RBC Capital Markets 首次覆盖 RingCentral（RNG），给予 Outperform 评级和 $85 目标价

RingCentral ( RNG ) was in focus on Thursday as RBC Capital Markets started coverage with an Outperform rating and an $85 price target. Shares were little changed in premarket trading. “UCaaS is competitive, but we see it serving an infrastructure-esque role in enterprises, making it less susceptible to AI displacement risk than the market fears,” RBC analyst Rishi Jaluria wrote in a note to clients. “Growth has slowed from the COVID peak, yet RNG's defensive mid-single-digit growth has helped the name rally as durability proved out. We see potential for slight acceleration from here, while the market prices the stock at low- to no-growth levels.” Jaluria also said that RingCentral's expansion into the contact center should help it grow via the enterprise partnership with NICE ( NICE ), its in-house RingCX, and its customer engagement bundle. “We believe this expansion has led to recent multiple expansion, with RNG up 150%+ YTD (vs. IGV ~flat), although down ~80% from COVID highs,” Jaluria added. Aside from those two positives, Jaluria also noted that RingCentral's AI strategy is “underappreciated” by investors and represents a “call option” for the future. “We view RNG's AI roadmap as additive to its existing stack and view voice as the 'rails' for the deployment of its AI solutions,” he added. The company is also committed to “meaningful” margin expansion and shareholder returns,  having grown free cash flow margins by more than 1,800 basis points from 2022 to 2026. It's also cut stock-based compensation, increased the dividend, and bought back shares, Jaluria said.