Morgan Stanley upgrades Manhattan Associates on cloud acceleration, AI traction

Investing.com -- Manhattan Associates Inc (NASDAQ: MANH) shares rose 4.1% in premarket trading on Monday following a bullish upgrade from Morgan Stanley, which raised its rating on the supply chain software maker to Overweight from Equalweight.

Analyst Chris Quintero simultaneously boosted his price target on the stock to $250 from $180, pointing to accelerating cloud bookings and early commercial traction across the company's emerging suite of artificial intelligence agents.

The upgrade reflects a structural shift in momentum driven by go-to-market changes instituted by Chief Executive Officer Eric Clark. Dedicated cross-sell initiatives aimed at upcoming multi-year renewal cohorts, combined with increased investment in sales coverage and fixed-fee implementation pricing, have meaningfully reduced customer friction and compressed go-live timelines.

Against that backdrop, Morgan Stanley sees 1% to 2% upside to consensus revenue estimates through fiscal 2028, viewing conservative second-half guidance as a temporary delta against underlying demand. Channel checks further indicate robust customer ROI from Manhattan’s Wave, Labor, and Dock AI agents, with early adopters reporting ~20% labor cost reductions and notable productivity gains that could lift agent-driven revenue contribution to 25–30% of base contract values over time.

Ultimately, the analyst team shifted its valuation framework to CY29 EV/EBITDA, arguing that accelerating cloud adoption will expand total revenue growth from mid-to-high single digits today into low-to-mid double digits as cloud subscriptions reach over 20% growth. At 19x CY29 EBITDA, the stock presents an attractive entry point and a favorable 4:1 risk-reward ratio, positioning Manhattan Associates as a clearer vertical software beneficiary in the ongoing AI transition.

Original Article

You May Also Be Interested In

• Morgan Stanley Upgrades Manhattan Associates (MANH) to Overweight
• Citi Names 2 Best Electric Utility Stocks Amid AI Agent Disruption Risk
• Microsoft to scale custom AI chips in multi-gigawatt push to cut costs