(Yicai) May 22 -- Lenovo Group’s stock price soared to the highest in nine years after analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded the shares and raised the target price for the world’s largest personal computer maker.

Lenovo [HKG: 0992] ended 12.2 percent higher at HKD11.42 (USD1.46) a share today, inching down from a gain of almost 14 percent to HKD11.60, the highest since April 2015. The stock has climbed nearly 90 percent since the start of last year on the back of the boom in artificial intelligence technologies.

The growth of AI PCs and servers supports the rerating of Lenovo’s stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘hold,’ with a target price of HKD15 (USD1.92), up from HKD9.10 (USD1.17), Morgan Stanley said in a note published earlier today.

AI PCs will account for about 85 percent of the worldwide laptop market by 2028, up from 2 percent this year, bringing wider profit margins for PC makers, the New York-based investment bank predicted. It also said Lenovo’s AI PC revenue will climb to 53 percent of its income in fiscal 2028, the most of any maker, from 2 percent in fiscal 2024.

Lenovo released two AI PCs yesterday, powered by technology from Microsoft and Qualcomm, namely the Yoga Slim 7x and the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, with starting prices of USD1,199 and USD1,699, respectively. They are expected to be available next month.

Following the rapid rise of the AI industry last year, Lenovo has increased its investment in the field, partnering with US chip giant Nvidia to release a hybrid AI solution for enterprise customers last October.

AI will reshape all of the Beijing-based company’s businesses in the next 10 years, Chairman Yang Yuanqing said at its earnings press conference in February.

But the benefits were not seen in Lenovo’s most recent trading report. In the three months ended Dec. 31, net profit fell 23 percent from a year earlier to USD337 million, with revenue edging up 3 percent to USD15.7 billion.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Tom Litting