Analysts’ New AI Stock Rating System Reveals These Winners and Losers

Ticker: PSTG

12-month return: +25%

William Blair’s score: 19 out of 20

Everpure, formerly Pure Storage, came in with the highest score in the analyst’s coverage universe. The storage and data management platform maker lost only one point in the pricing model criteria, with perfect fives across the board for all other metrics.

Ticker: DOCN

12-month return: +126%

William Blair’s score: 19 out of 20

DigitalOcean is the only other stock that William Blair gave a nearly perfect score. The cloud service provider lost one point on its ability to execute.

Ticker: SNOW

12-month return: +5%

William Blair’s score: 17 out of 20

Snowflake, another data platform provider, received a lower score than other top-rated peers, but still made it into William Blair’s outperform list. The company received four out of five for its ability to execute, AI defensibility, and likelihood of organic revenue acceleration, and a perfect five score on its pricing model.

Ticker: MDB

12-month return: +40%

William Blair’s score: 16 out of 20

MongoDB, a cloud database company, scored 4 out of 5 across all criteria, with an overall score of 16 that just meets William Blair’s outperform rating.

Ticker: RBRK

12-month return: -28%

William Blair’s score: 16 out of 20

Rubrik’s overall score tied with MongoDB, receiving an outperform rating, but it’s criteria specific scoring was more complicated. The data security platform company had a perfect score on its ability to execute, but received fours on AI defensibility and its pricing model, and a three on its likelihood of organic revenue acceleration.

Ticker: MSFT

12 month return: -4%

William Blair’s score: 16 out of 20

Microsoft scored perfect fives on its ability to execute and AI defensibility, but was dinged with threes for its pricing model and likelihood of organic revenue acceleration.

The stock has been named in other firms’ recent top stock picks, including Jefferies, Wedbush, JPMorgan, and DA Davidson.

Ticker: FROG

12-month return: +27%

William Blair’s score: 16 out of 20

JFrog, a software supply chain solution provider, scored perfectly on its ability to execute, but was given fours for AI defensibility and its pricing model, and a three for likelihood of organic revenue acceleration.

Like Microsoft, JFrog was among JPMorgan analysts’ top stock picks after the AI sell-off.

Ticker: BLZE

12-month return: -33%

William Blair’s score: 10 out of 20

Backblaze was downgraded to an underperform rating based on the new ratings system. A score of 10 classifies a stock as underperform in William Blair’s view. The analysts said the stock is highly exposed to risks given its status as a pure-play in cloud storage.

Ticker: NABL

12-month return: -35%

William Blair’s score: 10 out of 20

N-able was also downgraded to underperform, with William Blair saying the “low cumulative score reflects an uneven execution track record, a largely seat-based pricing model, and questionable prospects for organic revenue growth acceleration.”

Ticker: GTLB

12-month return: -58%

William Blair’s score: 9 out of 20

Gitlab was downgraded to underperform, with the analysts saying the company’s low score reflects concerns across all criteria considered.

Ticker: DBX

12-month return: -11%

William Blair’s score: 8 out of 20

DropBox was the lowest-scoring stock in William Blair’s coverage, causing the analysts to downgrade it to underperform. They flagged structural growth challenges, ongoing execution issues, its seat-based pricing model, and unproven AI tools.