Key Takeaways
- CoreWeave shares plummeted 18.5% following its February 27 Q4 earnings release
- Q4 revenue reached $1.57B (up 110% YoY), but Q1 forecast disappointed Wall Street
- Quarterly net loss expanded to $284M compared to $36M in the prior-year period
- Company’s revenue backlog surged more than 4x to $66.8B, boosted by a ~$5B Meta deal
- Capital expenditure outlook for 2026 set at $30B–$35B, doubling 2025’s $14.9B spend
CoreWeave (CRWV) shares took a significant beating following its fourth-quarter earnings disclosure, tumbling 18.5% on February 27. While the AI infrastructure provider delivered impressive revenue growth, escalating expenses and disappointing forward projections spooked the market.
CoreWeave, Inc. Class A Common Stock, CRWV
The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.57 billion, representing a 110% year-over-year surge and narrowly exceeding analyst expectations of $1.53 billion. However, the quarterly net loss expanded dramatically — jumping from $36 million to $284 million versus the same period last year.
Earnings per share showed a loss of $0.89, significantly worse than the $0.50 deficit Wall Street had anticipated. Additionally, the adjusted operating margin compressed to approximately 6%, a steep decline from 16% recorded a year earlier.
The firm’s cumulative revenue backlog exploded from $15.1 billion to $66.8 billion, nearly quadrupling in size. This substantial increase incorporates a freshly inked agreement with Meta valued at roughly $5 billion.
CEO Michael Intrator explained the company’s strategic approach to accelerate infrastructure deployment. “We made the decision to go ahead and to build faster so that we can deliver more infrastructure,” he told Reuters.
This aggressive expansion strategy carries substantial financial implications. CoreWeave forecasts capital expenditures between $30 billion and $35 billion for 2026, representing more than double the $14.9 billion invested in 2025. The spending encompasses Nvidia chip acquisitions, data center development, and energy infrastructure.
CFO Nitin Agrawal emphasized that every dollar of planned capital spending corresponds to existing customer commitments. Intrator further noted that the first quarter would represent “the low point” for profitability margins before subsequent recovery.
Wall Street Downgrades Price Expectations
The majority of analysts maintained neutral stances following the earnings report. JPMorgan’s Mark Murphy reduced his price objective from $110 to $90, citing first-quarter guidance that significantly undershot consensus expectations and an investment phase that proved “more pronounced than expected.”
Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz similarly maintained his Hold rating while trimming his target from $100 to $95. Stifel’s Ruben Roy lowered his forecast to $110 from $120, highlighting the company’s accelerated investment in Nvidia’s Blackwell and Rubin chip architectures. Data center power capacity under active operation surged from 590MW to 850MW during the quarter.
Roy indicated he requires evidence of operational improvement before adopting a more optimistic outlook. While the capital expenditure surge secures future revenue streams, it’s compressing near-term profitability.
D.A. Davidson’s Alexander Platt diverged from his peers with a contrarian view. He elevated his price target from $110 to $125 while reaffirming his Buy recommendation, contending that rapid capacity deployment represents the critical success factor in the AI infrastructure competition. Cantor Fitzgerald likewise maintained an Overweight stance with a $131 target.
Executive Stock Transaction and Balance Sheet Status
On February 26 — just one day before the stock’s sharp decline — CoreWeave’s General Counsel Kristen J. McVeety divested 2,601 Class A shares at prices ranging from $95.77 to $100.40, generating proceeds of $261,554. The transaction occurred pursuant to a predetermined trading arrangement established in May 2025. Her remaining holdings total 120,079 shares.
The organization maintains approximately $14 billion in outstanding debt obligations. Executive leadership expressed confidence in reducing the weighted average cost of capital as operations scale upward.
CoreWeave concluded 2025 operating 850 megawatts of active power distributed across 43 data centers, with an additional 3.1 gigawatts of contracted capacity scheduled to launch primarily by 2027.
For the first quarter, management projected revenue in the $1.9 billion to $2.0 billion range. This guidance fell substantially below the $2.29 billion consensus estimate from analysts.
On TipRanks, CRWV holds a Moderate Buy consensus from 11 Buy and 8 Hold ratings, with an average price target of $114.18.
