Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Nvidia, SpaceX, Tesla, Palantir, Shopify, Oracle, Dell, Rocket Lab & more

Wall Street research calls were broadly constructive, led by bullish AI-related views on Dell, Nvidia, Palantir and Oracle; Palantir's price target was raised to $250 from $200, while Dell was initiated Outperform with a $640 target. New Buy/Overweight initiations included Q2 Holdings, Shopify, Old National, Linde, Rocket Lab, Dianthus Therapeutics and Chesapeake Utilities, while Bank of America upgraded International Paper to Buy. Morgan Stanley maintained Tesla at Equal Weight but raised its bull-case valuation by $20 to $840, citing autonomous trucking economics including 20% lower cost per mile and potential $12,000-$18,000 monthly FSD revenue per truck.

Analysis

The actionable common factor is not the individual rating changes but a widening AI-infrastructure trade: ORCL, DELL and NVDA monetize different bottlenecks—cloud capacity, enterprise system assembly and accelerators. ORCL has the highest near-term estimate-revision sensitivity if remaining performance obligations convert into OCI revenue, while DELL is more exposed to the risk that server demand is revenue-rich but margin-poor. A sustained enterprise AI capex cycle should also improve LIN’s electronics and industrial-gas volumes, an underappreciated second-order beneficiary with materially lower valuation and execution risk than the high-multiple software cohort.

PLTR and SHOP are being valued on AI monetization optionality rather than independently demonstrated incremental unit economics. Over the next 1-3 months, the key test is whether management commentary translates into raised FY revenue and operating-margin guides; absent that, positive initiation flow is likely to fade into profit-taking. QTWO is a cleaner small/mid-bank digitization exposure than a broad AI proxy, but its growth depends on bank technology budgets holding up as regional-bank funding costs normalize.

The contrarian setup is TSLA: autonomous-trucking economics are strategically meaningful over a 6-18 month horizon but too distant to support a near-term rerating without fleet orders, regulatory milestones, or disclosed paid-software attach rates. RKLB similarly offers asymmetric upside only if launch cadence and space-systems backlog convert into cash generation; it should not be grouped with profitable AI infrastructure beneficiaries. IP’s relative setup is more tangible: higher containerboard pricing can expand earnings quickly, but the same thesis is a direct headwind for SON’s packaging input costs and could compress SON’s relative multiple.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Initiate a 1-3 month pair: long ORCL / short PLTR. ORCL has identifiable OCI revenue-conversion catalysts and a lower dependence on terminal-value assumptions; PLTR is vulnerable if next results do not raise both revenue and margin guidance. Exit if ORCL OCI growth decelerates or PLTR reports material commercial-bookings acceleration.
• Accumulate LIN on weakness for a 6-18 month AI-capex and industrial-gas demand exposure; use a close below the prior quarterly low or evidence of electronics-volume deterioration as risk discipline. This is a lower-beta alternative to adding NVDA after positive sell-side flow.
• Long IP / short SON for 3-6 months, sized modestly. Rising containerboard prices create operating leverage for IP while raising SON’s input-cost burden; cover if containerboard benchmarks reverse or SON demonstrates successful price pass-through that protects EBITDA margins.
• Do not chase TSLA on trucking-software valuation until there is a disclosed commercial Semi order, paid FSD attach-rate evidence, or a regulatory deployment milestone. Treat those as alerts; absent them, the catalyst remains too long-dated relative to valuation risk.
• For DELL, buy only after validating AI-server gross-margin trajectory at the next earnings release; otherwise prefer ORCL exposure. A backlog increase without margin stabilization would confirm that supply-chain economics are accruing more to component vendors than to system integrators.