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Nineteen Stocks Expected to Rise 50% to 100% -- or More
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Investors and traders alike always seem to be on the lookout for new investment ideas. With the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average having recently hit new highs, 24/7 Wall St. decided to pour through literally hundreds of reviewed research calls to find some of the hidden gems in independent research and in Wall St. research. With analysts throwing out Buy, Sell or Hold ratings, we wanted to see which stocks have the ability to still rise by 50%, 100%, or even more.
Some of these calls are very counterintuitive and some are actually not that much more aggressive when compared to other analyst calls. Some of the other calls come with great risk and great reward possibilities if they come true. Some are value stocks and turnaround stocks, while others are simply big story growth stocks. We have shown the calls and compared them to consensus price targets from Thomson Reuters’ pool of analysts, and we also have added color on each of these calls.
Our list for April is actually 19 stocks, more than the 11 we highlighted that could rise 50% to 100% (or more) back in early March. The list for April includes the following stocks: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI), Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTX), Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), Bona Film Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: BONA), Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR), Halcon Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK), MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD), Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP), OvaScience Inc. (OVSC), Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU), Rosetta Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE), Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN), Ruby Tuesday Inc. (NYSE: RT), Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO), Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT), Ultra Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: UPL) and Warner Chilcott PLC (NASDAQ: WCRX).
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is a call from mid-March, and we might have skipped it entirely had this analyst call not been so aggressive. Wells Fargo maintained its Outperform rating on the troubled chip and processor turnaround stock. What stood out was the $5 to $7 price range offered up, implying a double and then some, compared to the $2.60 share price at the time. That leaves even more upside from the $2.30 or so share price now. We had a hard time grasping the good news that Wells Fargo saw, but the analyst team there is not exactly thought poorly of by Wall St. and Main Street.
Arch Coal Inc. (NYSE: ACI) is in the battered coal sector, but it could have a nice snapback if UBS is correct. Trading in the mid-$5 range, down from the high $70s in 2008, this down and out stock could have nice upside. The UBS target is $9, and the Wall St. consensus price target is $7.65. That is close to 80% upside projected at UBS, but even the consensus target price comes to a projected 50% upside now. Another fairly fresh call at the end of March from Jefferies was at the street-high target price of $12, which implies more than 100% upside, if its insight is accurate.
Astex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTX) was a fresh call from April 3, and the stock responded to the research call. RBC Capital Markets initiated coverage at Outperform with a $9.00 price target. That implied 80% upside at the time, ahead of the company discussing data on its drug pipeline at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. The upside to this call is still about 61%, if the firm is correct.
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) both make the list here for upside calls. Citigroup topped a recent upside list from UBS, as their price target for the bank was put at $62, for an implied upside of more than 45% as of now. The consensus price target objective of $50.57 still implies almost 20% upside. On Bank of America, an analyst duel between Meredith Whitney and Dick Bove is the draw. Whitney gave a target of $15 near-term for 25% upside, and higher in the long-term, perhaps up to $20 for closer to 70% upside. Dick Bove’s call is for Bank of America to go back up to $30 in the next two or three years, and that implies upside now of closer to 150%, since the bank shares have pulled back some.
Bona Film Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: BONA) is a name we frankly have never heard of. It is a film distributor in China, so we are throwing out the “you are on your own here” caveat, as we have joked that the only free speech in China comes from CFOs of public Chinese companies that list shares in America. Piper Jaffray started coverage with an Overweight rating and a $6.50 price target, which gives an implied 60% upside to the stock if the firm is correct.
Gulfport Energy Corp. (NASDAQ: GPOR) already was rated Buy at Stern Agee, but the firm raised earnings estimates and raised its price target to $80 on the stock. At $44.87, that implies upside of a whopping 77%, if the firm is accurate. Stern Agee’s note said that near-term catalysts should show that its rally has legs and that its strong liquidity can fund accelerated 2014 development. The firm said that the stock is incredibly undervalued, and the $80 price target only gets Gulfport’s Enterprise/EBITDA multiple in-line with peers.
Halcon Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) is an independent energy company with a well-healed management team. Wells Fargo gave it a new Outperform rating and a target range of $11 to $12. This implies upside north of 50% at the mid-point of the range. Dan Dicker at TheStreet.com recently told Jim Cramer that he (is long the stock) thinks this can rise to $12 in share price.
MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD) could be a huge winner if Merrill Lynch is right. The name was a selected winner on a larger diabetes call from the firm, with a price target recently raised at the end of March to $5.00. The stock was at $3.33 at the time, and that came to upside of 50% on the button. Shares have risen close to 10% since, but there is still much implied upside to an even higher consensus price target from a handful of analysts.
Read Also: 11 Stocks Expected to Rise 50% to 100% — or More (March 5)
Molycorp Inc. (NYSE: MCP) recently hit a new 52-week low and what appears to be an all-time low, a real feat considering that the stock market is close to an all-time high. The only domestic rare earth materials leader was initiated in new coverage by a firm called D.A. Davidson with a Buy rating and a $7.00 price target on the second day in April. This call itself represented an upside projection of 42.5%. That may sound short of the 50% hurdle, but what was so interesting is that the consensus price target listed by Thomson Reuters is still close to a double at $9.59. We would be cautious in being too aggressive in this high short seller battleground cult stock, but here is the full summary and background for the call.
OvaScience Inc. (OTCBB: OVSC) is another one we have not heard of, other than in name, but JMP Securities sure likes it. This OTC stock focuses on female infertility, and the firm started coverage at Market Outperform and gave it a whopping $20 price target on April 2. The company recently a secured $35 million in a private placement, and it did the offering through several brokerage firms, so we expect more coverage ahead. With a price of about $9 now, JMP sees this one more with more than 100% upside, if it is correct. Again, it is an OTC stock.
Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE: BTU) also was given a 50% or 100% upside call in late March by Jefferies. This one is battered in coal just like its peers, but it is an industry leader and that makes the call interesting, even if it seems hard to believe under the current anti-coal administration. The firm’s price target was put at $40, for almost 100% implied upside, and the implied upside is still more than 50% to the current consensus price target of $31.50.
Read Also: UBS Sees 25% or Higher Upside in 14 Stocks
Rosetta Resources Inc. (NASDAQ: ROSE) was named a Focus Stock by energy analysts at Howard Weil. The firm gave a $70 price target on April 2, and that implies 49% upside to the price after its recent close of $46.79. The consensus target is closer to $60, but that is still substantial upside for an independent exploration and production company that is expected to be an Eagle Ford Shale winner.
Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) was raised to Buy in a very positive LED sector upgrade by Canaccord Genuity in late March. The firm doubled the price target to $10, and that implied about an 80% upside at the time. The $10 target still implies more than 50% upside from the $6.50 or so price as of now, if the firm is correct.
Ruby Tuesday Inc. (NYSE: RT) was listed in the latest Barron’s (March 30) edition as a turnaround under new management. An analyst at a firm called Cove Street Capital, one we have never heard of, was quoted as saying the stock could rise to $13 if the restaurant chain can close the gap by half from what it lost in margins going back to 2007. Our only comment here is that this aggressive price target and the implied 70% or so upside is way above the handful of analysts that cover the stock.
Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: SGMO) is a speculative biotech play focused on zinc finger DNA-binding proteins for gene regulation and gene modification. On March 28, JMP Securities issued a new Market Outperform rating and a new street-high price target of $16 on the stock. At $9.40 now, this leaves an implied 70% upside. Be advised that only a handful of analysts cover this stock, and it is expected to have losses beyond 2014.
Read Also: Ten Things That Could Wreck the Bull Market
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT) has had a couple of driving forces behind its stock. On April 3, R.W. Baird started coverage at Outperform with a $63 price target, implying a whopping 85% upside. A late March call from William Blair gave an Outperform rating with a $52 price target, which implies upside of “only” about 53% from the current $34 price. As a reminder, Barron’s published in its weekend print edition in late March that if the upside is seen then the stock could rise 65% or much more, even though the article labeled the risks as well.
Ultra Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: UPL) is either going to be an incredible call or a real disappointment. On April 2 it was raised to Buy at Brean Capital (Brean Murray) with a whopping $36 price target. That is implying upside of almost 100%, versus the $18.74 share price of now. We would caution that other analysts recently refreshed their price targets as well, but with target prices under $20 for this almost-$3 billion independent oil and gas company.
Warner Chilcott PLC (NASDAQ: WCRX) may be another bounce-back winner for investors, if UBS is correct in a recent list of aggressive stocks with big upside. It is down more than 40% since last May, and the UBS price target for the stock is $23. The consensus estimate is $19.50. With a current $13.40 share price, the UBS implied upside is more than 70%, and even the implied upside to the consensus price is 45% or so.
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