Investing

Twelve Analyst Stocks to Buy Under $10 With Huge Implied Upside

Stocks hit all-time highs yet again this past week. It is amazing that the investment community keeps hearing that the bull market has migrated to a stock picker’s market from a raging bull market. This is a climate in which investors will still look for gains, but they will be selective in their picks to avoid getting caught in bad stocks. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst upgrades and downgrades each day of the week, hunting for new ideas of stocks to buy and stocks to sell or avoid. As it turns out, there are almost always some hidden gems in the low-priced stocks trading under $10 and under $5 for their share prices.

What really stands out in this group of stocks is that in many cases the analysts are calling for the shares to double.

24/7 Wall St. does have a warning here for investors to keep in mind. Low-priced and small-cap stocks generally come with the most risk of all stocks in the market. If you want to see proof of this, consider that as of Friday there were only four stocks in the S&P 500 index trading under $10. Three were above $9.50, and only one of the S&P 500 members was trading under $9.

Another risk test here is that most stocks under $10 would also fail the “widows and orphans” suitability test, a term that brokers and financial advisors have to consider when it comes to ethics and suitability of investments for their clients. In short, small-cap and low-priced stocks can have risks that are way above average.

Last weekend’s stocks under $10 included eight picks, including FuelCell Energy, Halcon Resources, Harmony Gold Mining, Office Depot and more.

We have found 12 appropriate analyst calls from this past week that called for potentially huge upside in stocks under $10, plus there was one runner-up as a near-miss. We have listed what the analyst calls were and given the price targets if available.

These were the top analyst calls of the stocks trading under $10 for the week of June 2 to June 6.

Abraxas Petroleum Corp. (NASDAQ: AXAS) was raised to Buy from Neutral by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey on Thursday, raising its price target to $6 from $5. Shares rose from just over $4.60 before the call to $5.44 by the time Friday came.

Advantage Oil & Gas Ltd. (NYSE: AAV) was raised on Monday to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital Markets, and the price target was lifted to $8.50 from $7.00 in the call. Shares were at $6.01 ahead of the call and were up to $6.85 on Friday.

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Bio-Path Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BPTH) could be a double if Maxim Group is correct. On Monday, the firm raised its rating to Buy with a $5 price target. Shares were at $2.70 midday Friday.


Halcon Resources Corp. (NYSE: HK) was reiterated as Buy at Wunderlich on Thursday, but the big move was that the price target was raised to $9 from $7. Shares were at $6.40 on Friday, and this is the first stock that is close to a double of our nine stock picks that could double in 2014. This was also one of last weekend’s analyst picks under $10.

Hercules Offshore Inc. (NASDAQ: HERO) was started as Outperform and given a $6 price target at Macquarie on Wednesday. Shares had been at $4.53 prior to the call, and shares were marginally lower on Friday.

ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Ltd. (NYSEMKT: IMUC) was raised to Buy from Neutral by Roth Capital Markets on Monday, and the price target was raised to $3 from $2, versus a $1.34 prior close. Keep in mind that this was a $1.14 stock on Friday, and Maxim Group took a prior $12 target down to $4 this last week too.

JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) was raised to Buy from Hold on Friday by Needham & Co., with a $10 price target. Shares of the gaming and toy company were at $7.31 on Thursday before the call, and the stock was up over $7.70 in Friday’s trading session.

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Kofax Ltd. (NASDAQ: KFX) was started as Buy and given a $10 price target at Canaccord Genuity last Monday. Shares were close to $8.40 at the end of the week.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. (NYSE: MHR) was raised to Buy from Hold and given an $11 price target by Stifel last Monday. The stock was at $7.66 at the time, but had risen to $8.67 by the time Friday came around. Also this week we saw that Credit Suisse started coverage as Outperform, but with a more tame $9 price target.

National Bank of Greece S.A. (NYSE: NBG) was a double winner this week in analyst calls. On Tuesday, Nomura raised its rating up to Buy from Reduce, but in the overseas call it lowered the price target slightly. Then on Wednesday came an upgrade to Buy from Hold by Deutsche Bank. Shares were as low as $3.50 this week but the stock had reached around $4.10 by Friday.

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Rubicon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RBCN) was maintained with a Buy rating on Friday, but the price target was cut to $10 from $14, from a $7.89 close, based on its LED outlook at Canaccord Genuity.

SUPERVALU Inc. (NYSE: SVU) was started with an Outperform rating at Oppenheimer on Tuesday, and it was given a $10 price target. Shares were at $7.24 before the call, but the stock had gone to $8.10 by the time Friday arrived.

And for a runner-up …

Angie’s List Inc. (NASDAQ: ANGI) closed at $10.10 on Thursday and shares briefly traded under $10. Merrill Lynch missed the under $10 mark by a day here, but the firm raised the rating to Buy from Neutral, and assigned a $16 price target. That is more than 50% upside. Shares were initially up at $11.00 on Friday. Again, this just missed the sub-$10 mark by hours.

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