Normally, an analyst pan tends to send a stock’s share price down as a result. However, that’s not always so, and information technology stock Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW) demonstrated as much by rising—albeit fractionally—in the face of some new blistering remarks from analysts. The punishment in question was dished out by Monness, Crespi, Hardt, whose analyst, Brian White, took the stock to task. White cut the rating from Neutral to Sell and also set the price target at $160 per share.
He declared that Snowflake derived its earlier gains from “…an overly exuberant tech market in the final quarter of 2023 and riding the coattails of an unprecedented AI hype cycle.” The gains that followed, meanwhile, did it no favors, as now it’s “…overvalued and vulnerable to selling pressure.” It wasn’t all bad news, though, as White noted that Snowflake is in a good position for the long-term but will likely take a few knocks in the share price getting there.
Not Everyone is as Sure
Brian White clearly has a case baked in, but it’s not exactly universal. After all, Oppenheimer declared Snowflake a Strong Buy for 2024. Others are looking at the rise in generative AI to boost Snowflake’s data management systems and offer up Disney (NYSE:DIS) as an example. Disney ditched Teradata (NYSE:TDC) in favor of Amazon Web Services, which includes Snowflake, and makes Snowflake a substantial part of Disney’s big data operations.
Is Snowflake a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on SNOW stock based on 24 Buys, seven Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 52.06% rally in its share price over the past year, the average SNOW price target of $213.93 per share implies 15.68% upside potential.
