The Ratings Game: Meta is no longer this analyst’s top internet stock pick. Here’s what’s supplanted it.

Opinion: With Meta’s Threads, Zuck seized an opportunity and took a page from Steve Jobs

Uber shares have enjoyed a sharp rise of their own so far this year, gaining 75% over the span, but Mahaney sees the name as his new No. 1 as it boasts “one of the strongest top-line growth outlooks” among internet names and sits on several potential “value catalysts.”

See more: Could Uber’s stock cruise to $70? Barclays thinks it can keep riding higher in a big way.

Namely, the company could achieve profitability on the basis of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the second half of the year, and a string of GAAP profits ultimately could help it secure inclusion in the S&P 500
SPX,
+0.33%.

Mahaney said he is upbeat about Uber’s business trends as well, writing that the company could see earnings benefits from a recovery in driver supply. And over the long run, he said, Uber is “likely to be relatively recession-resistant from a demand perspective (we still gotta commute) and may actually have a recession hedge from a supply perspective (driving is a quick side-hustle for many).”

He had a $75 target price on Uber shares.

Mahaney’s No. 2 pick is Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+1.23%,
which has moved up a spot in his rankings.

“[W]e believe it’s now time to lean in” on Amazon, Mahaney wrote, noting that the company faces easier comparisons going forward and is in the “later-innings stretch of the Cloud optimization cycle,” referring to efforts by customers to be more conscious about their spending on the AWS cloud-computing platform.

See also: Amazon’s stock is no longer a sleeper pick, but Wells Fargo sees more wins ahead

He added that he’s “particularly intrigued by the possibility that increased AI workloads will materially boost demand for Cloud compute and storage solutions, where AWS strongly leads the market.” He had a $150 target price on the stock.

Mahaney opened tactical outperform calls into both Uber and Amazon shares ahead of their upcoming earnings reports.

“With AMZN specifically, the major unlock would be an outlook for accelerating AWS revenue growth,” he wrote. “We view this as more of a possibility than a probability, but either way the acceleration is not factored into AMZN shares.”

Don’t miss: 4 reasons Amazon’s stock can keep soaring, according to one analyst who’s named it his top pick

And while Meta is no longer Mahaney’s most favored pick, he noted that he still likes the stock, calling it the “cheapest of the high-quality ‘Net and Tech Stocks with three under-appreciated product cycles likely to help generate a return to solid double-digit revenue growth.” Plus, Meta’s cost-cutting efforts should pay off.

He has a $350 target price on the stock.

Opinion: Meta’s Threads has major momentum — initially. Sustaining it will be key.