Jefferies is getting more bullish on DoorDash as more advertising opportunities materialize. The investment firm upgraded the food delivery platform to buy from hold. It also raised its price target to $260 from $220, which signals upside of 23% from Tuesday's close. Shares of DoorDash have rallied 26% this year, but have cratered 20% in the past 30 days, making DoorDash's "strong execution and growth algorithm now appear underappreciated," Jefferies wrote. DASH YTD mountain DASH YTD chart Analyst John Colantuoni believes that DoorDash's outlook for "several hundred million dollars" of incremental investment in 2026 helped lower expectations, meaning that the stock could benefit from an "under-promise and over-deliver" strategy. This could provide upside to consensus and flexibility for the company's long-term investments, he wrote. "The key driver of margin expansion is faster growth in high-margin advertising revenue, which alone offsets ~$200M worth of incremental investments in 2026. The remainder are offset by efficiency gains and fixed cost leverage in U.S. Restaurant," he wrote. "We believe a premium to the growth-adjusted multiple is justified given our above-consensus estimates could prove conservative if DASH pursues the advertising opportunity more aggressively and/or reduces non-core investments." Accelerating growth in the U.S. restaurant delivery sets up an attractive secular story that DoorDash would benefit from, per the analyst. "We believe increased spend among older cohorts speaks to increasingly habituated usage that supports still-early penetration for delivery apps, which today make up just 13% of off-premise restaurant sales (vs. 23% ecommerce avg)," Colantuoni said. "Despite capturing ~65% share of U.S. delivery apps, DASH is only used by ~15% of adults and is responsible for less than ~6% of meals among active users." Colantuoni also sees faster growth ahead for DoorDash in international restaurant delivery and new verticals.
