The darling of the Magnificent Seven stocks could elevate itself into further rarified territory as it looks to become the first company to reach a US$4 trillion market capitalization. Nvidia's prospects were boosted on reports that its largest customers including Meta Platforms Inc., Microsoft Corp., Inc. and Alphabet Inc. are set to increase spending on artificial intelligence. Shares of the company were up nearly 10 per cent from last Friday and are up 67 per cent after slumping badly in early April when it looked like its chip business would be throttled by trade troubles between the U.S. and China. The consensus price target from analysts who cover the company rose to US$173.47 from US$171.38. Nvidia closed Friday at US$157.75. The week in stocks: Empire, Algoma Steel, and why the case for the trade in war 'keeps getting stronger' The week in stocks: Dollarama still cashing in and silver gets buffed up • Email: gmvsuhanic@ Are you an investor looking for stock ideas and market insight? Sign up for the weekly FP Investor Newsletter here to get the best of the Financial Post's investing news, analysis and expert commentary straight to your inbox. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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5 hours ago
- Business
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BMO Raises SailPoint (SAIL) Price Target, Maintains Outperform Rating
SailPoint, Inc.(NASDAQ:SAIL) is one of . BMO Capital has raised its price target on SailPoint, Inc.(NASDAQ:SAIL) to $27 from $26, maintaining an Outperform rating following the company's stronger-than-expected first-quarter results. The firm noted that SailPoint delivered upside across all key top-line metrics, reflecting solid execution and continued demand for its identity security solutions. Despite the beat, management raised its full-year 2026 annual recurring revenue (ARR) guidance by a slightly smaller margin than the quarterly outperformance. A cybersecurity expert monitoring the security of the company's assets, emphasizing the importance of data protection. Still, BMO views the updated outlook as a sign of confidence and disciplined forecasting. The firm emphasized that SailPoint remains well-positioned to capture long-term growth, particularly as enterprises expand their digital environments and adopt more complex identity frameworks. A growing area of interest, according to BMO, is SailPoint's role in addressing security for machine identities and AI-driven agents—a trend expected to gain momentum in coming years. As businesses deploy artificial intelligence to automate processes, the need to secure non-human access points will become critical. SailPoint's platform, which already supports complex identity governance at scale, is considered one of the few capable of meeting this evolving demand. BMO's upward price target revision reflects its view that SailPoint, Inc.(NASDAQ:SAIL) is emerging as a key player in the future of identity security. With strong fundamentals and a clear strategic roadmap, the firm believes SailPoint is well situated to benefit from increased enterprise focus on secure, intelligent access control. While we acknowledge the potential of SAIL to grow, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SAIL and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI NEXT: 10 Best Small Cap Tech Stocks With Biggest Upside Potential and . Disclosure: None.
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5 hours ago
- Business
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Fluence Energy (FLNC): Among the Energy Stocks that Gained This Week
The share price of Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) surged by 13.11% between June 18 and June 26, 2025, putting it among the Energy Stocks that Gained the Most This Week. An illustration of digital intelligence and energy storage for a modern industrial facility with servers and storage racks in the background. Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) is a global market leader delivering intelligent energy storage and optimization software for renewables and storage. Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) continues to gain after it was revealed that the Senate Finance Committee's proposed changes to President Trump's tax and spending bill would preserve tax credits for the battery storage industry while gutting incentives for wind and solar power. It means that full credits will remain in place for the sector under current law for battery systems put in service before 2036. Fluence Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FLNC) also received a boost after BMO Capital analyst Ameet Thakkar raised the stock's price target from $4 to $5, while maintaining its 'Market Perform' rating. The analyst highlighted the optimistic remarks from Fluence's management concerning their international margins, and also revised its FY26 EPS estimate for the company, raising it by 11 cents to a projected loss of 25 cents per share. While we acknowledge the potential of FLNC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Best Nuclear Energy Stocks to Buy Right Now and Disclosure: None. Sign in to access your portfolio
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14 hours ago
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S&P 500 ETFs to Tap as Market Optimism Builds Up?
