24/7 Wall St.

With the last quarter of 2017 underway, and a rash of third-quarter earnings ready to hit the tape, many of the top firms we cover here at 24/7 Wall St. are making some changes to their list of top stocks to buy. With the markets continuing to print new all-time highs, it makes sense for the big banks and investors to review their ideas and the thesis behind them, and make changes, which could include taking off both winner and losers.

In a new report, the analysts at Deutsche Bank make some big changes to the firm’s Conviction List of top stocks ideas> We screened the list for some of the biggest market capitalization companies and found five top stocks to Buy that make good sense for growth portfolios now.

Facebook

The huge social media leader has continued to post gigantic numbers, and it is the top pick in internet media for 2017 at Merrill Lynch. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) operates as a mobile application and website that enables people to connect, share, discover and communicate each other on mobile devices and personal computers worldwide.

Its solutions also include Instagram, a mobile application that enables people to take photos or videos, customize them with filter effects, and share them with friends and followers in a photo feed or send them directly to friends; Messenger, a messaging application for mobile and web on various platforms and devices, which enable people to reach others instantly, as well as enable businesses to engage with customers; and WhatsApp Messenger, a mobile messaging application.

Deutsche Bank feels that Facebook’s long-term forecasts are more easily attainable, especially as the company continues to grow and employ new platforms for online advertising. Wall Street estimates are likely moving higher for 2018 as the company ramps monetization in Instagram, including Stories ads, rolls out more Facebook original video content, begins to monetize Messenger and sees slightly lower than forecast operating expense and capital expenditure growth.

The Deutsche Bank price target for the stock is $220. The Wall Street consensus target is $194.77. Shares closed trading on Tuesday at $171.59.

HP

This is the printer and personal computer businesses of the old Hewlett-Packard. HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) provides products, technologies, software, solutions and services to individual consumers and small- and medium-sized businesses, as well as to the government, health and education sectors worldwide.

The company’s Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin client PCs, tablets, retail point-of-sale systems, calculators and other related accessories, software, support and services for the commercial and consumer markets.

The Printing segment provides consumer and commercial printer hardware, supplies, media, scanning device and software and services, as well as LaserJet and enterprise, inkjet and printing, graphics, and software and web services.

The Deutsche Bank report noted:

As a legacy tech company exposed to end markets that are challenged for growth, we believe HP Inc. should trade at similar valuations to other legacy hardware peers. This peer group includes names like IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NetApp, Cisco and Xerox. Based on peer group valuations, we believe the company should trade at 13x our fiscal year 2018 earnings per share, which is in line with the peer group. With shares trading below these levels, we rate the company a Buy.

HP investors receive a 2.58% dividend. The $24 Deutsche Bank price target compares with a consensus estimate of $21.81. Shares closed trading Tuesday at $20.57.

Johnson & Johnson

With a diverse product base and a very popular and solid brand, this is among the most conservative big pharmaceutical plays. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is one the top stocks in the health care sector and will raise the dividend for shareholders this year for the 54th consecutive year. With everything from medical devices to over-the-counter health items and prescription drugs, it remains one of the most diversified health care names on Wall Street.

The health care giant also has one of the most exciting pipelines of new drugs in the sector. That combined with the solid over-the-counter product business makes the stock an outstanding holding for conservative accounts with a long-term investment horizon. The company generates a little over half of its sales in international markets, which are expected see higher spending on health care over the next 10 years and beyond.

The Deutsche Bank report noted this:

We believe investor appreciation for the company’s Pharma business will act as the key driver for shares over the next twelve months. As noted at their investor meeting in May, The company plans to launch a total of 10+ New Molecular Entities (NMEs) and over 50 line extensions through 2021.

Shareholders receive a 2.51% dividend. Deutsche Bank has a $143 price target, and the consensus target is $137.60. The shares closed Tuesday at $133.90.

Southern Company

This large cap leader makes sense for very conservative accounts. The Southern Company (NYSE: SO) has four utility subsidiaries: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power (Florida) and Mississippi Power. Georgia and Alabama are the most significant and represent about 80% of earnings. The utility businesses comprise 35,000 megawatts of power generation and 4.4 million customers. The nonregulated arm, Southern Power, owns and operates 7,600 megawatts of gas-fired power plants with the vast majority of the output signed up under long-term power contracts.

The shares are almost totally flat for the year, and this is a top and safe utility offering investors a tidy entry point. Despite the threat of rising rates, a company positioned in the geography Southern is should see growing demand.

Shareholders receive a 4.62% dividend. Deutsche Bank has set its price target at $53, and the consensus target is $51.38. The shares closed Tuesday at $50.24.

24/7 Wall St.
Baird Has 5 Top Software Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2017

VMware

This may still be one of the best stocks to own, especially after getting hammered recently. VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) provides virtualization infrastructure solutions in the United States and internationally.

The company’s virtualization infrastructure solutions include a suite of products designed to deliver a software-defined data center run on industry-standard desktop computers and servers, and support a range of operating system and application environments, as well as networking and storage infrastructures. Its solutions enable organizations to aggregate multiple servers, storage infrastructure and networks together into shared pools of capacity.

Deutsche Bank has confidence in the company’s growth prospects, given a series of strong earnings results combining healthy growth in newer initiatives along with better-than-feared declines in its core vSphere business. In addition, other top Wall Street analysts feel it is becoming more apparent that enterprises of all sizes are adopting hybrid clouds at a faster clip than originally assumed and most believe VMware’s emerging partnership with Amazon’s AWS will help extend the half-life of its massive vSphere installed base.

The Deutsche Bank price target is $120. The posted consensus target is $117.43, and shares closed on Tuesday at $111.79.

Five new additions to Deutsche Bank’s Conviction List. All these stocks make good long-term holdings; however, investors may want to buy entry positions now and see how the third-quarter earnings results come in.