Latest news with #WorkersAI
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reddit initiated, Target downgraded: Wall Street's top analyst calls
The most talked about and market moving research calls around Wall Street are now in one place. Here are today's research calls that investors need to know, as compiled by The 5 Upgrades: Morgan Stanley upgraded Lockheed Martin (LMT) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $575, up from $525. Concerns over the trajectory of U.S. defense spending and potential Department of Government Efficiency headwinds have kept defense investors largely on the sidelines, but a number of developments over the past few weeks point to an improving sector backdrop, the firm tells investors in a research note. Morgan Stanley upgraded Caterpillar (CAT) to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $283, down from $300. To reflect the "dynamic macro backdrop," the firm adjusted 2025 machinery and construction estimates lower, moved bear cases to reflect a recession, and make key ratings changes reflective of an updated risk/reward analysis, tariff risk and demand conditions. Mizuho upgraded Cloudflare (NET) to Outperform from Neutral with a price target of $135, down from $140. The firm's recent channel checks on Cloudflare were more favorable than expected, and included strengthening pipelines, large-deal activity, and growing traction with Workers AI. Needham upgraded Boston Scientific (BSX) to Buy from Hold with a $113 price target. Needham's latest electrophysiologist survey shows the threat of pulsed field ablation competition appears less severe than previously anticipated, the firm tells investors in a research note. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Union Pacific (UNP) to Buy from Neutral with a $259 price target. The company has made "material progress" over the past 18 months, improving service, trimming headcount, and growing volumes, the firm says. Top 5 Downgrades: Goldman Sachs downgraded Target (TGT) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $101, down from $142. The firm cites concerns around seeing a recovery in growth for discretionary categories, more downside risk in earnings than upside given possible sales deleverage and tariff risk, and recent data indicating Target's sales may be slowing for the downgrade. Morgan Stanley downgraded General Dynamics (GD) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $305, down from $315. Morgan Stanley sees General Dynamics as relatively more exposed to tariff headwinds versus its prime peers given its Gulfstream business and higher DOGE risks from its Technologies business. Wells Fargo downgraded Ecolab (ECL) to Equal Weight from Overweight with a price target of $240, down from $265. The firm expects Ecolab to guide down organic constant currency growth but maintains its earnings outlook from lower-than-expected currency headwinds and "aggressive" cost cutting. Piper Sandler downgraded Epam Systems (EPAM) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $170, down from $251. The firm believes the company's Q1 results will likely be in-line, but sees greater risk for second half numbers JPMorgan downgraded U.S. Steel (X) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $38, down from $43. The firm views U.S. Steel shares as relatively fairly valued, and says the stock is likely to see a "knee-jerk pullback" when and if and Nippon deal is blocked. Top 5 Initiations: Oppenheimer initiated coverage of Reddit (RDDT) with an Outperform rating and $125 price target. Following 49% stock pullback since February 19, the firm believes investors are properly discounting medium-term risks, reliance on Google (GOOGL), difficult Q2 daily average users comparison, weak international engagement, and risk of monetization wall. Oppenheimer initiated coverage of Lyft (LYFT) with an Outperform rating and $15 price target. The firm expects rideshare will continue to challenge the rising cost of car ownership, sustaining double-digit growth for multiple marketplaces. Argus initiated coverage of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) with a Buy rating and $40 price target. Given its large-scale retail distribution and broad selection of products that appeal to a variety of tastes and times of day, Keurig Dr. Pepper provides investors an opportunity to profit from the growing domestic non-alcoholic beverage market, the firm tells investors in a research note. Scotiabank initiated coverage of Paylocity (PCTY) with a Sector Perform rating and $190 price target. The firm leans positive on the company's upcoming fiscal Q3 earnings print, but says the company's organic recurring revenue growth could slow to low double digits exiting fiscal 2025. RBC Capital initiated coverage of Ascendis Pharma (ASND) with an Outperform rating and $205 price target. The stock has outperformed the S&P Biotech ETF XBI lately, but the firm sees more upside from here given that its extensive checks with multiple docs suggest that Yorvipath will be an EUR 3B drug.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
1 AI Stock to Buy Ahead of a Breakout Year in 2025, According to a Wall Street Analyst
After the closing bell Thursday, Cloudflare (NYSE: NET) reported strong fourth-quarter earnings results that carried its share price above $150 for the first time since 2021. But Morgan Stanley analyst Hamza Fodderwala has outlined a bull-case scenario for the stock to advance by another 16% to $175 per share by year's end, and he may revise his forecast higher in light of its strong performance in the recent quarter. "We believe 2025 could be a breakout year for Cloudflare," Fodderwala wrote in a recent note. He supported that prediction by highlighting the convergence of several tailwinds for the company, including increased sales team productivity and the monetization of new artificial intelligence (AI) products. Here's what investors should know about Cloudflare. Cloudflare provides application, network, and security services that protect and accelerate IT infrastructure. It operates the fastest cloud network on the planet, and handles about 20% of all internet traffic. That affords Cloudflare deep insight into performance issues and security threats across the web, which continuously enhances its ability to route traffic quickly and safely. It reported strong results in the fourth quarter, beating Wall Street's expectations on the top and bottom lines. Its customer count increased by 25% to 237,714 -- marking its third straight quarter of acceleration in customer growth -- and its average established customer spent 11% more than a