Wall Street Analysts Initiate Coverage on Nvidia-Backed CoreWeave with Mixed Outlook

Nvidia-backed CoreWeave gets largely bullish coverage from brokerages

April 22 (Reuters) - Wall Street brokerages on Tuesday began coverage of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave (CRWV.O), opens new tab with broadly bullish views, although the stock has failed to gain traction with investors following a lackluster initial public offering and market debut. Among the five major brokerages covering CoreWeave's shares, Goldman Sachs set the highest price target at $54, while J.P.Morgan had the lowest at $43. The stock, which was priced at $40 in its IPO, is currently trading at $36.25. After the expiration of the industry-required quiet period, the brokerages started coverage of the stock, citing the company's strong foothold in the booming AI infrastructure market for their bullish stance. "CoreWeave exhibits a track record of being first to deploy next-gen GPUs, making it difficult for other hyperscalers to claim industry leadership," J.P.Morgan said. Livingston, New Jersey-based CoreWeave offers access to data centers and high-powered Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab chips, which are highly coveted in the competitive AI development landscape. However, they also expressed caution about its over-reliance on some of its customers and a tough market backdrop. "Volatile macro (and equities) backdrop may limit investors' willingness," said Morgan Stanley, as it started coverage with an "equal-weight" rating. Last year, CoreWeave - whose 32 data centers house over 250,000 GPUs, mainly supplied by Nvidia - generated 77% of its revenue from just its top two clients, one of which was Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab. Ahead of its IPO, CoreWeave inked a blockbuster $11.9 billion, five-year deal with OpenAI, Reuters reported last month, forging an alliance with the industry's top startup. "Close relationship with Microsoft and OpenAI could cut both ways ... and the customer concentration here does pose a risk," Barclays said. "We expect the stock to provide a wild, lumpy, volatile ride, requiring a risk tolerance that may not exist for most investors," J.P.Morgan said, warning that the firm's debt-fueled, capital-intensive business could pose risks. The IPO was underwritten by a syndicate of 18 banks, led by Morgan Stanley, J.P.Morgan and Goldman Sachs and was seen as a pivotal gauge of investor enthusiasm for new listings and AI-related stocks, especially in light of China's DeepSeek launch. Following are the ratings and price targets for CoreWeave from some of the major brokerages: Brokerage Rating Price Target Jefferies Buy $51 J.P.Morgan Overweight $43 Barclays Overweight $48 Morgan Stanley Equal-weight $46 Goldman Sachs Neutral $54 Reporting by Joel Jose and Siddarth S in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:U.S. Markets

Analysts are out with their CoreWeave ratings. Here's what they are saying

Nvidia-backed cloud company CoreWeave is grabbing the attention of several analysts, with some making bullish calls. On the first day of trading this month, the stock soared almost 42% above its initial public offering following an underwhelming start with its trading debut. CoreWeave officially debuted on the Nasdaq in late March, closing flat on its first trading day. Since making its debut, CoreWeave shares have struggled. In the past week alone, the stock has fallen more than 13% compared to the S & P 500's loss of more than 4%. It has fared a bit better than the broader market this month, posting a month-to-date loss of more than 4%. That's nearly half the S & P 500's drop of just over 8%. Shares were more than 2% higher in the premarket Tuesday after a number of analysts initiated coverage on the stock. Here's what a few of them had to say. Barclays: rated overweight with a $48 price target Analyst Raimo Lenschow's target implies more than 35% upside from Monday's close. "We see a large TAM (~$399bn for Training and Inference) and the very large growth rates for CRWV (68% revenue CAGR between 2024-2027) as evidence of this exciting opportunity. As with all new market segments (remember the Facebook IPO), there are many aspects (large depreciation numbers due to high Capex, debt financing of new projects) that are new to Tech investors, and as a result will take time to get comfortable with. However, we think the time to market advantage and close relationship with Nvidia (covered by Tom O'Malley) will enable CoreWeave to be a successful player in this space, and see current levels as an attractive entry point." JPMorgan: rated overweight with a $43 price target Analyst Mark Murphy's target reflects more than 21% upside ahead. "There could be a wide range of outcomes for CoreWeave. For this reason, we expect the stock to provide a wild, lumpy, volatile ride, requiring a risk tolerance that may not exist for most investors. If we end up with heightened economic volatility, CRWV shares would probably suffer disproportionately due to risk-off positioning. However, our sense is that investors are pricing in the glass-half-empty view more than the other view, represented by a 16x EV/CY26E PF EBIT multiple for a company projected to grow 140% in the expansive AI market." Goldman Sachs: rated neutral with a $54 price target Analyst Kash Rangan's target calls for more than 52% upside from here. "CoreWeave is indexed towards the current overhangs of the broader market, including tariffs, AI skepticism, and caution in underwriting debt-heavy growth companies. While our growth estimates underwrite the path CoreWeave can take to continue to scale (supported by over $26bn in RPO and a ratable revenue model), we understand that given the company's relative short operating history and current macro uncertainty, we expect it will need to deliver consistent execution to sustainably break out of its current range." Jefferies: rated buy with a $51 price target Analyst Brent Thill's target implies about 44% upside potential. "We believe we're still in the very early innings of this buildout for AI, and CRWV being one of the few who has been able to scale & host AI compute reliably, is positioned well to capture this opportunity. While there are concerns over the durability of CRWV's business model, we believe that the unrelenting appetite for AI compute minimizes the downside risks." Citi: rated neutral/high risk with a $43 price target Analyst Tyler Radke's target sees more than 21% upside from the latest close. "CRWV's explosive growth (FY25 revenue of $4.6B, +140%) has been driven by strong demand from a highly concentrated customer base (MSFT at 64% of FY24 revenue and OpenAI). While we are impressed with the growth and first-mover advantage, there are factors that lead us to believe the stock will remain rangebound after a strong offering followed by tariff uncertainty." Bank of America: rated buy with a $42 price target Analyst Brad Sills' target implies more than 18% upside ahead. "The CoreWeave Cloud Platform has been purpose built for GPU compute to support AI service providers (e.g., Microsoft, OpenAI and NVIDIA). We see room for sustained share gains in the large AI IaaS industry, forecasted to reach $79 billion in 2028 (per Gartner), +62% 3-year CAGR, significantly outpacing the general purpose cloud IaaS at 21%."

