24/7 Wall St. reviews hundreds of analyst research reports each week. There are almost endless calls about stocks to buy and stocks to sell, but it is in these low-priced and small-cap stocks where the analyst calls seem to be the most aggressive. Some of these calls come with upside price targets higher by 50%, 100% or even more than current prices.
Investors need to understand that small-cap stocks and low-priced stocks generally have much more implied risk than S&P 500 stocks or Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks. There is a reason there are hardly any analyst reports calling for Dow or S&P 500 stocks to rise 50% or 100%, but there are in the small-cap and low-priced stocks. Please also keep in mind that small-cap and low-priced stocks would almost never pass a “widows and orphans” suitability test for investors.
24/7 Wall St. has identified 10 analyst calls in the stocks under $10 category with massive upside potential. Two of these stocks peaked just above $10 this week.
Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHN) was raised to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Jaffray with a $10 price target, and it was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Wells Fargo. The problem with these upgrades is that the prior close was $7.36, then shares rose to $8.44, and then they closed Friday at $9.25. The driving force was positive news on Achillion’s Hep-C drug.
Cowen Group Inc. (NASDAQ: COWN) is a firm that, through its Cowen and Company segment, is usually making analyst calls rather than receiving them. JMP Securities initiated coverage with a Market Outperform rating and gave the brokerage and asset management firm a $5.00 price target. Shares closed Friday at $4.02.
ALSO READ: Major Portfolio Changes from Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway
FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL) was raised Wednesday to Outperform from Market Perform and given a $3 price target (versus $2.27 Tuesday close) at Cowen and Company. The fuel cell player was up 6% at $2.41 in early trading indications on the news on Wednesday, and it closed Friday at $2.53.
Coeur Mining Inc. (NYSE: CDE) had a bad week as the gold mining outfit went above $8.50 early in the week and closed down at $7.96 on Friday. Shares were maintained as Buy but the price target was cut to $14 from $18 at Sterne Agee this week.
JAKKS Pacific, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) was raised to Overweight from Neutral with a $9 price target at Piper Jaffray on Thursday. This was against a $6.34 prior close, and shares closed at $6.42 on Friday. We would also point out that the consensus price target here is $10.00 for the toy maker.
MBIA Inc. (NYSE: MBI) was under $10 up until Friday. The stock had been at $9.88 prior to the call and had been trading under $9.50 earlier in the week. BTIG assigned a Buy rating and $12 price target, and shares closed at $10.49 on Friday. Investors will have to hope for pullbacks now if they hold on to a $10 stock price rule.
Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) was started as Buy with a $9 price at Citigroup on Wednesday. Shares were just under $4.50 at the time, and the stock closed at $4.64 on Friday. In short, this is a double-your-money pick (if Citi is right, of course).
Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) was up after earnings this week. Cowen and Company reiterated its Outperform rating on the fuel cell company. Shares closed down 3% at $5.92 on Friday. The caveat needs to be made that this is extra volatile with a 52-week range of $0.36 to $11.72.
Quartet Merger Corp. (NASDAQ: QTET) closed at $10.04 on Friday, so it technically isn’t under $10 at the cut-off time. Still, shares had been under $10 this last week. The blank-check company was started with a Buy rating and $16 price target at Canaccord Genuity. Quartet is soon to be an operating company as it is set to merge with privately held Pangaea Logistics Solutions. Pangaea provides logistics services to a broad base of industrial customers who require the transportation of a wide variety of dry bulk cargoes, including grains, iron, bauxite, alumina, cement clinker, dolomite, and limestone.
ALSO READ: What The Market Is Screaming At MannKind About
Scorpio Tankers Inc. (NYSE: STNG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral, and the price target was raised up to $12 from $9 (versus a $9.38 prior close) at Credit Suisse on Thursday. Shares closed at $9.64 on Friday, and the consensus price target is up at $11.44.
In case you missed last weekend’s analyst stock picks under $10, they included shares of AMD, Alcatel-Lucent, Alpha Natural, Groupon, Himax, and a half-dozen more companies.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks
