We recently published a list of 11 Biggest AI and Tech Stock Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades in July So Far. Since Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) ranks 8th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.

As soon as the latest softer-than-expected inflation data numbers were out, investors began to take profits from major tech stocks and pour money into small-cap companies amid hopes of rate cuts. However, some were quick to call the latest decline in tech stocks the end of the AI-fueled rally that has pushed stock valuations to eye-popping levels. But there are some Wall Street analysts who believe this is just a short-term trend and large tech and AI stocks have a lot of room to grow. Samantha McLemore, CIO of Patient Capital, said while talking to CNBC that the “bull market continues and the path of least resistance is higher.”

The analyst said that she has been in the market for a long time and investors have been worrying about the end of the bull market since 2009, while the S&P 500 has grown over 1000% (17% per year) since then.

“We don’t see any end to the bull market. We do think there’s a good chance we see a rotation and small caps, the laggards, do much better in the second half of the year as the Fed starts to cut rates.”

Some analysts believe the latest decline in tech stocks is yet another opportunity for long-term investors to pile into AI stocks for gains. In this backdrop, we decided to take a look at the top AI stock upgrades and downgrades this month. With each stock, we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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).

Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW)

Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 73

Jefferies analyst Brent Thill named Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) as his top AI pick for the back half of 2024 as he expects the stock to benefit from the rising demand in infrastructure and software. Thill believes companies like Snowflake will benefit as companies begin to actually install and deploy AI software in the POC (proof of concept) stage of the AI cycle.

Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) is a Cloud-based data warehouse offering data storage and analytics services. The company’s moat lies in its data technologies that let companies analyze and make sense of unstructured data. Amid the generative AI boom, companies are ready to spend a fortune to use huge datasets to their advantage. This would bode well for Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW). The company’s usage-based pricing model also gives it an edge in the market. The company expects the total addressable market for its Cloud data platform to rise to $342 billion by 2028, which is double the market size of 2023.

During the fiscal first quarter, its revenue jumped 33% year over year and the company posted a 4% non-GAAP operating margin, exceeding guidance of 3%. It was a 400 bps improvement year over year. Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) has posted non-GAAP profitability for five straight quarters. As of the end of the first quarter, the company had $4.5 billion in cash and no debt. The company also upped its revenue guidance and talked about the impact of AI investments in the short term during Q1 earnings call:

 For Q2, we expect product revenue between $805 million and $810 million, we are increasing our FY ’25 product revenue guidance.

We now expect full year product revenue of approximately $3.3 billion, representing 24% year-over-year growth. Turning to margins. We are lowering our full year margin guidance in light of increased GPU-related costs related to our AI initiatives. We are operating in a rapidly evolving market, and we view these investments as key to unlocking additional revenue opportunities in the future. As a reminder, we have GPU related costs in both cost of revenue and R&D.

Alger Focus Equity Fund stated the following regarding Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) in its Q1 2024 investor letter:

“Snowflake Inc. (NYSE:SNOW) is a cloud-based data warehousing company that allows organizations to store, analyze and share data in a secure. scalable and cost-effective manner. This includes the Data Cloud. an ecosystem where Snowflake customers, partners. data providers, and data consumers can break down data silos and derive value from rapidly growing data sets in a secure, governed, and compliant way. Its platform supports a range of use cases. including data warehousing, data lakes, data engineering, data science, data application development, and data sharing. While the company reported an overall healthy fiscal fourth quarter. shares detracted from performance after management lowered their fiscal 2025 forward revenue guidance below analyst estimates. Further, the company announced that CEO Frank Slootman would be retiring from the role immediately, succeeded by Sridhar Ramaswamy, the former SVP of Al who has demonstrated impressive speed in bringing new Al products and features to market.”

Overall, Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) ranks 8th on Insider Monkey’s list titled 11 Biggest AI and Tech Stock Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades in July So Far. While we acknowledge the potential of Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW), our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than SNOW 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.