Rating Quick Look | NVIDIA's explosive performance, but the target price has been significantly lowered?! Salesforce emerges as the top software stock.

• UBS Group AG: Lowered NVIDIA's target price from $850 to $800, but maintained a "Buy" rating.

UBS Group AG pointed out that NVIDIA's last quarter earnings and future growth guidance exceeded market expectations by about $2 billion. The management revealed strong demand for the new product B100. Although some in the market believe that the performance guidance only meets expectations or even slightly below some investors' expectations, UBS Group AG believes that NVIDIA's conservative attitude during the product transformation process is reasonable. They also mentioned that the company's revenue has exceeded expectations by $2 billion in the past three quarters, reaching the upper limit of market expectations.

Regarding artificial intelligence, UBS Group AG believes that NVIDIA's development in this field is still in the early stages. They think that it may be too early to be cautious about NVIDIA as the actual global AI platform.

UBS Group AG also analyzed factors such as the quarterly decline in NVIDIA's total supply and rising operating costs, predicting that revenue in the next few quarters may slow down to a near-stable state. They will closely monitor the development of relevant factors and have lowered the earnings forecast per share for the fiscal years 2025 and 2026 by 7% to reflect the possibility of revenue growth slowing down.

• HSBC: Raised NVIDIA's target price from $835 to $880.

• Bank of America: Reiterated a "Buy" rating for Salesforce and listed it as a top pick, with the target price raised to $350.

The channel indicates healthy demand in the fourth quarter, with an expected annual growth of 10% in remaining performance obligations (cRPO) for Salesforce. Additionally, the bank remains optimistic about the expected 12% total revenue growth for the fiscal year 2025. With a continued focus on profit growth and efficiency improvement, they maintain an optimistic forecast of a 32% operating profit margin for the fiscal year 2025, implying a 150 basis point expansion in profit margin.

The bank believes that Salesforce is becoming the next high-quality GARP (Growth at a Reasonable Price) stock in the software sector. With accelerated free cash flow growth, the stock price is expected to continue to rise.

• Credit Suisse: Reiterated a "Buy" rating for Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), with the target price lowered from HK$369 to HK$297.

HKEX is expected to announce its full-year performance on February 29th, with a projected 5% year-on-year decrease in net profit after tax for the last quarter due to the market downturn. The bank predicts a 20% increase, 1% decrease, and 4% increase in earnings per share for the years 2023 to 2025, respectively. The report anticipates that the management will address investors' concerns about sluggish trading, market skepticism about HKEX's valuation premium, and more.

Despite lowering the target price from HK$369 to HK$297, the bank reiterated a "Buy" rating for HKEX, citing its defensive profitability, improved return on investment, and relatively low valuation demand.