We recently published a list of GTC Recap and Beyond: 10 AI Stocks on Investors’ Radar. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) stands against other AI stocks that are on investors’ radar.
Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote may not have unpacked significant surprises, but his insights and plans reflect his forward-thinking approach.
Together, the announcements and innovations that were revealed at the conference, particularly in areas such as health and autonomous vehicles, demonstrate Nvidia’s commitment to leading the sector in AI and technology.
The company has also outlined a road map for the next three years, and there are significant new products planned every year. This is an aspiring target to achieve.
READ ALSO: 10 AI Stocks You Need to Watch: News & Ratings and 10 AI Stocks Making Waves: GTC Highlights & Beyond
During his keynote, Huang announced new chips for deploying AI models. These are expected to ship in 2026. However, some investors were underwhelmed, with the stock dropping more than 3% on Tuesday.
This has been an unexpected turn for the company, considering the GTC conference has been a positive catalyst for the past few years.
Here is what Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis noted about the conference.
“The rate of innovation on all fronts continues to impress and suggests a growing moat vs. peers … we were hoping for more proof points for TAM expansion and TCO advantages.”
Meanwhile, Benchmark analyst Cody Acree said in a note to clients:
“Investors’ attitude toward the speech appeared to be somewhat lethargic. Overall, we thought the keynote was about as expected, with Jensen once again providing a masterclass overview of AI.”
Some analyst firms are very optimistic about the stock.
“We have long viewed sovereign AI as an underappreciated driver of demand for AI infrastructure, and our sense coming out of this summit is that there is a long runway of AI infrastructure development ahead.”
-UBS
“With leading silicon (GPU/DPU/CPU), hardware/ software platforms, and a strong ecosystem, the company is well-positioned to benefit from major secular trends in AI, high-performance computing, gaming, and autonomous vehicles, in our view. It continues to remain 1-2 steps ahead of its competitors.”
-JP Morgan Analyst
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
An individual interacting with an access control system as a security measure.
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:PANW) is a leader in AI-powered cybersecurity. On March 18, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage of the stock with an “Overweight” rating and a $230 price target.
According to the firm, there is a large XSIAM growth opportunity ahead. XSIAM or Extended Security Intelligence and Automation Management is Palo Alto’s AI-driven security operations platform, whose demand has been bolstered particularly through Palo Alto’s IBM QRadar deal.
According to the firm, 63% of organizations quote AI as the driver of increased cloud investments. The analyst told investors that even though these are still early days for AI proliferation in security, changing technology industry trends driven by AI are boosting cybersecurity demand.
Overall, PANW ranks 10th on our list of AI stocks that are on Wall Street’s radar today. While we acknowledge the potential of PANW as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some 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 PANW 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.
