Stifel maintained a Buy rating and left its price target unchanged at $160.00 for Datadog Inc. (NASDAQ: DDOG) following the cloud observability provider's analyst day last Thursday. The firm noted that the target implies material upside relative to the then-current share price of $122.78, with analyst price targets reported across a range from $121 to $260.
In its take on the event, Stifel focused on management's discussion of expanding revenue opportunities driven by both established and newer product sets and by selling motions that prioritize a user-centric monitoring approach. Executives presented plans to extend what they described as "closing the loop" from production environments back into the software development life cycle, to support bring-your-own-cloud deployments and to apply artificial intelligence to speed remediation and increase platform autonomy.
Those strategic elements align with Datadog's recent top-line performance: 27.7% revenue growth over the trailing twelve months and a five-year compound annual growth rate in revenue of 42%, figures Stifel used to contextualize the company's growth trajectory.
Management also outlined tangible investments to widen the company's go-to-market coverage in under-penetrated areas. The company said it is directing resources toward new geographies, expanding its channel ecosystem and beefing up account teams, while placing greater emphasis on larger enterprise customers. Stifel pointed to Datadog's near-80% gross profit margin as a structural advantage that supports these investments, identifying margin strength as one of the company's notable financial characteristics.
On profitability goals, Datadog reiterated a long-term operating-margin target exceeding 25%. The company framed this target as achievable given the expected returns from sales and marketing and research and development spending. Datadog has already posted profitability on a trailing-twelve-month basis, reporting a basic earnings per share of $0.31 for that period.
Stifel emphasized that the primary product portfolio still offers a lengthy runway and that newer offerings and selling motions present meaningful additional potential. Specific growth areas called out include digital experience monitoring, security, and capabilities tied to the software development life cycle. Stifel believes that sustained investment in sales and marketing, together with a broader go-to-market approach, positions Datadog to sustain growth above 20% annually. This outlook sits alongside analyst consensus expecting roughly 19% revenue growth in the upcoming fiscal year.
Financial flexibility was another point noted by Stifel and reiterated in related analyst commentary: Datadog carries more cash than debt on its balance sheet, which provides optionality to fund continued product development and go-to-market expansion.
Other broker-dealer notes published around the same analyst day provide a mix of perspectives. Canaccord Genuity highlighted continued revenue acceleration for Datadog, reporting a 29% year-over-year revenue increase for the most recent quarter and noting that the infrastructure, application performance monitoring and logs products each exceeded $1 billion in annual recurring revenue. Scotiabank kept a Sector Outperform stance but lowered its price target from $180 to $160, pointing to valuation considerations despite favorable 2026 revenue guidance and flagging a high‑seven-figure or low‑eight-figure deal with AI firm Anthropic as evidence of Datadog's strength in cloud-native observability.
DA Davidson reiterated a Buy rating and set a $225 price target, citing conviction in the platform direction and a push toward autonomous observability. BMO Capital Markets held an Outperform rating with a $165 target, acknowledging competitive risks introduced by AI yet remaining constructive on Datadog's market position. Citizens (formerly Raymond James analysts) restated a Market Perform rating while noting satisfaction with growth across Datadog's three observability pillars.
Collectively, these broker notes underscore a range of valuation viewpoints and differing emphasis on competitive risk, even as multiple firms highlight the company’s strong revenue momentum and platform expansion.