The S&P 500 is hovering around its all-time high, and optimism is rising among Wall Street's analysts. One notable figure, Brian Belski, Chief Investment Strategist at BMO Capital Markets, believes the index has much more room to climb this year, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. This puts focus on SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO and iShares Core S&P 500 ETF IVV. These ETFs have gained about 4.6% so far this year (as of June 26, 2025). Belski has revised this year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,700, up from his previous forecast of 6,100. Earlier this year, he had lowered his outlook amid heightened tariff tensions that rattled markets in April. However, with those fears fading, Belski now offers a more optimistic view. According to Belski, the market environment is shifting. He emphasized that market performance is broadening, investor reactions are stabilizing, and corporate guidance is expected to become more transparent after the second-quarter earnings season. Belski's bullish stance is part of a broader trend. Many analysts who had slashed their forecasts in April are now reversing course. While 11 Wall Street firms reduced their S&P 500 targets during the spring sell-off, at least eight have since raised their projections, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. Economic indicators and corporate earnings forecasts are also rebounding. The U.S. economy contracted at an annualized rate of 0.2% in Q1 2025, a slight improvement from the initial estimate of a 0.3% decline. The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for the United States rose to 60.5 in June 2025 from a near-record low of 52.2 in both May and April, and well above market expectations of 53.5, according to preliminary estimates. Belski highlighted that estimates for key sectors, including Communication Services, Consumer Discretionary, Information Technology and especially Financials, have room to recover further. Since the start of April, Q2 estimates have declined for 14 of the 16 Zacks sectors. Estimates for the Tech and Finance sectors, the largest earnings contributors to the S&P 500 index, accounting for more than 50% of all index earnings, have also been cut since the quarter got underway. But the revisions trend for the Tech sector has notably stabilized in recent weeks. Belski acknowledged that his April 9 downgrade came before President Trump's major tariff delay announcements. At that time, maintaining a target 30% above the S&P's actual level seemed 'not thoughtful.' However, with the effective U.S. tariff rate falling from over 25% to around 14% (according to the Yale Budget Lab), investor sentiment has shifted sharply. As trade tensions eased, several defensive strategies from April—including the 'Sell America' trade—began to unwind. Hence, along with many analysts, we believe this could be a good time to buy S&P 500 ETFs. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY): ETF Research Reports Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO): ETF Research Reports iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV): ETF Research Reports This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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16 hours ago
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S&P 500 at new highs: BMO's Belski explains his 6,700 target
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is trading at record highs. One person who is not surprised by the move is BMO Capital Markets chief investment strategist Brian Belski. He has a year-end target of 6,700 on the index. In the video above, he explains why he is sticking with that call. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination here. When we moved our target back to 6100 in in April, we made a point out of saying, uh, number one, targets are academic uh, practices. They're more optics than anything. Uh, number two, we didn't change anything in terms of our sectors. We're overweight tech, overweight consumer discretion over it. Financial over rate communication services. No changes to our portfolios. And that's resulted. I'm very humbled and to say that that resulted in one of the best quarterly performance that I've ever had in 25 years of running uh, real life money because we really believe longer term that the exogenous events that were really handicapping investing in terms of emotions and rhetoric in April would go through their course. So 6700 was our original price target that we put out in November of 2024 for 2025. We're coming back to it. Why? Three sign posts that we that we wrote about. Number one, we actually think coming out of this earnings season that more companies are actually going to be providing earnings guidance. Why? Because we think earnings are going to beat to the upside. Why? Because you take a look at sectors like financials and technology, especially. I had really great fundamental quarters. Financials especially with respect all the volatility. We see a lot of trading revenues in in wealth management is going to be very very good. So we think the return to guidance is going to cause people to feel better. We're seeing less rhetoric and less, I think uh, law of diminishing returns to the rhetoric uh, out of Washington. And I do think this notion and this quote-unquote silliness of the American exceptionalism trade, uh, is is just ridiculous because at the end of the day, uh, America's still got the best companies in the world, best asset in terms of equities. And Europe had its run and now you're starting to see the relative performance come back to the US. And we think that's the true secular trend. Brian, when you see the president though this afternoon, and he goes on social media and he goes after Canada. And you know, you saw the market. Listen, I don't want to overstate it. The market reacted, but the SPX is basically flat here. But I'm just curious as a strategist, Brian, you see a post like that and you think what? Well, it it backs up what I've been saying for I can tell you how long uh, more than 30 years that politics have nothing to do the absolute performance of the stock market. It can either enhance or detract the current trend. Clearly, it detracted the trend today. Canada, as you know, I work for Canadian bank. I'm a US citizen, but I work for Canadian bank. And so we have forecasts for both the Canadian stock market and the US stock market. Canada's outperformed. Canada outperformed last year, which was our call last year. Canada's outperformed this year on a net performance basis. Canada continues to outperform. I think that is going to wane. But in terms of of the jockeying and the positioning and all this, Canada has been relative to the rest of the countries and the rest of the areas has been kind of reticent uh, to come and play along. So he's kind of rattling some chains. Again, we know that this is all part of the mantra, part of the game. Uh, and we would think that there's calmer heads will prevail just like they have since April. Sign in to access your portfolio