year prior. In turn, revenue climbed by 27% to $460 million, and non-GAAP net income increased by 27% to $0.19 per diluted share, a 2 percentage point acceleration from the previous quarter. Last year, Cloudflare hired former Palo Alto Networks President Mark Anderson to lead its sales organization. That personnel change was part of a broader effort to improve its go-to-market execution, and the company has made good progress. CEO Matthew Prince said on the fourth-quarter earnings call that sales productivity showed a double-digit percentage improvement for the fifth consecutive quarter. Prince also discussed the strong adoption of the company's Workers development platform, particularly for artificial intelligence use cases. He said Workers is positioned to "become the go-to platform for developers who want the best price performance for AI inference and agentic workflows." Edge clouds provide infrastructure services from the network edge -- in other words, from locations that are physically near their end users. Grand View Research estimates edge computing sales will grow at an annualized rate of 36% through 2030, driven by demand for edge AI services. Cloudflare began leaning into that opportunity in earnest with its launch of R2 Storage and Workers AI in 2023. R2 Storage lets developers cost efficiently store large amounts of data for training AI models. And Workers AI is an inference service, supported by Nvidia GPUs, that lets developers run AI applications on Cloudflare's network. Those products are compelling not only because Cloudflare has the fastest cloud network, but also because that network is agnostic, meaning it integrates with public clouds like Amazon and Microsoft. Importantly, Forrester Research recognized Cloudflare as the market leader in edge development platforms, ranking Workers higher than similar products from Amazon, Microsoft, and Fastly. Likewise, International Data Corporation ranked Cloudflare as a segment leader in its latest report on edge delivery services, highlighting its focus on AI as a key strength. Wall Street expects Cloudflare's adjusted earnings to grow by 15% in the next four quarters, and increase at an annualized rate of 37% over the next three years. In that context, its current valuation of 200 times adjusted earnings looks expensive. But Wall Street may be underestimating the company's future growth. Cloudflare's earnings beat analysts' consensus estimates in the last six quarters by an average of 27%. If that pattern continues, the stock's current valuation may look more reasonable in hindsight. But investors should be careful chasing this stock at its current price. A more prudent course of action would be to add Cloudflare to your watch list and wait for opportunities to buy shares on dips. Before you buy stock in Cloudflare, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Cloudflare wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $788,619!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 929% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 177% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list. Learn more » *Stock Advisor returns as of February 7, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Trevor Jennewine has positions in Amazon and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Cloudflare, Fastly, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Palo Alto Networks and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 1 AI Stock to Buy Ahead of a Breakout Year in 2025, According to a Wall Street Analyst was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
TECHx
04-02-2025
- Business
- TECHx
Cloudflare Showcases AI and Connectivity Solutions at LEAP 2025 - TECHx Media Cloudflare Showcases AI and Connectivity Solutions at LEAP 2025
Cloudflare Showcases AI and Connectivity Solutions at LEAP 2025 Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET), the leading connectivity cloud company, is set to participate in its third consecutive year at LEAP, the global platform for the most disruptive technology professionals, in Riyadh from February 9-12, 2025. The company will present its innovative Connectivity Cloud, along with a suite of products and services designed to accelerate digital transformation and empower businesses. As Saudi Arabia continues to evolve digitally, Cloudflare remains dedicated to contributing to the nation's technological growth. The company offers advanced solutions aimed at enhancing security, speed, and performance across all sectors. At LEAP, Cloudflare will highlight its robust network security, cutting-edge Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), Zero Trust models, and its transformative Workers platform. This platform is particularly beneficial for AI companies, enabling the creation of powerful, scalable tools and services. A leader in AI-powered infrastructure, Cloudflare will also showcase how its technology helps businesses tap into the true potential of Artificial Intelligence. 'AI is in our DNA, not just a buzzword,' says Bashar Bashaireh, VP Middle East, Türkiye & North Africa at Cloudflare. 'Our AI Inference Platform, now powered by an expanded GPU infrastructure, offers faster inference, larger models, and superior observability. This platform is built to handle the demands of modern AI, offering low-latency, global accessibility. With GPUs deployed in over 180 cities, Cloudflare's Workers AI platform delivers one of the largest global footprints for AI inference, processing tasks as close to the end user as possible while ensuring security and data privacy.' Cloudflare invites visitors to explore the Connectivity Cloud at LEAP, a robust network designed to streamline digital transformation. This infrastructure optimizes applications, enhances security, and simplifies the deployment of AI-driven solutions. Experts will be available to discuss Cloudflare's Workers AI solution, which allows businesses to build, deploy, and scale AI applications effortlessly. Cloudflare remains committed to supporting Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and digital transformation efforts. With its world-class infrastructure, Saudi businesses can access high-performance, low-latency applications, secure networks, and rapid deployment of AI applications, fostering innovation across industries. As Saudi Arabia advances with its tech-driven initiatives, Cloudflare is proud to be at the forefront, assisting businesses in modernizing operations with leading-edge connectivity, security, and AI solutions. Trade attendees can visit Cloudflare at LEAP at Booth H1 U70 for a live demo and discussions.
