Robotics and Automation

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UiPath (PATH) - >>> 3 Artificial Intelligence Stocks Leading the New Wave


TipRanks

December 6, 2021


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-artificial-intelligence-stocks-leading-102641095.html


Let’s start off with UiPath, an AI company specializing in robotic process automation, or RPA. This is a clever hill in the larger AI field, using machine learning and AI to create bots – the automated software units that can handle the ordinary, boring, and repetitive tasks of the digital world. Or, as the company puts it, they’re robots so that people don’t have to be robots.

UiPath’s software robots offer customers a wide range of advantages, from accuracy to cost savings, to regulatory compliance to happier customers – and happier personnel, with improved productivity. While bots get a lot of negative press, especially for their abusive use in social media, when used constructively, they fill an important role.

The company has been in operation since 2005, but went public earlier this year, riding the tide of rising stock prices when it held its IPO. The stock opened on the NYSE on April 21, in an upsized IPO. The company put 13 million shares up, and existing shareholders sold another 14.474 million shares. The initial price was set at $56, above the $43 to $50 range expected. UiPath realized $728 million of the total $1.34 billion raised; the company did not profit from the sale by existing stockholders. Since the event, PATH shares have slipped 36%. Even so, the company has a market cap above $22.76 billion.

UiPath will report its third quarterly results as a public entity on December 8, but we can check back to the last quarter, the company’s fiscal 2Q22 report from September 7, to get an idea of where it stands. The company reported total revenue of $195.5 million, up 4.8% sequentially and 40% yoy. Annual recurring revenue, a measure of forward business potential, rose to $726.5 million, a gain of 60%, and the company finished its fiscal Q2 with $1.9 billion in liquid assets.

This company’s strong product and clear revenue potential attracted the attention of Credit Suisse analyst Phil Winslow, who wrote, “We believe that UiPath’s differentiated, end-to-end hyperautomation platform that can scale from individual workers to company-wide initiatives will enable the company to continue driving strong new customer acquisition, robust customer expansion, and attractive unit economics longer than Wall Street appreciates.”

Winslow, a 5-star analyst, gave the stock an Outperform (Buy) rating, and a $75 price target suggesting a one-year upside of 69%. (To watch Winslow’s track record, click here.)

With UiPath, we move to a stock with a Buy rating from the analysts. The 16 most recent reviews include 7 Buys, 8 Holds, and 1 Sell, for a Moderate Buy overall consensus. The average price target is $70.43, indicating a potential for 59% growth from the share price of $44.32. (See UiPath’s stock analysis at TipRanks.)

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