JPMorgan cautions most investors won't have the stomach to handle CoreWeave's volatility

The high degree of unpredictability for artificial intelligence cloud company CoreWeave won't be tolerated by many on Wall Street, according to JPMorgan. "There could be a wide range of outcomes for CoreWeave," analyst Mark Murphy wrote on Tuesday. "For this reason, we expect the stock to provide a wild, lumpy, volatile ride, requiring a risk tolerance that may not exist for most investors." "If we end up with heightened economic volatility, CRWV shares would probably suffer disproportionately due to risk-off positioning," the analyst continued. "However, our sense is that investors are pricing in the glass-half-empty view more than the other view, represented by a 16x EV/CY26E PF EBIT multiple for a company projected to grow 140% in the expansive AI market." Murphy thinks that investors who haven't spent much time with CoreWeave's team are not likely to fully appreciate the speed with which the team move and the company's motivation to solve engineering problems for its customers. Moving forward, the analyst said that investors should "ascribe a material growth-adjusted valuation discount on CRWV shares to reflect its rare level of customer concentration," as CoreWeave has had only a handful of customers driving a large portion of its revenue. Notably, the company's top customer, Microsoft , accounted for 62% of its revenue in 2024, and its top two customers made up 77% of its revenue last year, Murphy said. He added that by contrast, the average software company at time of its IPO has thousands of customers, with no single customer driving more than 5% of its revenue. "This meaningfully shifts the risk profile and volatility of bookings higher for CoreWeave; its business model is more akin to that of Boeing , Palantir , or Northrop Grumman (unavoidable customer concentration with airlines and government agencies) - only a handful of AI companies can conceivably sign multi-billion-dollar contracts with CoreWeave, and we expect CoreWeave to be living with this reality for quite a while," the analyst also wrote. CRWV 1D mountain CRWV, 1-day Shares of the Nvidia-backed name gained more than 7% in midday trading Tuesday after several analysts, including Murphy, initiated coverage with a buy or overweight equivalent rating. Murphy's $43 price target implies more than 21% upside from Monday's close. Tuesday's move higher puts the stock's gains this month at more than 2%, outpacing the broader market. However, in the past one week, shares have fallen nearly 7%. This comes after the stock advanced nearly 42% and topped the $40 per share price of its initial public offering - on which JPMorgan was one of the lead underwriters - in the first trading day of April, just two sessions after it closed flat in a disappointing Nasdaq debut .

