Here is a consolidated recap of the principal analyst calls from Wall Street over the past week, focusing on valuation moves, demand signals, and the specific forecasts driving each recommendation.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) - Upgrade to Buy
TLDR: Aletheia raised Nvidia to Buy with a $250 price target, citing accelerating demand and inventory normalization.
Full story: Aletheia moved NVDA from Hold to Buy and set a $250 target, referencing a 25x multiple on average FY27/28 PER. The firm argues that previously concerning inventory buildups in channel and slow rack deployments will normalize starting in F4Q26E, driven by rapid module construction and a pickup in rack shipments. Industry compute capital expenditure is projected to surge 75% year-over-year to approximately $530 billion, with Nvidia and the TPU ecosystem capturing the largest share of that spending.
Aletheia expects Nvidia’s data-center revenue to approach $475 billion over F3Q26–F4Q27E, coming close to Nvidia’s own $500 billion projection. The analyst house anticipates that F4Q26E results and F1Q27E guidance will significantly beat consensus expectations. The note also states that even a reduction in OAI capex would not materially alter the outlook because other major cloud and enterprise buyers - Oracle, Microsoft, AWS, and AMD - still represent substantial demand.
Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) - Upgrade to Buy
TLDR: Loop Capital upgraded Qualcomm to Buy and set a $185 target, highlighting diversification and a recovery in end-markets.
Full story: Loop Capital framed Qualcomm as a name that has underperformed while AI-focused names have outpaced the market. The note emphasizes that Qualcomm lacks a data-center halo today, and that the stock has declined across multiple timeframes - year-to-date, one-year, three-year and five-year - contributing to a difficult near-term performance this year.
Loop lays out a path to recovery in which memory constraints ease and smartphone demand stabilizes. The firm expects next year that Samsung’s orders will settle at a 75% share, rather than the prior 100% level, and that Apple-related chip exposure will fall to below 10% of revenue. Loop projects that Automotive and IoT sales will grow to rival or exceed handset revenue by FY29, marking a material diversification milestone for Qualcomm. The analyst concludes that recent price weakness - including a roughly 20% year-to-date decline - represents a buying opportunity for investors willing to look past current volatility.
IBM (NYSE:IBM) - Upgrade to Neutral
TLDR: UBS moved IBM to Neutral with a $236 price target, pointing to valuation support and durable platform advantages.
Full story: UBS notes that IBM endured a roughly 22% decline in CY26 and has lagged the S&P by nearly 27% over the previous year following a sequence of uneven quarters. Despite that underperformance, UBS argues the current valuation - about 18.5x CY26 EPS and roughly 17.5x CY27 EPS - implies a fair entry point for a company capable of delivering roughly 3-4% organic growth.
The report stresses that PBS-era criticisms about AI displacing legacy systems understate the IBM mainframe Z platform’s advantages: customer lock-in, data sovereignty, and encryption capabilities described as quantum-safe. UBS points to a 7% free cash flow yield as evidence that the risk-reward is no longer skewed aggressively to the downside, prompting the upgrade from Sell to Neutral. The note includes a literary quotation reflecting resilience: “I am hurt, but I am not slain; I’ll lay me down and bleed a-while, And then I’ll rise and fight again" - Thomas Moore.
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) - Upgrade to Buy
TLDR: Truist upgraded U.S. Bancorp to Buy and raised its EPS outlook, flagging an attractive valuation.
Full story: Truist increased its EPS estimate for U.S. Bancorp to $5.70 for 2027, a roughly 3% increase versus prior expectations, and above consensus. The analyst sees improving net interest margins and a loosening of capital constraints as supportive of upside to profitability. Shares trade at below 10x the new 2027 EPS estimate and at about 1.7x tangible book value, metrics the analyst interprets as compelling relative value as the bank transitions from defense to offense.
The Truist note places emphasis on the potential for operating leverage to persist, the balance sheet to regain flexibility, and net interest margin to move higher, all of which underpins the move to Buy and a $66 price target.
Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) - Upgrade to Buy
TLDR: UBS upgraded Palantir to Buy with a $180 target after the stock fell significantly from its highs.
Full story: UBS flagged Palantir as having declined about 35% from its peak and trading at approximately 50x 2027 free cash flow, which the firm characterizes as undemanding given the company’s growth profile. UBS highlighted an expected 70% revenue increase in 2026 and margins in the mid-50% range. The note describes demand as exceptional, with a stream of new logos, expanding use cases, and continued industry interest focused on AI and data spend.
UBS framed the valuation as having compressed to roughly 1x projected growth if a 50% compound annual growth rate is maintained, supporting an upgrade from Neutral to Buy. The firm presented the recent pullback not as a failure but as an opportunity to accumulate shares ahead of a potential return of investor interest in 2026.
Bottom line
This week’s analyst moves clustered around several themes: an acceleration in AI and data-center related capital expenditure, structural diversification in mobile and automotive for chip suppliers, valuation-driven upgrades in legacy enterprise software, and renewed conviction in specific software and financial names as fundamentals or multiples improved. Each upgrade reflects a distinct narrative - demand reacceleration for Nvidia, longer-term revenue diversification for Qualcomm, valuation discipline and moat resilience for IBM, margin and capital improvement for U.S. Bancorp, and sustained high-growth economics for Palantir.
What sectors are most affected?
- Semiconductors and AI infrastructure - Nvidia and Qualcomm
- Enterprise software and data analytics - IBM and Palantir
- Financials and regional banking - U.S. Bancorp
The notes above summarize each analyst house’s core reasoning and the specific numeric assumptions called out in their published research.