Shares of Jabil stock advanced Tuesday after receiving an upgrade to Buy as Wall Street sees the unconventional artificial-intelligence company receiving a big boost in the coming years from Big Tech's AI investments.
Jabil stock advanced 3.4% to $348.22 on Tuesday and is on pace to end a two-day losing streak. The move placed the stock among the best performing components in the S&P 500, which declined 0.1%.
Investors pushed the stock higher after UBS analyst David Vogt upgraded Jabil to Buy from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $430, which implies 22% upside from current trading levels.
"We upgrade Jabil to Buy on a multi-year growth cycle fueled by AI investment from Amazon, Meta, and Google," Vogt wrote, adding that rising health care demand and "scaling automation and robotics markets" will also be tailwinds for the company.
Vogt forecasts Jabil's AI-related revenue growing by about 50% to $20.3 billion in fiscal 2027. That's up from $13.5 billion in fiscal 2026.
The firm added, however, that "product road maps" from key customers like Amazon.com, Meta Platforms, and Alphabet could mean potentially faster growth than previously expected.
Amazon is the key for Jabil, according to UBS.
"Amazon, Jabil's largest AI partner, plans to accelerate deployment of its Graviton CPUs and Trainium AI ASICs over the next several years," Vogt wrote.
Jabil has become a key " picks and shovels" play in the broader AI sector -- a far cry from its roots in assembling and repairing printed circuit boards. While the company doesn't make its own chips, it manufactures the physical rack-scale servers, networking gear, and cooling solutions that factor into data centers.
Shares have gained 54% this year and have advanced 53% over the past 12 months.
Jabil in June hiked its fiscal-year profit guidance to $12.70 a share from $12.25, while bumping its revenue outlook to roughly $35 billion from $34 billion.
Management cited better-than-expected performance in areas of the portfolio that had previously come under pressure, notably its automotive segment and connected living business, which centers on components found in smart home appliances.
But AI has been the big growth engine for both the stock and the business.
UBS, by all accounts, sees that continuing.
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