Raspberry Pi (LSE: RPI) is one of the hottest growth stocks in the FTSE 350 index right now. Over the last week, it has jumped around 90%.
Now, I’m sitting on a pile of cash at the moment and looking for investment opportunities. Should I buy shares in this under-the-radar British computer company? Let’s discuss.
What is it?
It’s been a while since I’ve covered Raspberry Pi. In fact, I haven’t written about it since shortly after its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in mid-2024.
As a reminder, the company designs and develops high-performance, low-cost single-board computers (SBCs). These are tiny, credit-card-sized computers built on a single circuit board that have a range of applications and are often used in schools, universities, and laboratories.
Since its IPO, the company’s share price has been up and down. But mostly down.
So, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything not owning the stock. Until recently…
Because in the last week or so, the share price has gone parabolic.
Why is the share price surging?
There are a couple of factors behind this share price spike. The first factor was a stock purchase from CEO Eben Upton.
On Monday (16 February), it came to light that he’d bought 4,684 Raspberry Pi shares at a price of £2.82 per share. This deal was worth about £13,200.
Note that Upton has bought stock on a number of occasions this year. I calculate that he’s spent around £150k on shares – a significant amount of money.
The second factor is talk online that the company could be a major beneficiary of the AI boom. You see, people have recently been using the company’s computers (which can be bought for around £40) to run an AI virtual assistant called OpenClaw.
This is like a personal AI agent that can be customised. It can access your emails, text messages, and banking apps, and complete complex tasks.
There are now tons of videos online about how to run OpenClaw on a Raspberry Pi computer. So, this has created a lot of investor interest.
You could also say there’s been a bit of ‘meme stock’ price action here. In recent days, a lot of hot money has flowed into the stock on the back of chatter on social media.
Should I buy now?
Will I buy the stock? Not right now.
I do think there’s potential for strong revenue growth in the years ahead. Especially if the company’s products remain in focus on social media.
However, one issue that concerns me is memory shortages/prices. In a recent trading update, the company said that the cost of the LPDDR4 DRAM used in many of its products has “increased rapidly” in recent months, with some major suppliers now indicating limitations of supply at high densities.
This issue could potentially hit earnings. It could also constrain growth.
Note that the company said that it has sufficient LPDDR4 inventory for H1 2026. But looking beyond that, there’s uncertainty.
Another issue is the valuation. After the recent share price spike, the forward-looking price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is about 50.
That’s high for a hardware company. It doesn’t leave any room for error.
So, I’m going to leave the stock on my watchlist for now. But other Fools may be more bullish.
