By Kit Norton

Shares of GlobalFoundries advanced Monday after the chip manufacturer received a bullish upgrade based on expectations of solid profit growth through the end of the decade.

A Cantor Fitzgerald analyst team, led by C.J. Muse, on Monday upgraded GlobalFoundries to Overweight from Neutral and hiked its price target to $80 from $50, looking past the company's first-quarter earnings on Tuesday with its attention squarely on the company's investor day event later this week.

GlobalFoundries stock jumped 5.3% to $68.32 on Monday. The chip stock has surged 95% this year. For comparison, the S&P 500 has risen 5.7% in 2026 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 2.6%.

Muse wrote that "secular drivers" have begun to emerge for GlobalFoundries, specifically in its silicon photonics (SiPho) and 5G cellular communications infrastructure segments.

GlobalFoundries has less exposure to the artificial-intelligence boom than other semiconductor players like Broadcom or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, but it has cited AI as a core reason for expanding its manufacturing footprint in the U.S.

However, Muse wrote that "eventually" physical AI will be a growth story for GlobalFoundries.

"Crucially, we also believe we are at the crux of a gross margin inflection point, driven by improving utilizations and GlobalFoundries aggressively expanding into accretive end-markets," Muse wrote.

Given these opportunities, Cantor Fitzgerald expects GlobalFoundries to announce on Thursday a 2030 profit target around its own forecast of $4.50 to $5.50 a share, with a "downside-case" of $3.50 a share, representing 100% growth from 2025 earnings.

"Given likely optimism and a positive outlook from management, coupled with investor desire for exposure to SiPho and Satellite, and positive risk/reward on GlobalFoundries capturing at least some pricing power and we are upgrading GFS to Overweight," Muse wrote.

GlobalFoundries was formed through the divestiture of Advanced Micro Devices manufacturing arm in 2009. AMD subsequently became its first customer, while Qualcomm was another early partner. GlobalFoundries has supplied semiconductors for Apple products, specifically the iPhone, since 2010.

Before GlobalFoundries holds its investor day on Thursday, the company reports first-quarter earnings after the closing bell on Tuesday.

Wall Street calls for GlobalFoundries to post first-quarter earnings of 35 cents a share, compared to 34 cents a year ago, with revenue growing 2.5% to $1.63 billion, according to FactSet.

Morgan Stanley analysts wrote Monday they expect "upward revisions to estimates, pared with second half caution" from GlobalFoundries earnings report on Tuesday. The firm raised its price target on the chip stock to $58 from $47.

"The trailing edge foundry market has been stronger than we expected through the early part of 2026, utilizations are somewhat depressed across the ecosystem but has not weighed on the pricing outlook thus far, " wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore.

Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com

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May 04, 2026 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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