Pinterest Stock Is Climbing. AI Means Photo-Sharing App Is a Buy, Analyst Says.

Pinterest has been pouring cash into capital investment. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Pinterest stock got a boost on Monday as Morgan Stanley said the photo-sharing platform’s artificial intelligence investments are set to pay off.

Brian Nowak of Morgan Stanley upgraded Pinterest to Overweight from Equal-weight. He lifted his target for the price to $45 from $37 in a research note, citing the potential of the company’s AI-powered innovations in advertising.

Shares of Pinterest were up 2.8% to $38.14 on Monday. The company was a Barron’s stock pick in June.

Pinterest has been investing heavily in AI and graphics processing units, with the goal of showing more relevant content to users and improving efficiency for advertisers. The company poured $1.24 billion into research and development in 2024, up from $1.07 billion in 2023. The AI investments, in particular, are beginning to yield results, Nowak said.

Pinterest’s visual search tools and Performance+ suite, which uses AI to help advertisers automate campaigns, are just two of the company’s “improving levers of growth,” Nowak wrote. These tools have the potential to increase user engagement, attract more advertisers, and increase ad revenue per user, he said. A friendly environment for AI-related tech stocks also helps, Morgan Stanley said.

“Historically we have seen tech names with accelerating growth and expanding margins outperform and we think PINS is set up to follow this dynamic,” Nowak said.

Morgan Stanley now forecasts year-over-year revenue growth of 17% to 18% for the rest of the year, an uptick from 16% in the first quarter.

Pinterest makes a substantial share of its revenue from advertising, but the company has fared well so far this year despite its deep exposure to an uncertain ad market.

Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt surveyed over 200 U.S.-based marketers in April. He found that 73% of those who advertise with Pinterest expect to increase their spending on the platform by at least 10% this year compared with 2024.

All told, Pinterest stock has spiked 33% in 2025, though it remains in the red over the past 12 months, with a loss of a bit less than 7%.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com