Nvidia-Backed CoreWeave's Stock Jumps as Analysts Launch Coverage -- Here's What They're Saying

CoreWeave (CRWV) shares surged Tuesday as several analysts launched coverage of the artificial intelligence play with price targets suggesting they see gains for the stock. Shares of the cloud computing company backed by Nvidia (NVDA) were up over 8% in Tuesday afternoon trading, near their initial public offering price of $40, and down from their April 2 record close at $61.36. Jefferies analysts on Tuesday initiated coverage with a "buy" rating and a price target of $51, as they said CoreWeave could be "well positioned to capture" growing demand for AI compute. Analysts from Bank of America, Mizuho, and JPMorgan also issued "buy" ratings, with price targets of $42, $46, and $43, respectively. However, JPMorgan analysts cautioned they expect the stock could "provide a wild, lumpy, volatile ride, requiring a risk tolerance that may not exist for most investors." Several analysts noted risks tied to CoreWeave's AI-centric business, and the fact that CoreWeave's revenue is highly concentrated, with Microsoft (MSFT) accounting for more than half of its revenue last year. Analysts from Citi gave CoreWeave a "neutral" rating and $43 price target, calling it a "high risk" investment where they "would like to see a few quarters play out before getting off the sidelines." Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank analysts were also "neutral" on the stock, with price targets of $46 and $45, respectively.

Nvidia-backed CoreWeave gets largely bullish coverage from brokerages

Wall Street brokerages began coverage of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave with mostly bullish views, citing its strong AI infrastructure presence and early adoption of next-gen GPUs. Despite a tepid IPO and stock volatility, analysts noted risks like heavy customer dependence and a tough market. Price targets range from $40 to $55.Wall Street brokerages on Tuesday began coverage of Nvidia-backed CoreWeave with broadly bullish views, although the stock has failed to gain traction with investors following a lackluster initial public offering and market debut. Among the thirteen major brokerages covering CoreWeave's shares, Needham and Stifel set the highest price target at $55, while Melius Research had the lowest at $40. The stock, which was priced at $40 in its IPO, was last up 6% to $37.58. After the expiration of the industry-required quiet period, the brokerages started coverage of the stock, citing the company's strong foothold in the booming AI infrastructure market for their bullish stance. "CoreWeave exhibits a track record of being first to deploy next-gen GPUs, making it difficult for other hyperscalers to claim industry leadership," J.P.Morgan said. Livingston, New Jersey-based CoreWeave offers access to data centers and Nvidia chips, which are highly coveted in the competitive AI development landscape. However, the brokerages also expressed caution about the company's over-reliance on some of its customers and a tough market backdrop. "Volatile macro (and equities) backdrop may limit investors' willingness," said Morgan Stanley, as it started coverage with an "equal-weight" rating. Last year, CoreWeave - whose 32 data centers house over 250,000 GPUs, mainly supplied by Nvidia - generated 77% of its revenue from just its top two clients, one of which was Microsoft. Citigroup, which started coverage of the stock with a "neutral" rating, said the significant reliance on Microsoft posed a risk as the tech firm has signaled a slowdown in AI spending. Ahead of its IPO, CoreWeave signed a blockbuster $11.9 billion, five-year deal with OpenAI, Reuters reported last month, forging an alliance with the industry's top startup. "Close relationship with Microsoft and OpenAI could cut both ways ... and the customer concentration here does pose a risk," Barclays said. "We expect the stock to provide a wild, lumpy, volatile ride, requiring a risk tolerance that may not exist for most investors," J.P.Morgan said, warning that the firm's debt-fueled, capital-intensive business could pose risks. The IPO was underwritten by a syndicate of 18 banks, led by Morgan Stanley, J.P.Morgan and Goldman Sachs and was seen as a pivotal gauge of investor enthusiasm for new listings and AI-related stocks, especially in light of China's DeepSeek launch.

Nvidia-Backed AI Startup Boasts 'Extremely Rapid Revenue Growth' - JPMorgan Initiates With Overweight - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

