Rothschild Redburn starts CoreWeave at Sell with $54 target

Rothschild Redburn starts CoreWeave at Sell with $54 target

Tue, September 22, 2026 at 4:29 PM GMT+3 2 min read

• CRWV +0.16%

Rothschild & Co Redburn initiated coverage of CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) on Monday with a Sell rating and $54 price target, implying 33.6% downside from the prior close. CoreWeave's latest quarterly revenue rose 112% to $2.575 billion.

The rating places Redburn among the most bearish firms covering the AI cloud operator. Per MarketBeat, CoreWeave has 21 Buy ratings, 10 Holds and four Sells, with an average rating of Hold and a consensus target of $139.37.

Redburn's broader AI infrastructure note argued that equity valuations did not fully reflect risks visible in credit markets. The firm said off-balance-sheet commitments could reduce hyperscalers' financial flexibility and constrain future infrastructure spending.

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CoreWeave shares opened Monday at $81.36, below their 50-day moving average of $85.08 and 200-day average of $94.06. The stock has traded between $60.55 and $153.20 over the past 52 weeks, while its reported beta of 7.45 reflects its volatility.

CoreWeave's second-quarter results highlighted the scale of its growth and the capital required to support it. The operator reported $1.51 billion of adjusted EBITDA and a $626 million net loss in its second-quarter results. MarketBeat calculated its negative net margin at 25.41%.

CoreWeave's second-quarter filing showed $640 million of net interest expense and $6.422 billion of spending on property and equipment. Its cash-flow statement reported $10.071 billion supplied by financing activities, including $13.457 billion from debt issuance before repayments.

CoreWeave's June 30 balance sheet reported $31.405 billion of recourse debt and $3.663 billion of non-recourse debt, compared with $5.024 billion of stockholders' equity.

CoreWeave has continued raising capital since the quarter ended. It closed a $2.6 billion delayed-draw term loan in August at SOFR plus 550 bps, with an approximately five-year maturity and customer contracts averaging about three years.

On September 17, CoreWeave proposed $3 billion of senior unsecured convertible notes due 2033 alongside a program to distribute up to 35 million Class A shares. Indicative pricing for the notes was 2.375% to 2.875%, with a conversion premium of 22.5% to 27.5%.

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CoreWeave's backlog stood at approximately $104 billion as of June 30 with more than $25 billion of commitments secured in early July excluded. Its active power footprint reached 1.5 GW during the quarter, while management targeted more than 1.85 GW by year-end.