AI Plays Palantir, Salesforce Get Price Target Hikes, Snowflake, Elastic Upgraded But Retail Mood Subdued

A few artificial intelligence-levered companies evinced enough confidence in a Wedbush analyst that he either upgraded or increased his price targets for their shares. Retail sentiment toward these stocks, however, remained muted.

Biggest Tech Transformation: AI marks the biggest tech transformation in over 40 years and it is now time for the broader tech sector to get in on the "AI party" following Nvidia Corp. ($NVDA) and hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp. ($MSFT) and Alphabet, Inc. ($GOOGL) ($GOOG), said Daniel Ives in a note published on Sunday.

"The AI Software era is now here in our view," said the analyst.

To reflect his bullish view, Ives made adjustments to his models for Snowflake, Inc. ($SNOW), Elastic N.V. ($ESTC), Palantir Technologies, Inc. ($PLTR) and Salesforce, Inc. ($CRM).

Snowflake: Ives upgraded Snowflake shares from "Neutral" to "Outperform," with a $190 price target. The "optimization" phase has ended as sequential revenue growth continues to improve, the analyst said. 

"Snowflake is in the sweet spot to benefit from AI use cases over the next 12 to 18 months," Ives said. 

Snowflake recently reported a double beat for the third quarter and upped its revenue guidance for the year.

 SNOW sentiment and message volume November 25, 2024, premarket as of 1:35 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Following the nearly 30% post-earnings run-up in the stock, retail sentiment took a high. On the Stocktwits platform, users harbored a ‘neutral’ sentiment (47/100) toward Snowflake stock.

Elastic: Shares of Elastic climbed nearly 15% on Friday, reacting to the AI search company’s second-quarter results. Upgrading the stock to Outperform with a $135 price target, Ives said, "This is the right time at the right place for Elastic."

The company is looking to consolidate spend from legacy vendors to next-gen migration, while also accelerating its express migration platform, the analyst said.

On Stocktwits, the mood toward Elastic stock was ‘neutral,’ (49/100) with message volume remaining ‘neutral.’

 ESTC sentiment and message volume November 25, 2024, premarket as of 1:35 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Palantir: Ives hiked Palantir’s stock price target from $57 to $75, attributing the action to his increased confidence in the game-changing AIP strategy. "The Messi of AI growth story will see unprecedented demand as more enterprises realize the value of PLTR’s entire product suite with more AI use cases," he said.

Wedbush has an "Outperform" rating on Palantir stock.

 PLTR sentiment and message volume November 25, 2024, premarket as of 1:35 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Retail sentiment toward the stock is 'bullish' (60/100), although message volume remained 'low.'

Salesforce: Citing positive customer feedback, Wedbush hiked its price target for Salesforce stock from $325 to $375. The firm has an "Outperform" rating for the stock. 

The company is “advancing into its next wave of growth and capitalizing on the transformational demand for AI solutions,” said Ives.

Salesforce is due to report its fiscal year 2025 third-quarter results after the market closes on Dec. 3. Analysts, on average, expect the customer relationship management software provider to report earnings per share of $2.44, up from $2.11 earned a year ago, and revenue of $9.35 billion, up from the year-ago’s $8.72 billion.

CRM sentiment and message volume November 25, 2024, premarket as of 1:35 am ET | Source: Stocktwits

Retail is mostly sidelined on the stock, with the mood "neutral" (/46100), with “low” message volume.

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