Wall Street Ratings Roundup Thursday: NVIDIA, Tesla, Salesforce and More
N.R. Finch
Wall Street firms issued a wave of ratings Thursday, broadly bullish on semiconductors and AI infrastructure but downgrading Salesforce and initiating Tesla at neutral — a clear sector-divergence signal worth unpacking.
Why is the semiconductor chain still getting upgrades?
Citi reiterated Buy on Nvidia, calling it the "top large-cap data-center semi pick." The key reason: when DRAM — the high-speed memory chips data centers need — is in tight supply, Nvidia secures allocation better than peers. This means → in a shortage, supply-chain clout is itself a moat.
Mizuho raised price targets on three equipment makers at once: Applied Materials to $650 (from $540), Lam Research to $400 (from $380), MKS Instruments to $415 (from $400). The unified logic: AI is driving advanced-node and DRAM capacity expansion, and even previously sluggish NAND flash is seeing upgrade demand.
Baird initiated coverage on test-equipment maker Cohu with an Outperform rating, citing leadership in semiconductor test handling, thermal management, and inspection.
In plain terms = Wall Street's semi bullishness has expanded from "buy the chip designers" to "buy the entire equipment and test supply chain" — a sign firms believe this AI demand cycle is deep enough to feed upstream players too.
Why was Salesforce just downgraded?
KeyBanc cut Salesforce from Outperform to Sector Weight and pulled its price target entirely — a relatively rare, strong-conviction move in sell-side research.
The reasons are specific: channel checks and customer feedback were both disappointing, the Agentforce AI platform "has not shown momentum," and in the latest CIO survey Salesforce was "an outlier for the wrong reasons."
This means → the issue is not a one-quarter miss but a growing question about whether Salesforce's AI-transformation narrative can actually deliver — for a stock whose valuation leans on the "AI-powered CRM" story, that is more damaging than a revenue shortfall.
Tesla just got its first coverage — why only neutral?
Citizens initiated Tesla at Market Perform (neutral), judging that market optimism on Optimus robots and Robotaxi is "too high."
The firm sees both products as further from meaningful revenue contribution than the consensus timeline suggests. Put simply = the products are real, but the market has already priced in a timeline that may be too aggressive.
On the same day, Citi reiterated Buy on SpaceX (ticker SPCX), citing unmatched launch capability and a trillion-dollar opportunity in orbital AI and Starlink — sell-side confidence in the Musk universe is notably stronger on SpaceX than on Tesla.
Which other upgrades stand out?
Goldman Sachs initiated Comfort Systems USA at Buy with a $2,159 12-month target (implying 28% upside), citing the mechanical and electrical contractor's significant leverage to AI data-center construction. This reflects Wall Street's AI investment thesis extending from "chips → software" into physical infrastructure.
Goldman also upgraded restaurant-payments platform Toast (TOST) from Neutral to Buy at $36, arguing payments stocks have underperformed year-to-date, valuations are compressed, and Toast is a high-quality name to buy on the dip.
Wolfe Research issued four upgrades in a single day: American Tower (carrier-consolidation headwinds fading, organic growth more predictable), W.W. Grainger ("increasing confidence" in earnings momentum), ITT (called a "compounding flywheel"), and Sarepta Therapeutics (stock structure offers a more attractive entry point).
Any downgrades worth watching?
JPMorgan cut Stellantis from Overweight to Neutral. The logic is specific: cost benefits from lower-priced component sourcing need roughly 14 months to flow through to 2027–2028 new-model launches. In plain terms = the tailwind is real, but it is too far away to justify an Overweight today.
Moving the other way, Mizuho upgraded Five Below from Neutral to Outperform, noting the stock has fallen nearly 30% from its recent high and the valuation discount is now pronounced.
What do the two new initiations signal?
RBC initiated Waters Corporation at Outperform with a $435 target, seeing a "transformation opportunity."
BMO initiated Intuitive Surgical at Outperform, calling it the "highest conviction" name in their coverage universe, trading at roughly a 31% discount to its three-year historical average valuation.
This means → two firms chose this moment to launch coverage and immediately assigned bullish ratings, signaling they see enough valuation cushion to act now — for longer-term investors, a bullish initiation often carries more weight than a reiterated rating.
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