Analyst Actions: SpaceX Gets $800 Target, Salesforce Downgraded on AI Product Concerns

Raymond James initiated coverage of SpaceX with a Street-high price target, citing its foundational role in the next wave of industrial infrastructure, while Bernstein downgraded Salesforce, citing poor customer feedback on its new AI offerings. The moves were part of a busy week of analyst actions focused on the impact of artificial intelligence across various sectors.

Bullish Calls on Infrastructure and E-Commerce

Raymond James launched its coverage of SpaceX with a Strong Buy rating and an $800 price target, arguing that the convergence of industrialized orbital access and AI represents "the most significant infrastructure convergence since the advent of the Internet." The firm's thesis centers on Starship, which it says can reduce the cost of transporting mass to orbit by over 99%.

The bank projects SpaceX's financials will grow significantly based on this new paradigm:

• Total Addressable Market: Estimated to approach $30 trillion across transportation, communications, and manufacturing.
• Revenue Growth: Forecast to grow from approximately $38.5 billion today to over $837 billion by 2031.
• EBITDA Growth: Projected to expand from $17.7 billion to $696 billion in the same period.

Separately, Stifel upgraded Shopify to Buy from Hold, raising its price target to $150 from $110. The analyst noted that a sharp year-to-date stock decline has created an attractive entry point, forecasting "a realistic path to 30%-plus revenue growth in 2026" as the company gains market share in enterprise, B2B, and international segments.

Mixed Signals in Cloud and Enterprise Software

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Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating on Alibaba with a $172 price objective, calling the company "one of the most compelling AI plays in China." The bank expects AI-led demand to push Alibaba's cloud revenue growth to 45% year-over-year in the June quarter, helping to offset a projected 7.7% decline in its core customer management revenue.

In contrast, Bernstein downgraded Salesforce to Sector Weight from Outperform and removed its price target. The downgrade was driven by weak customer feedback on the company's Agentforce AI product, which Bernstein said "just isn’t there." According to the analyst, customer checks revealed that many clients' data is not yet organized enough for meaningful AI work, and a recent CIO survey showed more IT departments expect to deprioritize Salesforce spending over the next year.

Semiconductor Outlook Remains in Focus

Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein argued that investors overreacted to Samsung’s preliminary second-quarter results, calling the subsequent semiconductor sell-off an "extremely short-sighted" move. Klein stated that while revenue missed expectations, operating profit was a "strong beat" excluding one-time bonus expenses, and the revenue shortfall was attributable to mobile devices and TVs, not the critical memory business.

The analyst sees strong fundamentals for memory chips, noting that third-quarter pricing trends for DRAM and NAND look "very strong," with some forecasts pointing to NAND prices rising 35-40% quarter-on-quarter. Klein added that upcoming results from TSMC and ASML "will matter way more for semi price action" than Samsung's preliminary figures.