NASDAQ:TSEM

Tower Semiconductor Stock Jumps 10% as Bank of America Starts Coverage With Buy Rating

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ: TSEM) shares surged about 10% Friday after a pair of bullish analyst actions boosted sentiment toward the specialty semiconductor manufacturer.

Bank of America initiated coverage of Tower Semiconductor with a Buy rating and set a $367 price target. Based on the roughly $248.92 share price shown around the analyst action, the target implied approximately 47% potential upside.

National Bank Financial also upgraded Tower Semiconductor to Buy, adding another positive catalyst for the stock.

Bank of America Sets $367 Price Target

Bank of America's initiation appears to be the most significant catalyst behind Friday's rally.

The firm's $367 target represents a substantial premium to Tower Semiconductor's recent trading level and provides investors with a considerably higher valuation benchmark for the company.

The call comes as semiconductor investors continue to focus on companies positioned to benefit from expanding demand across specialized chip markets rather than only leading-edge processors.

Unlike the largest advanced-node foundries, Tower specializes in analog semiconductor manufacturing technologies used across areas including automotive, industrial, communications and consumer applications.

National Bank Financial Upgrades TSEM to Buy

The bullish sentiment was reinforced by National Bank Financial, which upgraded Tower Semiconductor to Buy.

Two positive analyst actions arriving together can have a larger market impact than a single rating change, particularly when one includes a price target significantly above the prevailing share price.

Friday's approximately 10% increase indicates investors are responding aggressively to the improved analyst outlook.

Why Is TSEM Stock Up 10% Today?

The rally appears primarily driven by the combination of Bank of America's new Buy recommendation and National Bank Financial's upgrade.

Bank of America's $367 price target is particularly notable. Even after Friday's sharp advance, it suggests the analyst sees substantial additional upside potential for TSEM.

The semiconductor sector's broader structural growth themes may also be contributing to investor enthusiasm, but Friday's company-specific move aligns closely with the fresh analyst coverage.

After a roughly 10% single-day gain, attention will now shift toward whether Tower Semiconductor's earnings growth, capacity utilization and specialty foundry demand can support the significantly higher valuation implied by the new analyst target.
Tower Semiconductor Surges 14.3% as Silicon Photonics Contracts and Record Guidance Electrify Investors

May 13, 2026 | NASDAQ: TSEM


Tower Semiconductor is one of the session's biggest winners, jumping 14.3% after delivering a strong first quarter, guiding to record revenue in Q2, and announcing $1.3 billion in contracted silicon photonics revenue for 2027 — a combination that gives investors unusually concrete visibility into what is shaping up to be a transformative growth story.

Q1 2026 revenue reached $414 million, up 15% year-on-year, with gross profit growing 52% to $111 million and operating profit nearly doubling to $65 million from $33 million a year ago. Net profit of $65 million was up 63% year-on-year. The operating leverage here is striking — revenue grew 15% while operating profit grew 96%, reflecting the high incremental margins of silicon photonics as it scales within the product mix.

The Q2 guidance is what likely ignited the move. Tower guided Q2 revenue to $455 million, a company record, representing 22% year-on-year growth and 10% sequential growth. Management committed to sequential quarter-on-quarter revenue and margin growth throughout 2026, providing a clear trajectory toward its 2028 financial model target of $2.8 billion in annual revenue and $750 million in net profit.

The silicon photonics announcement landing alongside the earnings release adds another dimension entirely. Tower has signed contracts for $1.3 billion in SiPho revenue for 2027 with its largest customers, and has already received $290 million in customer prepayments for capacity reservation — a highly unusual level of upfront financial commitment that reflects both supply scarcity and customer urgency. The 2028 contractual wafer commitments are described as substantially larger still, with additional prepayments due by January 2027. Tower serves over 50 active SiPho customers, meaning the $1.3 billion represents only the contracted floor, not the ceiling of 2027 demand.

The strategic context is compelling. Silicon photonics is the enabling technology for the optical interconnects that AI data centers require to move data at the speeds and volumes demanded by large-scale training and inference workloads. Tower's position as the leading foundry for high-value analog SiPho solutions — spanning pluggable transceivers today and next-generation co-packaged optics tomorrow — places it squarely at the infrastructure layer of the AI buildout. S&P Maalot's recent upgrade of Tower's outlook from stable to positive adds a credit dimension to the investment case.

In a market rattled by inflation and geopolitical uncertainty, Tower is offering something rare today — contracted revenue, prepaid cash, a record quarter, and a credible path to nearly tripling its current revenue within two years.