Bank of America says investors should keep an eye on key software stocks in the auto industry before artificial intelligence dash cam technology enters a multi-year adoption cycle. “Samsara (the Internet of Things) is revolutionizing road safety,” analyst Matt Bullock wrote in a note Thursday. “While dash cam hardware is relatively commoditized, the secret lies in the company’s software, which can provide real-time guidance via audio alerts in the cab if a driver becomes distracted or follows another vehicle too closely.” Although the stock fell this month. It’s down more than 13% and is down more than 12% this year, but Bullock initiated a buy rating on the company with a price target of $37, which would imply an upside of about 25% from Tuesday’s closing price. IOT 1D mountain Samsara, One-day Block’s paper proposes a set of differentiated products based on constructive end-market demand trends and verification with industry players. Additionally, Wall Street forecasts have “significant upside” and positive expectations for near-term catalysts. The analyst specifically highlighted Samsara’s upcoming customer conference and analyst day next week, looking for new product announcements — including one where the company might discuss how to leverage the possibilities of generating artificial intelligence. Bullock believes Samsara’s new products could fuel the company’s long-term growth. “More modern competitors lack the comprehensive feature set/platform breadth offered by Samsara, which offers a full suite of products covering telematics, equipment and field monitoring, and driver workflow applications, among other areas,” he wrote. “They also have a smaller R&D budget and installed base that can be used to collect data and improve AI models,” Bullock added. “As a result, we expect Samsara to continue to be at the forefront of the video-based security software market.”
