11 Best Mid Cap AI Stocks to Buy Right Now

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2. Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Market Cap: $5.48 Billion

Number of Hedge Funds: 49

Confluent, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFLT) is one of the best midcap AI stocks to buy right now. On August 4, 2025, Citigroup maintained its Neutral rating on Confluent but sharply lowered its price target from $30 to $20, signaling a more cautious stance on the company’s near-term growth trajectory. Analyst Tyler Radke cited ongoing cloud optimization trends among Confluent’s largest customers, which are expected to weigh on the company’s cloud revenue growth well into the first half of 2026.

Despite the downgrade, the report acknowledged Confluent’s position as a leader in real-time data streaming and event-driven architecture. However, with macro pressures prompting clients to rein in cloud spend and elongate deal cycles, Citigroup opted to stay on the sidelines until demand signals improve. The lowered price target reflects a tempered outlook on both consumption-based revenue and the pace of enterprise expansion over the next few quarters.

Confluent is a data infrastructure company based in California. It provides a cloud-native platform built around Apache Kafka, enabling organizations to stream, process, and react to data in real time.

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