KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Super Micro Computer shares surged to lead gains on the S&P 500 Friday, as JPMorgan analysts boosted their rating for the server maker’s stock.
- The analysts said the company is moving past its regulatory challenges and cited optimism about demand for its servers based on Nvidia’s Blackwell chips.
- The analysts, cautioned, however, that the company still faces some headwinds, including an increasingly competitive landscape that is putting pressure on gross margins.
Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares surged to lead gains on the S&P 500 Friday, as JPMorgan analysts lifted their rating and price target for the server maker’s stock.
The analysts boosted their rating to “neutral” from “underweight,” and raised their price target to $45 from $35, saying the company is “cycling past filing challenges” after meeting a key deadline to stay listed, and could see growth from strong demand for its servers based on Nvidia’s (NVDA) Blackwell chips.
Supermicro is “on the cusp of benefitting from ramp in Blackwell-based server shipments, which are experiencing significantly higher demand than previous generations,” the analysts wrote in a note Friday.
Shares finished the day up nearly 8% to over $42 in recent trading, bringing year-to-date gains close to nearly 40%, though they’ve still lost more than half their value over the past 12 months.
Friday’s news marks the latest expression of sentiment from Wall Street regarding a stock that’s been through an eventful few months; few analysts have current ratings, according to Visible Alpha data.
The server maker’s stock has been volatile in the past year, as it faced accusations of accounting manipulation last August that led to the resignation of the company’s auditor. It narrowly avoided a possible delisting last month after filing belated financial disclosures with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The analysts at JPMorgan cautioned the company could still face some headwinds, among them an “increasingly competitive AI Servers landscape” that is leading to “aggressive pricing “ and putting pressure on its gross margins. Elevated costs and the prospect of higher interest expenses when the company raises more capital could also present challenges, they said.