We recently published a list of 9 Trending AI News Updates on Wall Street’s Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) stands against other trending AI news updates on Wall Street’s radar.
Sarah Guo, founder of Conviction, spoke on Bloomberg Technology about the evolving AI space and the impact of open-source models. She noted that AI has developed rapidly since her firm launched, reinforcing its belief in its long-term significance. Initially, the firm invested in application companies and vertically integrated businesses, a strategy she believes remains relevant today. She pointed out that competition among foundation models has increased significantly in recent weeks.
Guo also discussed Deep Seek and described it as a powerful model with multiple layers, including a base model, an instruction-tuned version, and a reasoning model. While DeepSeek’s origins in a Chinese hedge fund surprised many, she sees its open-source nature as beneficial for developers and a challenge for the U.S. to stay competitive in AI. She also emphasized that no single country holds exclusive control over AI talent, making export restrictions less effective.
When the discussion shifted to investment trends, Guo explained that while AI is expanding economic opportunities across infrastructure, tooling, and model development, her firm prioritizes applications and industry-specific solutions. She noted that training large models remains costly, despite claims of lower expenses, and expects the most sustainable growth to come from application-focused companies.
Guo also discussed agentic AI and how it improves customer experiences in industries such as finance and travel. She explained that AI’s ability to handle more complex tasks increases its value to businesses, making applications that automate tasks more attractive. As AI continues to advance beyond simple responses, she expects companies working on industry-specific automation to capture significant market value.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by reviewing news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
A team of consultants in suits, discussing the importance of stream governance for real-time data.
Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 39
Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT) provides a data streaming platform with real-time and cloud-native solutions for various industries.
On February 6, TD Cowen raised Confluent’s (NASDAQ:CFLT) price target to $37 from $31 while maintaining a Buy rating. The firm is optimistic about the company’s 4Q performance and FY25 outlook, and mentioned growth in GenAI and improved Flink go-to-market strategies. Solid demand trends and the increasing adoption of GenAI applications are expected to drive growth, along with stronger cross-selling opportunities. The firm expects a solid 4Q beat and sees the stock as attractive given its growth potential and AI-driven catalysts.
Overall, CFLT ranks 1st on our list of trending AI news updates on Wall Street’s radar. While we acknowledge the potential of CFLT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CFLT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