An Nvidia Corp NVDA -backed AI startup with a massive GPU fleet and breakneck growth is turning heads on Wall Street. But buckle up - analyst says the road ahead could be anything but smooth. JPMorgan Kicks Off Coverage On CoreWeave JPMorgan analyst Mark Murphy has initiated coverage on AI infrastructure company CoreWeave Inc. CRWV with an Overweight rating and a price target of $43 by December 2025. At $35.42, the stock reflects a 21% potential upside. Murphy isn't sugarcoating the road ahead - he expects a "volatile, lumpy, and wild ride," but says the low growth-adjusted EBIT multiple creates "long-term upside potential." Read Also: CoreWeave's IPO: 3 Major Red Flags Investors Can't Ignore CoreWeave is positioning itself as a full-throttle AI pure play, boasting what Murphy calls "extremely rapid revenue growth," a "tremendous, high-quality RPO backlog," and "positive, high-teens GAAP OpMargin." The company also benefits from the backing of Nvidia, a partnership that may provide premier status as a test bed for cutting-edge GPUs. According to Murphy, CoreWeave's track record of being first to deploy next-gen chips makes it difficult for other hyperscalers to claim leadership, particularly among top-tier AI customers like Microsoft Corp MSFT, OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc. META and Nvidia itself. Bulls Vs. Bears: What's Priced In? Murphy sees a wide range of outcomes. On the bullish side, CoreWeave is rapidly growing in a hot market, has strong strategic positioning, and operates one of the largest GPU fleets in the world. The potential to monetize fully amortized GPUs in the future is another upside lever. But the bear case is no slouch. Some investors worry CoreWeave was a "stopgap solution" during the GPU shortages of 2023-24. As the supply-demand imbalance eases, concerns are growing that GPU prices could soften and large customers like Microsoft might not renew big contracts. That scenario could leave CoreWeave with a "high-cost, underutilized fleet" and hefty CapEx bills to match. High Risk, High Reward This is not a stock for the risk-averse. Murphy acknowledges that in a risk-off environment, CoreWeave shares could be hit disproportionately hard. But for investors who can stomach the volatility, the growth story - and Nvidia connection - could make this wild ride worthwhile. Read Next: Google In Talks To Rent Nvidia's Blackwell Chips From CoreWeave: Report Photo: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$38.388.37%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum-Growth-Quality-Value16.23Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMETAMeta Platforms Inc$494.622.06%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$364.581.52%NVDANVIDIA Corp$99.182.34%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

CoreWeave Garners Praise Due To AI Growth, Nvidia Partnership - CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV)

CoreWeave Inc CRWV stock surged Tuesday after several Wall Street firms initiated coverage with an Outperform or Buy rating. BofA Securities analyst Brad Sills initiated coverage on Coreweave with a Buy and a price target of $42. Needham analyst Mike Cikos initiated coverage on Coreweave with a Buy and a price target of $55. Also Read: Nvidia-Backed AI Startup Boasts 'Extremely Rapid Revenue Growth' - JPMorgan Initiates With Overweight Bank of America Securities: Sills noted that CoreWeave is well positioned to capture a share of the $79 billion AI IaaS (infrastructure as a service) market, given its rapid GPU deployment cycle, proprietary software optimized for AI workloads, and strategic relations with top-tiered AI-native companies such as Nvidia Corp NVDA, Microsoft Corp MSFT, Meta Platforms Inc META, and OpenAI. The analyst's calls with customers validated CoreWeave as a best-of-breed provider driven by its accelerated GPU deployment cycle, lower failure rates, increase in GPU utilization rate backed by its proprietary software, and access to power and data center technology. Sills noted that these advantages are sustainable in the near term, at a time when demand for GPUs is accelerating. Moreover, CoreWeave's proprietary software automates provisioning, load balancing, and observability. Each of these services addresses a separate software category. The ability to sustain a long-term advantage will depend on further developing these services, which could represent new software revenue over time. Sills projected first-quarter revenue of $849 million and EPS loss of 12 cents. Needham: Cikos noted that the company's first-mover advantage and strong execution in a supply-constrained GPU and Power market could drive stronger-than-expected growth as management accelerates economies of scale while lowering the cost of capital. CoreWeave has generated significant revenue growth since launching the CoreWeave Cloud Platform in calendar 2020. It led to $1.9 billion in revenue in calendar 2024. Cikos attributed the company's success to the positive supply-demand backdrop. AI demand has far outstripped supply, leading to long wait times for GPUs and Power. CoreWeave boasts a first-mover advantage and a noteworthy relationship with Nvidia Corp NVDA, the analyst added. The company has also done an impressive job delivering GPUs and data center capacity in a constrained Power market. Surging demand for AI caught supply chains and underlying infrastructure providers off guard for both GPUs and Power, where Cikos anticipate AI demand to outpace supply for the next 5-plus years. The CoreWeave model is highly accretive, with a Cash Payback Period of ~2.5 years on investments in GPUs and other Property and equipment, lower than the company's weighted-average contract duration of ~4 years. Cikos projected first-quarter revenue of $854 million and adjusted EPS loss of 19 cents. Price Action: CoreWeave stock is up 8.75% at $38.52 at last check Tuesday. Read Next: TeraWulf Price Forecast Cut As Analyst Cites Tough Bitcoin Economics, Doubts Over AI Growth Plans Image: Shutterstock CRWVCoreWeave Inc$38.649.10%Stock Score Locked: Want to See it? Benzinga Rankings give you vital metrics on any stock - anytime. Reveal Full ScoreEdge RankingsMomentum-Growth-Quality-Value16.23Price TrendShortMediumLongOverviewMETAMeta Platforms Inc$495.242.18%MSFTMicrosoft Corp$363.711.28%NVDANVIDIA Corp$97.951.07%Got Questions? AskWhich AI infrastructure stocks might benefit from CoreWeave's growth?How will CoreWeave's partnership with Nvidia impact their market position?What other companies are positioned for AI IaaS growth?Could Microsoft leverage CoreWeave's services for its AI initiatives?How might Meta Platforms capitalize on CoreWeave's technologies?Which GPU manufacturers will be affected by CoreWeave's demand surge?Is there an opportunity in data center stocks following CoreWeave's success?What implications does CoreWeave's growth have for cloud computing firms?How could investors capitalize on the AI demand-supply imbalance?Which software companies may see growth through partnerships with CoreWeave?Powered ByMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Why Shares of Coreweave Are Rising Today | The Motley Fool

