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CoreWeave Inc CRWV shares are advancing Monday. A Wall Street analyst stood firmly behind the AI cloud infrastructure company, raising his spending estimate and pushing back against the competitive narrative that has been dragging on the stock. Here’s what you should know.
- CoreWeave stock is gaining positive traction. Why are CRWV shares climbing?
BofA Reiterates Buy and Pushes Back on Competition Concerns
BofA Securities analyst Tal Liani reaffirmed a Buy rating and maintained a price target of $140, a level that sits more than 91% above where the stock currently trades.
The centerpiece of Liani’s argument was a direct rebuttal of the bearish case that has been building around CoreWeave as SpaceX and Meta expand their own computing footprints. Liani’s counter is straightforward: the AI compute market cannot be described as structurally competitive when the gap between what customers need and what the industry can actually deliver remains as wide as it is.
In that environment, he argued, the question customers are asking is not which provider to choose but whether any provider can get them the capacity they need at all, a reality that shields CoreWeave from the margin erosion that genuine competition would bring.
Liani Projects Higher Capex And Strong Margin Recovery Through Year‑End
On the financial side, Liani increased his full year 2026 capital expenditure forecast to $34 billion from a prior estimate of $29 billion, reflecting the speed at which the company is putting infrastructure in the ground. He expects the second quarter to show an operating margin of 2.4%, a touch below the Wall Street consensus of 2.8%, but framed that as a temporary gap rather than a structural concern.
From there, the analyst sees margins expanding steadily with each passing quarter as incremental power capacity comes online and translates into recognized revenue. By the time the fourth quarter closes, he projects an operating margin of 14.6%, a dramatic improvement from the 1.0% posted in the first quarter, reflecting the operating leverage embedded in a business that has been absorbing heavy upfront infrastructure costs ahead of the revenue they will eventually generate.
CRWV Shares Are Climbing
CRWV Price Action: CoreWeave shares were up 1.80% at $74.53 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro.
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This article CoreWeave Stock Moves Higher: What's Happening Today? originally appeared on Benzinga.com.
