Investing.com – Here are the analysts’ biggest artificial intelligence (AI) moves this week.
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“AI Upgrade Coming”: Apple Recognized as a Top Pick at BofA
Bank of America reiterated that Apple (NASDAQ:) stock is its top pick, maintaining its price target at $230.
In particular, giant Wall Street analysts are bullish on Apple’s transition from smartphones to “IntelliPhones”, predicting a significant multi-year upgrade cycle.
“We believe that future AI-enabled phones (IntelliPhones) will undergo a multi-year update cycle similar to the incremental feature improvements brought about by the advent of smartphones,” the note said.
With a massive installed base of more than four billion smartphones, the BofA team believes that AI-enabled IntelliPhone adoption will surpass the rapid adoption seen with smartphones and 5G.
IntelliPhone is expected to use advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for features such as superior personal assistance, speech processing, health monitoring, enhanced photography and AR/VR capabilities, among others.
Needham Downgrades UiPath Shares
Needham analysts on Thursday downgraded shares of UiPath (NYSE:) from “buy” to “hold,” citing a combination of factors including macroeconomic headwinds and a change in go-to-market (GTM) strategy.
“We are downgrading PATH shares to Hold due to a combination of macroeconomic pressures, near-term execution uncertainty due to the CEO transition and GTM strategy change, and year-over-year margin compression creating an unfavorable near-term financial profile.” – analysts write. .
The investment firm noted that the company’s sales performance in the first quarter of 2025 was slightly disappointing as large deals come under increasing scrutiny.
The recent CEO has changed again to founder Daniel Dines following the departure of Rob Enslin, and multiple GTM changes are expected to result in disruption to sales in the near future.
Net new annual recurring revenue (ARR) and revenue guidance were lowered, which Needham said is “fairly conservative, but we think it will take several quarters for GTM changes to begin to translate into meaningful guidance upgrades.”
Northland Raises Buy Price on C3.ai as Subscriber Growth Accelerates
Northland analysts upgraded shares of enterprise artificial intelligence company C3.ai (NYSE:) from Market Perform to Outperform with a $35 price target during the week.
Analysts noted the company’s subscriber growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 as a key factor driving the upward revision.
“C3.ai reported accelerating subscription growth to 41% in Q4 2024, indicating that the headwinds associated with moving to a usage-based revenue model are easing,” the analysts commented.
Looking to the future, they added that the active expansion of pilot projects and demand for generative artificial intelligence (genAI) signals continues to grow.
Mizuho raises price targets for chip stocks as AI takes center stage
Japanese investment banking and securities firm Mizuho this week raised price targets on several chipmakers, including Micron Technology (NASDAQ:), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:), Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ:) and Western Digital (NASDAQ:).
The move comes as Mizuho analysts believe the next catalyst for AI development will come from the edge, as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) push AI capabilities into mobile phone and PC devices.
The firm reiterated its Buy rating, raising price targets to $240 for Micron, $155 for Qualcomm, $90 for Seagate and $110 for Western Digital.
Analysts noted the increase in sales of Qualcomm PCs with artificial intelligence based on Snapdragon X Elite and Plus, as well as the expected increase in shipments of smartphones with artificial intelligence.
Moreover, AI PCs, which require 40-80% more DRAM, and mobile phones, which require 50-100% more DRAM, represent tailwinds for Micron. Western Digital and Micron are also expected to benefit from increased NAND content in AI devices and improved pricing.
Meanwhile, Seagate stands out for its higher PC storage capacity and higher capital spending on cloud technologies. Mizuho predicts that 1 billion AI-powered smartphones will be sold between 2024 and 2027, and AI-powered PCs will account for up to 60% of the PC market by 2027.
Dell is a ‘legal participant in GenAI,’ says Loop Capital
In a new note to clients, Loop Capital analysts reiterated a Buy rating on Dell Technologies (NYSE:) shares and raised their price target from $125 to $185, emphasizing that the tech company is “progressing as a legitimate participant in GenAI.”
“Dell continues to demonstrate legitimate progress with GenAI over the past 90 days, which appears likely to continue through 2025,” Loop analysts said.
The investment bank noted Dell’s strong positioning for the long-term share of the commercial IT budget, noting the company’s expanding capabilities in infrastructure products, services and financing.
Dell has identified an opportunity to generate $2 to $3 in services, networking and storage revenue for every $1 of revenue from GenAI servers.
“On the data storage side, our work suggested that for the commercial storage (non-hyperscale) generation AI after VAST Data and WEKA, DELL storage could be positioned as well as PSTG and NTAP, if not better,” the analysts said. wrote.
Analysts also highlighted that Dell has pre-purchased more than $7 billion worth of NVIDIA (NASDAQ:) GPUs, significantly increasing inventory over the past 90 days. Dell expects to generate $10 billion to $15 billion in GPUs over the next six quarters, putting its generative AI revenue potential at $9 billion to $10 billion in 2024 and possibly $15 billion in 2025.
The current forecast for Generative AI server revenue in 2024 is approximately $5 billion. Despite a slight decline in PC shipments and a 200 basis point drop in market share, Dell’s share of the core commercial market is expected to increase in late 2024 and 2025.