Societe Generale is raising its 2024 S & P 500 target thanks to the enthusiasm surrounding the contribution artificial intelligence will make to corporate profits. The Wall Street arm of the French bank now anticipates the S & P 500 could climb another 5% to 5,500 by the end of this year, up from a target of 4,750 previously, according to a Wednesday note from the firm. That’s an especially bullish call, according to the CNBC Market Strategist Survey , which had Bank of America and UBS with the highest calls on the Street at 5,400. The S & P 500 closed Wednesday at 5,224.62. “We upgrade our S & P 500 target on rational optimism,” Manish Kabra, head of U.S. equity strategy at the bank, wrote in a Thursday note. “After upgrading our index target twice in 2023 on the AI boom alone, we upgrade our S & P 500 target to 5500 from 4750 for end-2024 to reflect the broadening [earnings per share] cycle within the large caps and the AI-driven EPS cycle for Nasdaq-100 companies.” The upgrade comes after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday kept rates unchanged, and maintained an outlook for three rate cuts this year, a relief to investors who worried the central bank could turn more hawkish. The decision gave tech stocks in particular the green light to continue their rally. All three major averages notched record closes on Wednesday. To be sure, Kabra raised his S & P 500 earnings outlook to 18% in 2024 from 15% previously, but anticipates a slowdown in earnings growth expectations in the second half of the year. The higher S & P 500 target is “on the back of the artificial intelligence boom in 2024,” Kabra wrote. “But we see this as the last [earnings] upgrade for 2024, as the [Nasdaq-100], half of the S & P 500’s market-cap weight, should see further EPS growth acceleration in 1H before the pace of EPS growth slows down in 2H this year.” In fact, Kabra said he expects a 5% market correction in the third quarter that is then followed by an upswing after the presidential election in November. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
