Arista, RTX, CoreWeave, Shopify, UNH Trending With Analysts

Analysts are intrested in these 5 stocks: ( (ANET) ), ( (RTX) ), ( (CRWV) ), ( (SHOP) ) and ( (UNH) ). Here is a breakdown of their recent ratings and the rationale behind them.

Arista Networks has moved back into the spotlight as analysts position 2026 as a “Year of Refresh” for data center hardware – and Arista as one of its prime beneficiaries. Piper Sandler’s James Fish upgraded the stock to Buy with a $159 price target, arguing that rising demand for switch refreshes, especially in large enterprise data centers and campus networks, is creating a favorable setup. Nearly half of Arista’s business already comes from “AI Titans” like Meta, Microsoft, and Oracle, and the analyst expects network spending to increase as capex gradually tilts toward connectivity rather than just GPUs and servers. While there are worries about competition from whitebox solutions and NVIDIA-centric alternatives, Fish notes that Arista’s order book, inventory commitments, and strong enterprise traction suggest planned deployments are firmly in place. With management’s history of conservative guidance and consistent upside on both sales and margins, the analyst views the 2026 outlook as deliberately cautious – leaving room for positive surprises if AI and cloud refresh cycles materialize as expected.

RTX, by contrast, is stepping off the “must-own” list as valuations catch up with improving fundamentals. UBS analyst Gavin Parsons downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold, saying the current price already reflects much of the good news around its Collins Aerospace and Raytheon defense businesses, as well as progress on the troubled geared turbofan (GTF) engines. RTX now trades around 19 times next-twelve-months EV/EBITDA, in line with aerospace and defense peers and at a near-record premium to the broader market – a level Parsons sees as fair, not cheap. Grounded aircraft due to powder metal contamination are finally trending down, and supply-chain bottlenecks are easing, but with roughly 30% of the affected fleet still on the ground, that risk isn’t fully behind the company. The analyst also notes that free cash flow expectations for 2026 may be too optimistic, and that a sum-of-the-parts view already assumes a premium multiple for Raytheon and only a modest discount for Pratt & Whitney. With the post-crisis discount to peers now closed, the new $199 price target reflects a more balanced risk/reward profile.

CoreWeave is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons, and the latest rating change underlines just how speculative the story has become. D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria upgraded the stock to Hold from Underperform and lifted the target price to $68, but the rationale is more about short-term trading dynamics than long-term value. Luria is unusually blunt: he still believes CoreWeave’s equity could ultimately go to zero, arguing that the business is effectively owned by its debt holders and that value destruction is baked into the model. The upgrade hinges on a single potential catalyst – a massive, $100 billion capital raise by OpenAI, which could temporarily support CoreWeave by funding its 2026 commitments. If the fundraising succeeds, it may “kick the can down the road,” delaying any reckoning and justifying today’s backlog-based valuation. But if OpenAI falls significantly short by March, Luria warns that CoreWeave’s share price could collapse faster. For investors, the message is stark: the stock may have tradable upside in the near term, but the long-term investment case remains deeply questionable.

Shopify, long a market darling, is hitting a more mature phase where high expectations may finally be catching up with reality. Wolfe Research’s Shweta Khajuria downgraded the stock to Hold, citing an increasingly “balanced” risk/reward after two years of sharp multiple expansion. Shopify continues to gain market share in e-commerce and payments, and its “Agentic Commerce” AI vision has excited the market, but Khajuria argues much of this promise is already priced into the shares. Her 2026 gross merchandise volume (GMV) forecast is slightly above consensus and still implies robust mid-20% to potentially ~30% growth, yet she sees limited room for upside because that kind of performance is already what investors are baking in. At the same time, she doesn’t expect significant improvement in free cash flow or operating margins, as management continues to pour money into AI, international expansion, and enterprise initiatives. The result is a stock that still represents a high-quality franchise, but one where future beats on growth or profitability have a high bar to clear before justifying further rerating.

UnitedHealth Group is being framed as a turnaround story with long-term upside, rather than a quick trade, by Evercore ISI’s Elizabeth Anderson, who initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a $400 price target. The analyst argues that 2026 will be more of a rebuilding year as the insurer and health-services giant works through operational issues, particularly within its Medicare Advantage and Optum businesses, but sees the heavy lifting paying off from 2027 onward. In Medicare Advantage, Anderson expects margins to gradually recover as UnitedHealth pushes through stronger pricing and benefits from more favorable government rates, targeting operating margins in the 3% range and improving over several years. Optum – the umbrella for its physician services, pharmacy benefit management, and data/analytics operations – is also seen as fixable, with new management focused on better pricing discipline after an overly aggressive growth phase. Medicaid operations, currently pressured, are expected to break even by 2028 as rates catch up and the company reassesses its state footprint. Taken together, Anderson believes UnitedHealth can return to mid-teens EPS growth in the long run, helped by steady revenue gains and disciplined capital deployment, making today’s valuation attractive for patient investors willing to hold through the transition.