Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (NYSE:TSM) shares are trading higher Wednesday. Wedbush reiterated its Outperform rating and maintained its price target following TSMC’s strong sales.
Strong January Sales Lift Sentiment
Wedbsuh reiterated an Outperform rating on Taiwan Semi this week after the chipmaker delivered stronger‑than‑expected January sales and signaled that AI‑related demand remains a powerful tailwind.
TSMC said January revenue was up 19.8% from December and up 36.8% on a year-over-year basis. That single month already makes up about 36% of first‑quarter revenue expectations, putting the company ahead of its usual seasonal pace, which tends to hover around 34%.
AI Demand Still Doing The Heavy Lifting
Demand for AI servers is fueling not only accelerator production but also the broader infrastructure needed to support AI workloads — networking gear, compute hardware and power components — all of which rely heavily on TSMC's manufacturing capacity, the analyst said.
Consumer‑oriented chips are seeing some cooling, but Wedbush analysts noted that reductions in consumer silicon are lagging because of earlier supply shortages. The firm believes AI demand is strong enough to outweigh softness in other areas. As a result, TSMC appears positioned to avoid the typical quarter-one slowdown, with both revenue and margins expected to rise, according to Wedbush.
TSM Price Action: Taiwan Semiconductor shares were up 4.02% at $376.41 at the time of publication on Wednesday. The stock is trading at a new 52-week high, according to Benzinga Pro.
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