The AI boom of the past few years has been radically transforming the business landscape, and we’re only just beginning to see how it will all shape up. From customer service applications to industrial processes, AI has reshaped how organizations operate. It has given rise to machine learning, advanced automation, and real-time data analysis, driving efficiency and insight at a scale once unimaginable. Yet, as powerful as these tools are, the real revolution may still lie ahead.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
That next leap forward appears to be agentic AI. This emerging paradigm marks a shift from rules-based operations and decision-making to systems capable of autonomous activity, and the implications are staggering. Earlier digital technology gave us cloud computing and IoT; AI, as noted, brought task automation into the mix; and now agentic AI promises to introduce independent software agents that can learn continuously, interact with their environment and with each other, and coordinate workflows – all without human supervision.
The implications are tremendous, and writing for Barclays, analyst Guy Hardwick lays out just where this can take us.
“We believe that agentic AI can be transformative for industrial companies and industrial tech is among the best routes to investing in the rise of agentic AI, just as Industry 4.0 was an investment opportunity in digitization. Companies providing components to datacenters are already reaping the rewards of this transformation, in our view, and we expect the beneficiaries to broaden from advanced GenAI investment, including AI agents that improve processes and productivity, which we believe should be positive for industrial margins,” Hardwick noted.
Hardwick follows from this premise to recommend two industrial tech stocks as top plays in the emerging world of agentic AI. We’ve opened up the TipRanks database to see how his picks stack up on Wall Street. Let’s dive in.
Manhattan Associates (MANH)
The first Barclay pick on our list, Manhattan Associates, is a global leader in industrial technology. Specifically, the company works in the fields of supply chain and omnichannel commerce, offering enterprise customers a software platform and related technology designed to merge the needs of front-end sales and back-end supply chain execution. These are vital areas for any business, and by putting them in harness together, Manhattan Associates helps its customers to boost both total revenues and bottom-line profits.
Manhattan Associates’ platform lets users manage every aspect of their supply and omnichannel marketing, unifying the experience for customers and connecting every aspect of the back-office operation. The company has long made use of AI tech to automate these processes, and today is moving to integrate agentic AI into the mix.
The company’s Agent Foundry, established in the second half of this year, gives subscription users access to a wide range of commercial and reference AI agents, and also allows Manhattan Active customers to quickly and easily build new agents to meet their own unique needs. Developers can use existing agents as a template, or create new agents from the ground up; either way, the addition of agentic AI brings greater autonomy to supply chain operations.
Adding agentic AI to the platform brings a suite of advantages to the company’s customers, and Manhattan Associates lays them out clearly. These include a better user experience for subscription customers, faster time to market for customers’ products, consequent improvements in human productivity, and more accurate real-time data analysis to tie it all together.
Before looking at Manhattan Associates’ last quarterly report, covering 2Q25, we should note that the stock dropped sharply earlier this year, in the wake of the 4Q24 report. While that report beat top and bottom line expectations, the company also reduced revenue and earnings guidance for the full fiscal year 2025. The stock is down 23% for the year-to-date – even after seeing a boost from the 2Q25 results.
That most recent financial report showed a top line of $272.4 million, beating the forecast by $8.68 million and growing 2.7% year-over-year. At the bottom line, the company reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.31 per share, 18 cents per share better than had been forecast and an increase from the $1.18 reported in the prior-year period.
Analyst Hardwick, writing for Barclays, explains how this firm’s work with agentic AI is likely to bring continued gains, as it builds on the company’s existing lead in its niche. He writes, “MANH is the leader in Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) software. Due to its superior product suite as well as its cloud-native platform, and with agentic AI enhancements ramping in 4Q, we believe MANH will maintain its market leadership in the WMS market. The company is successfully cross-selling into its WMS customer base, gaining share in other products including transportation management systems (TMS) and supply chain planning. MANH is approaching a major renewal cycle in 2026, which poses a significant opportunity for cross-selling. Furthermore, MANH is already seeing the productivity benefits of agentic AI internally, which is enabling it to improve its leverage over R&D spending.”
Hardwick puts an Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating on the stock, and his $247 price target implies a one-year upside potential of 18%. (To watch Hardwick’s track record, click here)
Overall, MANH shares have earned a Moderate Buy from the analyst consensus, based on 10 recent reviews that include 7 Buys, 2 Holds, and 1 Sell. The stock is priced at $208.9 and its $233.25 average target price points toward a gain of 12% over the next year. (See MANH stock forecast)
Trimble (TRMB)
The second stock we’ll look at here is Trimble. This Barclay pick is a tech company that focuses on the interconnections in the industrial world. Trimble develops and delivers high-tech solutions for a wide range of urgent needs: surveying and mapping; supply chain tracking and safety; financial management; 3D modeling; fabrication planning and management; and project management. The company’s core technologies are active in positioning, modeling, connectivity, and data analytics – just the fields needed for industrial concerns to develop effective and efficient operations.
In short, Trimble gives its customers the tools they need to measure, build, and grow while moving goods and providing services. Trimble makes it possible to connect the digital and physical worlds, to realize improvements in productivity, transparency, quality, and safety.
Trimble has long been a leader in fields such as laser measurement and geospatial positioning, but more recently the company has been shifting its stance to emphasize its capabilities in software platforms and AI. Trimble has been integrating AI into its hardware and software systems to transform workflows and capabilities in such fields as agriculture, transportation, and construction. The company’s AI allows for automation in procurement and quotation systems, generating greater efficiency in the shipping business and it can also assist in field system decision-making in a variety of other industrial sectors.
Turning to the financial side, we find that Trimble generated $875.7 million in revenues during 2Q25, the last period reported. This figure was flat year-over-year, but it was $40.7 million better than had been anticipated. At the bottom line, Trimble’s earnings, by non-GAAP measures, came to 71 cents per share, beating the forecast by 8 cents per share. Trimble reported annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $2.21 billion at the end of Q2, for a 5% year-over-year increase. We should note here that TRMB shares are up 14% so far this year; while this is a decent gain, the stock is lagging the 19.5% year-to-date gain on the NASDAQ index.
In his coverage of this stock for Barclays, Hardwick notes the low valuation and goes on to lay out a bullish case for the stock. Hardwick says of Trimble, “In our view, the TRMB investment thesis is not fully appreciated by investors as the company continues to transform its business model from a hardware-centric positioning technology (GPS) company into a software solutions provider. Importantly, with two major divestments in the rear view mirror, software and services account for 79% of company revenue (as of 2Q25), while recurring revenue is now 63% of total sales. We believe TRMB should reach or exceed its 2027 ‘3-4-30’ targets of $3B in annualized recurring revenue (ARR), $4B in sales and 30% EBITDA margin… As TRMB moves closer to achieving the Rule of 40 at the company level and narrowing the gap to SaaS peers, we believe the valuation discount to peers will narrow.”
For Hardwick, this adds up to an Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating. His price target on the stock, $100, suggests an upside for the coming year of 24%.
The analyst consensus here is a Strong Buy, based on 9 reviews that break down 8 to 1 in favor of Buy over Hold. The stock has a trading price of $80.47, and its $95 average target price indicates room for a gain of 18% on the one-year horizon. (See TRMB stock forecast)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analyst. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.