24/7 Wall St.

Many investors are looking for where to put their money now that the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit 18,000. What has been proven time and again in 2014 is that investors will buy value stocks and overlooked stocks on any serious pullback. That sets a climate ripe for stock pickers, and many investors just love to look at small cap or low-priced stocks trading at or under the $10 mark.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each morning of the week to find new investing and trading ideas for its readers. It turns out that some of the so-called stocks to buy in the ratings reviews have low share prices, near or under the $10 price handle. With last week being a Christmas shortened one, we should have expected very few analyst reports. It was more than surprising that we tracked 13 analyst calls with huge implied upside in stocks under or just above the $10 mark.

Investors must take extra precautions with low-priced stocks, particularly if they are small-cap or micro-cap stocks. Many of the companies do not have stock options that allow investors to hedge their positions, and that makes them generally in the highly speculative class of stocks. Some could even fail if the analysts are wrong — and we often see that analysts are very wrong. These low-priced stocks almost never pass the classic “widows and orphans” suitability test.

Some investors believe that there is more potential upside in low-priced and small cap stocks than in established companies worth billions of dollars that have much higher share prices. That belief is often very misguided, but that is still how some investors view stocks. These are the 13 analyst calls in stocks trading around $10 with big analyst calls this past week.

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BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ: BBRY) may be above $10 currently, but TD Securities raised its rating to Buy from Hold with a $13 price target. The closing price based on the call was $9.99. BlackBerry’s earnings report showed that this remains a battleground stock. Still, it is hard to find many BlackBerry bulls on Wall Street.

Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) may have a slightly lowered price target, from $11 down to $10 at Brean Capital, but the firm did maintain its Buy rating. That price target also implied more than 20% upside in the stock. With a 52-week range of $5.18 to $12.42, and a share price north of $8, we will let readers decide if 20% is enough upside to offset risk in what has been a very disappointing stock.

ImmunoGen Inc. (NASDAQ: IMGN) has had a very hard 2014, but a call from RBC Capital Markets leaves a bit of controversy. The firm maintained its Outperform rating, but it cut the price target sharply — to $11 from $18. This still represents close to a double-your-money call if the firm is right based, on a $5.65 trading price ahead of Christmas. Here is why: ImmunoGen appointed Richard Gregory as its chief scientific officer, and he was most recently head of research for the Sanofi Genzyme Research & Development Center.

Key Energy Services Inc. (NYSE: KEG) is a very speculative rig-based contractor, and lower oil prices have mauled shares. Still, Iberia Capital was reported as having raised the rating to Outperform from Market Perform on Monday. The stock had previously traded down at $1.74, and the $3.50 price target would imply a double-your-money call if it proves to be correct. One thing to note here is that the company is losing money, and analysts expect it to lose more money for at least this year and next.

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Rite Aid Corp. (NYSE: RAD) delivered a serious victory on earnings recently. Cowen took notice that the turnaround may be regaining steam. The firm raised Rite Aid to Outperform from Neutral, simultaneously raising its price target to $8.50 from $6. Rite Aid shares were at $6.77 prior to the call, but the stock was at $7.41 by the end of the week.

24/7 Wall St. has also tracked seven more stocks around $10 price or less that have huge implied upside if the analysts covering these stocks turn out to be accurate. They are as follows:

Sonus Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: SONS) was started as Outperform with a $4.65 to $4.75 fair value range by Wells Fargo on Tuesday. This was against a $3.95 closing price on Monday. This company was an $8 stock back in 2007, but it just has been unable to stay above $4 since 2008. Will this time be different?

Alliqua Inc. (NASDAQ: ALQA) is a micro-cap stock worth only about $66 million, in the field of proprietary transdermal wound care and drug delivery technologies. With shares barely at $4 of late, a firm named H.C. Wainwright started coverage on Alliqua with a Buy rating and a whopping $10 price target.

Energous Corp. (NASDAQ: WATT) is still a relatively new company, but it recently completed a $21 million net capital raise at $7.00 per share. Roth Capital Partners started coverage with a Buy rating and a $15 price target. With shares around $10, its 52-week range is $7.11 to $16.44. Investors should know that Roth was a co-book runner in that offering. Energous is a company that could have major promise if it can deliver in its wire-free charging technology ambitions. And, yes, that implies that it comes with much risk as well.

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Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: HALO) was started as Buy at MLV & Co. on Wednesday. The $12 price target compared to a prior close of $9.03, and shares ended the week at $9.62. This target of $12 is more than $1 under the consensus price target, but it implies nearly 20% upside.

NeuroDerm Ltd. (NASDAQ: NDRM) is a relatively new stock and its volume is light. Therefore, we are not offering any color on it. The stock was up almost 9% at $6.35 ahead of the Christmas break, after Oppenheimer started coverage with an Outperform rating and a whopping $18 price target. That is nearly 200% in implied upside if they are right. Shares closed the week at $6.06.

NQ Mobile Inc. (NYSE: NQ) has been slaughtered this year, and some investors have more than just serious questions. Topeka Capital Markets maintained its Buy rating but lowered its price target to $8.50, supposedly from $33 previously. Due to the nature of this stock, we are offering no color at all. Still, its shares were up handily above $4 again after news of an $80 million buyback.

Quest Resource Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: QRHC) offers integrated sustainability and recycling solutions to businesses, and its $150 million market cap is so small that it would be overlooked by many analysts. Maxim Group started coverage with a Buy rating last week. The firm’s $1.80 price target implies 33% upside from the $1.35 prior close. Quest Resource also has a 52-week range of $1.21 to $6.23, so perhaps the analyst initiation is trying to call a bottom.

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A runner-up this past week was CryoLife Inc. (NYSE: CRY). This medical devices (and implants player) rarely gets analyst calls and it was just above $10 prior to the call — hence the runner-up. Piper Jaffray raised its rating to Overweight from Neutral and raised its price target to $15 from $10, versus a prior close of $10.39. If the market brings a pullback, you have at least one analyst with big upside expectations. This was actually a new street-high analyst target, as the prior high analyst target was $14.