NEBIUS (NBIS) shares experienced a significant pre-market plunge of 5.04% on Thursday, as investor sentiment turned negative following recent analyst actions and broader market dynamics.

The sharp decline was triggered by BNP Paribas initiating coverage on the AI infrastructure services firm with a Neutral rating and a $255 price target. Analysts led by Stefan Slowinski noted that NEBIUS's year-to-date surge of over 210% has compressed near-term upside potential, leaving limited room for further gains despite the stock's popularity as a bet on AI compute scarcity. This cautious stance was echoed by prior warnings from investment bank D.A. Davidson.

Adding to the pressure, the Systems Software sector faced broad-based selling, with notable declines in peers like CrowdStrike Holdings, Oracle, Palo Alto Networks, and ServiceNow. The sector-wide weakness amplified the pullback in NEBIUS shares through correlation effects. BNP Paribas simultaneously gave competitor CoreWeave an Outperform rating, further highlighting the relative caution on NEBIUS at its current elevated valuation levels.