By Tae Kim

Credo Technology Group Holding is an attractive way to benefit from the artificial-intelligence wave, according to Needham.

On Friday, analyst N. Quinn Bolton reaffirmed his Buy rating and $220 price target for Credo shares and made the company's stock a "Top Pick" for 2026.

Credo invented the AEC, which is a copper-based cable used to attach AI servers to networking switches. AECs are more reliable and consume less power than optical cables and can be used for longer distances than traditional passive copper cables.

"We encourage investors to Buy Credo on recent weakness and to focus on the signal in the current noise," he wrote. "With significant near-term opportunities ahead as AEC adoption proliferates across hyperscalers and as new products ramp to production, we expect Credo to beat current consensus estimates."

In early trading Friday, Credo stock was up about 11% to $156.60.

Bolton predicts Credo's strong future performance will drive the valuation multiple to 40 times to 50 times earnings, which will result in a share price of $200 to $250. He played down recent fears Credo will lose market share.

"We see broadening adoption of AECs across other hyperscalers including xAI, Meta and Oracle," the analyst wrote.

Credo shares have surged more 100% over the last year versus the 46% gain for iShares Semiconductor exchange-traded fund.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com

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January 09, 2026 12:25 ET (17:25 GMT)

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