Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan upgraded Cerence Inc. from Equal-Weight to Overweight and an $85 price target, down from $91, implying a 15 percent upside.
Langan noted Cerence is down about 50 percent from its high and 34 percent since reporting FY21 results and guiding below consensus for FY22.
On the heels of the cautious FY22 guidance, Cerence announced a sudden change in leadership, promoting Stefan Ortmanns to CEO.
With the terrible news seemingly priced in, Cerence is now trading at 7x FY22 EV/Sales, a discount to SaaS peers at 10.6x.
Langan highlights that Cerence is trading at 14x FY23 EBITDA, in line with growth auto parts, yet Cerence has higher margins and long-term growth than these names.
Additionally, Toyota Motor Corp.’s TMNA chose Cerence Browse, an AI-powered, cloud-based content domain, to bring the power and intelligence of internet search engines directly into Toyota and Lexus vehicles in its next-generation multimedia system. TMNA is the first automaker to deploy Cerence’s new cloud service.
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