Stifel Raises Coherent Corp. (COHR) Price Target to $120, Maintains Buy Rating After Strong Q1 Results and Positive Q2 Outlook

We recently compiled a list of the 15 AI News You Missed This Week. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) stands against the other AI stocks you missed this week.

There is a lot of debate around potential AI policy changes as Donald Trump prepares to take charge as US president. According to a report by news platform Wired, a Trump administration AI policy would likely prioritize ensuring US leadership in AI development, focusing on competition with China. This strategy, per the report, could involve bolstering federal resources to support massive AI projects and maintaining or intensifying sanctions on Chinese tech companies to restrict their access to critical US technology, like advanced chips essential for training powerful AI models. Trump has promised to repeal the executive order on AI by US President Biden, which was introduced to implement safety measures like preventing algorithmic bias and strengthening federal oversight of AI developments. Critics argue that reversing these policies could lead to less oversight in a rapidly evolving field, potentially increasing risks as AI is deployed more broadly.

Read more about these developments by accessing 10 Best AI Data Center Stocks and 10 Buzzing AI Stocks According to Goldman Sachs.

Another important development that investors should keep an eye on is the influence of Elon Musk on Trump’s policies. Musk aggressively backed Trump during the campaign and his AI startup, xAI, could benefit from friendly Trump policies, per the Wired report. The report also added that the focus on xAI would in turn serve to make OpenAI and Google targets, perhaps threatening the ability of the two firms to secure lucrative future government contracts.

Read more about these developments by accessing 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock and Beyond the Tech Giants: 35 Non-Tech AI Opportunities.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by combing through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among 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).

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Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR)

Market Capitalization: $16 Billion

Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) develops, manufactures, and markets engineered materials, optoelectronic components, and devices worldwide. On November 8, Stifel raised the price target on the stock to $120 from $85 and kept a Buy rating on the shares after the company’s Q1 revenue came in modestly above guidance and consensus expectations and Q2 revenue guidance was also slightly above consensus estimates. The advisory now looks forward to the company’s investor day in late May 2025, where it expects details on longer-term strategy and financial targets.

Overall COHR ranks 14th on our list of the AI stocks you missed this week. While we acknowledge the potential of COHR 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 timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than COHR but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.