Shares of artificial intelligence infrastructure company CoreWeave (CRWV 6.96%) were trading roughly 7% higher, as of 11:05 a.m. ET today. The stock rose along with the broader market, which surged due to positive macro and tariff-related news. It also comes after numerous analysts recently issued bullish ratings on the company. At least a dozen analysts kicked off coverage of CoreWeave yesterday, with seven assigning buy or equivalent ratings and five saying hold. The company runs data centers with Nvidia's graphics processing units, specifically for companies looking to run AI applications without having to build out the infrastructure themselves. CoreWeave had arguably been the most hyped initial public offering of the year, but disappointed in its debut, pricing below its target of $40 per share. AI stocks have largely disappointed this year and CoreWeave's stock has been volatile since going public. Still, many analysts see a lot of runway ahead. "We believe we're still in the very early innings of this build-out for AI, and CoreWeave being one of the few who has been able to scale and host AI compute reliably, is positioned well to capture this opportunity," Jefferies analyst Jeffrey Thill said in his initiation report. "While there are concerns over the durability of CRWV's business model, we believe that the unrelenting appetite for AI compute minimizes the downside risks." CoreWeave offers an interesting way to play the AI trade because it makes it easier for companies to delve into AI. Right now, Coreweave's customer base is heavily concentrated, which does present a risk. But if you believe AI is the future, then CoreWeave should be a part of that future. However, the company already has a high market cap and there could be several bumps along the way in the AI journey. For this reason, I'd recommend keeping positions in CoreWeave smaller for now.

Stifel, Jefferies launch CoreWeave coverage at Buy By Investing.com

Investing.com -- Wall Street analysts have initiated coverage on CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) shares with bullish views from both Jefferies and Stifel, highlighting the company's strong positioning in the burgeoning AI infrastructure market. Jefferies launched CRWV with a Buy rating and a $51 price target, citing its ability "to scale & host AI compute reliably," a capability that has already attracted major clients like Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Meta (NASDAQ:META), and OpenAI. "We believe we're still in the very early innings of this buildout for AI, and CRWV being one of the few who has been able to scale & host AI compute reliably, is positioned well to capture this opportunity," Jefferies analysts wrote. Despite customer concentration risks, capital-intensive business model, and potential tariff-related costs, the brokerage sees an "attractive risk reward" with CRWV trading at a discount to AI infrastructure peers. Stifel echoed the positive sentiment, initiating CoreWeave coverage with a Buy rating and a $55 price target. "CoreWeave is a leading GPU-as-a-service provider with compute infrastructure purpose-built for AI," analysts said in a note. Stifel expects revenue to grow more than eightfold by fiscal year 2027 (FY27), driven by contracted demand with an average duration of 4-4.5 years. Analysts pointed to several differentiators, including proprietary middleware, bare metal Kubernetes capabilities, and preferred access to Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPUs. At the same time, the analysts also acknowledged key risks around CoreWeave's capital intensity and accounting assumptions. The company is expected to ramp up net debt significantly -- from less than $8 billion at the end of 2024 to more than $30 billion by FY27 -- to fund infrastructure expansion. Furthermore, changes in the useful life of GPUs could materially impact free cash flow. Still, the analysts believe the buildout of infrastructure and power capacity will become long-term moats in a sector with rising barriers to entry. "While we view these two factors as meaningful overhangs to CRWV's story, we expect benefits from economies of scale and scope, once global infrastructure is more significantly built out and operating," analysts said. Overall, Stifel sees strong long-term potential for CoreWeave but cautions that near-term challenges around debt financing and accounting issues could lead to stock volatility.