Braze added to Conviction List and named Top Pick at Needham

Needham adds Braze (BRZE) to the firm’s Conviction List, replacing Salesforce (CRM). The firm also names the stock its Top Pick in Application Software while maintaining its Buy rating and $50 price target. Needham believes that the Customer Engagement/Marketing software space is likely the best sub-segment within Enterprise Software to monetize Gen AI functionality over the near term and believes that Braze’s target customer will generally benefit the most from adopting much of the new AI functionality in the Customer Engagement space, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Over 50 recent customer conversations suggest a high level of Pilot/proof-of-concept testing and demonstrative value creation that will likely collide with the expected new budget appropriations in 2026, the firm added.