Customer relationship manager HubSpot could see “another leg of growth” from artificial intelligence, according to Bank of America. “AI interest is palpable,” analyst Brad Sills wrote in a Friday note. “We view HubSpot as the winner in the vast SMB front office applications category, with the leading platform, channel and brand.” The analyst reiterated his buy rating on shares and named it a top pick. He raised his price target to $635 from $530, which implies almost 16% upside from Thursday’s close. Sills anticipates the cloud-based company will see share gains from its “compelling” competitive advantages. The company’s innovative inbound marketing approach, breadth of offerings and large and rising channel of digital marketing partners could sustain revenue growth topping 20% in the coming years, according to Sills. “HubSpot is a natural AI play, with the largest data set (1bn+ transactions and 177,000 customers) residing in one organically built platform, enabling rapid development of AI offerings,” Sills said. Although shares have surged 92% year to date, Bank of America believes the stock is still trading at a discount relative to the large-cap software group. Shares gained an additional 0.8% Friday morning. —CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
