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SpaceX Gets Street-High $800 Target as Analysts Diverge on AI Stock Outlooks
Analysts issued a series of significant calls on major technology and AI-related stocks this week, with Raymond James initiating coverage on SpaceX with a Street-high price target, while Bernstein downgraded Salesforce citing weak feedback on its AI initiatives.
Bullish Calls on SpaceX and E-Commerce
Raymond James initiated coverage of SpaceX with a Strong Buy rating and an $800 price target, a new high on Wall Street. The firm's thesis centers on the belief that industrialized space access and AI are creating "the most significant infrastructure convergence since the advent of the Internet." Analyst Brian Gesuale argued that SpaceX's Starship vehicle, which he projects will cut the cost of transporting mass to orbit by over 99%, is foundational to a new industrial platform with a total addressable market approaching $30 trillion. The firm projects SpaceX could grow to over $837 billion in revenue and $696 billion in EBITDA by 2031.
In the e-commerce sector, Stifel upgraded Shopify to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $150 from $110. The analyst noted that a sharp year-to-date stock decline has created an attractive entry point. Stifel sees "a realistic path to 30%-plus revenue growth in 2026" for Shopify, citing its continued market share gains and widening competitive moat as it develops its "agentic commerce playbook."
Mixed Signals in Asia's Tech Sector
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." Analysts expect AI-led demand to accelerate cloud revenue growth to 45% year-over-year in the June quarter, up from 38% in the prior quarter. The bank sees fiscal 2027 as a "key earnings inflection" point as core commerce profits recover and losses in its quick-commerce division narrow.
Meanwhile, Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein argued that the recent investor sell-off in Samsung following its preliminary second-quarter results was an overreaction. Klein stated that while revenue missed forecasts, operating profit was a "strong beat" excluding one-time expenses, with implied memory operating margins of over 80%. He believes memory fundamentals remain strong, with some forecasts pointing to NAND prices rising 35-40% quarter-on-quarter, and that results from TSMC and ASML will be more indicative of the semiconductor sector's health.
AdSalesforce Faces Headwinds on AI Execution
In a more cautious move, 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. Analyst Jackson Ader said that conversations with customers revealed consistent concerns.
Key points from the customer feedback cited by Bernstein include:
- Customer data is often not organized enough for meaningful AI implementation.
- The Agentforce product itself "just isn’t there" yet in terms of capability.
A recent Bernstein CIO survey also indicated that more technology executives expect to deprioritize spending on Salesforce over the next 12 months than plan to increase it, signaling potential challenges for the software giant's AI-driven growth narrative.