Tesla gets ‘Buy’ upgrade, Meta officially changes ticker symbol, cruise lines see pricing declines

UBS has upgraded Tesla stock to 'Buy'; Meta has officially changed its NYSE ticker symbol to "META"; and cruise lines are seeing pricing declines from May to June, according to Bank of America.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Because Meta kicks off its first day trading as the ticker Meta, instead of FB, Facebook. Now, obviously, that change not helping. We're seeing the stock being beaten up there a little bit, about just over 4% of a loss there. Now, historically, some of these ticker changes do result in some losses and confusion initially. But the stock has been down over 40% over the past year since Facebook changed its name to Meta and focused on the Metaverse, as well as Apple's privacy changes causing a $10 billion loss.

Now Meta is also making news for a fresh wave of lawsuits this week, alleging its failure to warn about the addictive and harmful nature of its platforms on young people. Meta also reportedly scrapping what was supposed to be a rival to the Apple Watch called Milan, which also featured dual cameras to differentiate itself. It's not giving up the wearable market, but at least putting this watch on the shelf for now.

SEANA SMITH: It's going to be interesting to see, Rachelle, what comes of that, if they end up maybe developing it a few years down the road. It looks like they have some design issues, some questions about the cameras that were involved in that watch.

But more specifically, I think another big loss for Facebook, for Meta, as we should say from now, is Sheryl Sandberg. She left after over a decade at the company. We know that she was an architect of how Facebook got to where it is today. Lots of questions about maybe their pivot to Meta was a reason for her leaving.

But Brent Thill, he was on Yahoo Finance not too long ago. And he was saying that it leaves a massive hole for the company. And this is a company that has shares off 44% so far this year. So we'll see. I don't know. Maybe Meta is leaving the old Facebook in the dust, and they'll be able to turn things around soon.

My play today is Tesla. UBS is saying now is a time to buy shares, upgrading the stock to buy from neutral, keeping its price target, though, unchanged at $1,100 a share. Now they think Tesla has fallen to an attractive level. Shares are off about 26% in just the last six months. Now in a note titled, "Time to be Bold," UBS wrote that the operational outlook is stronger than ever before.

Record high order backlogs, increasing margins, and also competitive edge in supply chains, UBS says, are some reasons to be bullish. Now they lowered their earnings estimate for the year, Dave, but raised their forecast for the next three years by-- get this-- as much as 40%. Tesla today not moving much on that call, still trading right around $725 a share.

DAVE BRIGGS: Well, not all upgrades are equal, and the federal government is also upgrading their investigation into Tesla after more than a dozen crashes into emergency vehicles when on the autopilot mode that could end up in a major recall. Another bad news for Tesla is Shanghai, lockdowns for 2.7 million on Saturday, as that looks like they could be headed back in, depending on the results of all of those tests. They will test all 2.7 million in that one residential area in Shanghai.

My play is Carnival Cruise Lines and, in fact, the entire industry as a whole. Strong demand for air travel does not, apparently, extend to the sea, based on the numbers this summer. BoA Research found price declines ranging from 1% to 3% compared to May. And that softness, the research shows, will extend into '23 and to '24. The strong booked position cited by most cruise lines seems to be eroding based on this data, that directly from the BoA research.

Now here are the numbers. Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Carnival all down more than 35% year to date. Carnival is leading the pack, down 44% year to date and dropped yet again today. If there is a trickle of good news, it's the Carnival CEO, Arnold Donald, who told us yesterday that we have fantastic occupancy. People are having a great time. And Carnival is doing very well. But Rachelle, it does not appear that all the people who are rushing to fly anywhere around the world want anything to do with the cruise. Perhaps that's because we see the COVID numbers rising back up above 100,000 cases per day.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And it's interesting because we, obviously, saw a lot about this revenge travel demand that's been pent-up. A lot of people expecting that to translate into all sectors of travel. Obviously, we're seeing that, people continuing to fly. I'm very surprised, actually, that people who are dedicated cruisers aren't flocking as much as they expected. But obviously, as you mentioned, rising COVID numbers. You can't forget the nightmare that we saw in some of these cruise lines during the peak of COVID, people stuck on these cruises. So it does make you think twice when you're considering your travel options.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, Rachelle, I couldn't agree more. Over 100,000-- the US averaging over 100,000 cases a day. And it's natural for people to think twice, especially when we remember what happened two years ago on some of those cruise ships. And some people weren't able to get off because of the outbreak and the number of cases. So I think people are saying, hey, we're going to wait until things clear up a little bit. And it makes a lot of sense. It's certainly a very tough time, though, for the industry, Dave.

DAVE BRIGGS: Yeah, they're down-- Carnival now down almost 9% on the day. Again, all three are down today, but Carnival leading the way. It looks like a rough go for them this afternoon. But they do have tough testing requirements. If there's any comfort to people getting on those ships, you do have to test right before getting on that ship, but clearly, not giving the consumer much confidence.

SEANA SMITH: All right.