AI Market Shifts: Analyst Moves on Apple, Meta, Tesla, and AMD

This week, major analyst firms made significant calls on AI-driven stocks, impacting Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), and AMD (NASDAQ:AMD).

Oppenheimer downgraded Apple from Outperform to Perform, citing weaker iPhone sales and rising competition in China. The firm cut its FY26 EPS estimate to $7.95 and expects revenue of $438 billion, down from $456 billion. Analysts remain skeptical about Apple’s AI-driven upgrade cycle, seeing limited upside at its current 29.2x valuation multiple.

Benchmark upgraded Meta to Buy with an $820 price target, citing AI-driven ad growth and operational efficiencies. The firm expects Meta’s AI engineering agents to drive innovation and forecasts its U.S. ad market share to reach 24.3% in 2025. Revenue estimates for 2025 were raised to $190.9 billion, with cost guidance remaining at the lower end of projections.

Piper Sandler reaffirmed an Overweight rating on Tesla, dismissing concerns about DeepSeek’s AI advancements. The firm highlighted Tesla’s advantage in camera-based AI and Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology, noting Chinese automakers lag behind by 5-10 years. Tesla’s fleet-generated data remains a competitive edge in autonomous driving.

Melius Research downgraded AMD to Hold, cutting its price target to $129. Analysts warned that Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) Arm-based CPUs could disrupt AMD’s market share, with MI300X GPUs facing adoption challenges. AMD’s long-term growth forecast was lowered, with expectations of only 3% PC CPU revenue growth by 2027.

Wedbush’s Dan Ives dismissed DeepSeek’s AI as a minimal threat, reaffirming confidence in Nvidia, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL). He sees the sell-off as a buying opportunity, emphasizing the dominance of U.S. AI firms in enterprise applications and infrastructure.

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