Wells Fargo analyst Michael Turrin raised the price target for CoreWeave, Inc. from $135 to $155 while maintaining an Overweight rating. This move follows CoreWeave's release of its Q1 2026 earnings report, which showed revenue exceeding market expectations but provided Q2 guidance that fell short, leading to a significant stock price decline.
In his research note, Turrin directly addressed the current discrepancy: "First-quarter performance was solid, but the company's Q2 revenue guidance and revised full-year outlook fell below expectations, putting pressure on the equity return thesis. Performance realization is now highly dependent on the second half. However, CoreWeave's business execution remains robust, currently holding a $100 billion order backlog with over 1 gigawatt of active computing capacity."
It was reported that, one week prior to the earnings release, Wells Fargo had already raised its price target from $125 to $135. Turrin believed at that time that the company's Q1 achievement of $63.9 billion in signed orders and updated timelines for GPU deliveries to OpenAI would be key catalysts moving forward.
CoreWeave's Q1 Report Shines, Q2 Guidance Disappoints, Sparking Market Volatility CoreWeave reported Q1 2026 revenue of $2.078 billion, surpassing the Refinitiv market consensus estimate of $2.013 billion. However, profitability missed expectations: adjusted loss per share was $1.11, higher than the market expectation of a $0.87 loss per share. The report indicated the widening loss was primarily due to soaring infrastructure costs.
The real trigger for the market sell-off was the Q2 performance guidance. The company expects Q2 revenue to be between $2.45 billion and $2.6 billion, with a midpoint of $2.53 billion, significantly below the market expectation of $2.69 billion. Furthermore, the company maintained its full-year revenue guidance of $12 billion to $13 billion without an upward revision, raising investor concerns about performance being overly concentrated in the second half.
CEO Mike Intrator disagreed with the market's short-term-focused interpretation. In an interview, he stated, "People always focus on the individual trees but miss the entire forest. On a macro level, the U.S. economy is undergoing a massive structural shift, and a large number of top tech companies are highly dependent on AI computing infrastructure. That is the core trend." He also stated directly that the company has entered the ranks of hyperscale computing service providers, with 10 clients currently committed to spending at least $1 billion annually on computing power and related products from CoreWeave.
Wells Fargo Raises Target Price Against the Trend Facing the sharp stock decline, most analysts chose to adopt a wait-and-see approach or downgrade CoreWeave. Wells Fargo, however, raised its price target against the prevailing sentiment, a rare stance.
Wells Fargo's decision to raise the target price after the disappointing guidance indicates it places greater emphasis on long-term core fundamentals: the company holds $99.4 billion in revenue backlog orders, with total contracted computing capacity reaching 3.5 gigawatts, and plans to achieve over $30 billion in annualized revenue by the end of 2027.
Under this logic, the weak Q2 guidance is seen merely as a timing mismatch for earnings recognition, not a structural deterioration of fundamentals. The average contract duration for the company's existing backlog is as long as five years, meaning the associated revenue is already locked in but not yet recognized.
Turrin also clearly highlighted risks in his report: the pressure to deliver on 2026 performance will be highly concentrated in the second half. Internal investor relations data shows Q2 operating profit guidance is only $30 to $90 million, with a full-year operating profit target of $900 million to $1.1 billion, implying the vast majority of profits will be realized in the second half.
The Balance Sheet Risk the Market is Pricing Bullish investors primarily bet on the company's massive order backlog and the long-term demand thesis for AI computing power; bearish investors focus on the operational pressure from high expansion costs. Data shows that after raising $8.5 billion in new financing in Q1, the company's total debt has reached approximately $25 billion, with Q2 capital expenditure guidance alone as high as $7 billion to $9 billion.
NVIDIA's continued share purchases provide some confidence support: the chip giant invested an additional $2 billion in the company during Q1, demonstrating confidence in its growth prospects and further securing its own GPU supply channels.
However, NVIDIA's endorsement cannot change the core contradiction: the company's expenditures far exceed its revenue as it aggressively ramps up computing capacity to keep pace with industry demand.
Wells Fargo is betting that industry demand will materialize as expected and that operating profit will rebound significantly in the second half. Issuing a $155 price target suggests that, even with uncertainties, the institution still believes the stock's risk-reward profile is attractive. The median Wall Street price target is only $125, indicating not all investment banks share this optimistic view.
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