Investing

6 Analyst Stocks Predicted to Double

June brought a lot of investor volatility toward the end of the month. Some sectors and stocks made big moves, and some are expected to make even larger moves in the months ahead. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports each day to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. Some of these analyst calls cover stocks to buy and they sometimes come with massive upside. Occasionally, some analyst picks are even called on to nearly double in price.

While traditional Dow and S&P 500 stocks are often given upside of 8% to 15% for the Buy and Outperform ratings, some analysts see certain stocks rising 30%, 50% or even 100%. Even with the market’s growing concerns, the one trend that has been seen for nearly four years now is that investors find one reason or another to buy every single market pullback.

24/7 Wall St. has broken out those analyst calls where the Buy and Outperform ratings during the month of June came with an implied upside of close to 100% to the stated analyst price target. Some may have slightly less than a prediction to double, but others come with even more implied upside targets. It is important to remember here that the bull market is now more than six years old and that there has not been a real market correction in three years.

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Investors need to use caution when it comes to very aggressive analyst calls. If there is the potentiality of five to 10 times the normal analyst target implied upside for Dow stocks, then there is a massive amount of higher risk as well. Some of these stocks are small enough that they are even smaller in size than most small-cap stocks. Some may not even have reached their full revenues stage.

Advanced Micro Devices

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) is a very controversial analyst call by most standards, including our own. Northland Securities issued a Buy rating on June 9, with a whopping $5.00 price target. AMD was at $2.31 prior to the call (116% implied upside) but was more recently trading at $2.40 (105% or so implied upside). Most analysts are quite cautious on AMD after being burned so many times. AMD’s consensus price target is $2.63 and its 52-week range is $2.14 to $4.80.

Northland sees AMD’s data center penetration carrying the company, and the firm even believes that there is a possible takeover chance as well. Wells Fargo has remained positive on AMD for much of the downdraft, but with a fair value range that is far more conservative than this call — and there is also the possibility that AMD could effectively fall to zero. It is important to see both sides of the coin.

Frontier Communications

Frontier Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: FTR) is still a very controversial name and is still considered a battleground stock due to its telecom dividend yield of close to 8%. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed a post-merger analysis that was partly from Wells Fargo in the first week of June, showing that the Frontier dividend is likely safe after the merger and capital raises. Wells Fargo’s valuation range is also $8.50 to $9.00, well above the consensus target of $6.85.

There were two other recent analyst calls around the same time as well. Frontier was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Raymond James with a price target of $6.00. The firm D.A. Davidson raised its rating to Buy from Neutral with a $6.50 price target. Frontier has a 52-week range of $4.86 to $8.46.

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Synergy Pharmaceuticals

Synergy Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SGYP) was very interesting because at one point this stock nearly doubled already in the month of June, prior to coming back down a bit. That was thanks to the positive drug study news on its IBS and constipation market opportunity being so massive. One June 19, Canaccord Genuity elevated its Buy rating target to $19.00 from $11.00. The firm ultimately sees a $2 billion long-term drug potential due to the constipation component.

Canaccord Genuity’s call on Synergy Pharmaceuticals represents more than 130% upside from the most recent $8.20 share price. A less bullish call was made by Cantor Fitzgerald, taking its Buy rating target up from $8.50 to $14.00. Synergy has a 52-week trading range of $2.45 to $9.52.

Oculus Innovative Sciences

Oculus Innovative Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ: OCLS) makes prescription and OTC products based on its Microcyn platform. It is truly a micro-cap stock, worth just over $20 million. The company recently raised $4.5 million by selling shares of a company called Ruthigen. Maxim Group issued a new Buy rating on Oculus on June 26, but what stood out was its $3.00 price target. The prior closing price was $1.38, and the latest price was right around $1.43.

One thing to consider about the size of Oculus is that only one other analyst target exists, but that call is even higher at $4.00. Oculus has a 52-week range of $0.65 to $3.22, and shares were just under $1.00 one month prior to this call.

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ExOne

ExOne Co. (NASDAQ: XONE) was reiterated as Outperform with a $26.00 price target by Oppenheimer on June 23. This call is after remodeling the valuation after earnings were reported earlier in June. That implies that shares are worth over 100% more than the current share price of $11.50.

ExOne is in 3D printing and investors have been burned by betting on the 3D printing boom that never came on as fast as many had hoped. One word of caution here is that Oppenheimer is the most positive of all analysts. The target is over $10.00 higher than the consensus, and the call is also for a very back-end loaded recovery that is later in 2015 or even into 2016. This leaves a lot of execution risk, and what if the company keeps stumbling?

ExOne has a market cap of only $181 million and a 52-week range of $11.45 to $48.66. If investors wonder if an analyst is making a Hail Mary pass, this ExOne may be it. Still, some Hail Mary passes can win a game.

New Media Investment

New Media Investment Group Inc. (NYSE: NEWM), which is made up of GateHouse Media in community and weekly newspapers, reaches roughly 14 million people per week. This old media player with a new media twist was started as Buy at Citigroup with a $37.00 price target on June 8. The driving force is a press to redesign, and the company is now going to redesign its sites for mobile and desktop.

The company’s shares were closer to $19.00 around the call, but the more recent price of $17.95 leaves an implied upside of almost 110%. New Media’s consensus analyst price target is $33.80, and it comes with a 52-week range of $12.89 to $25.77.

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Again, do not forget that there is a much higher degree of risk when an analyst sees the potentiality of the stock to more than double. It generally requires a lot of great things to happen for a stock to double. In most cases, those great things are more than just a continuation of the bull market. As a reminder, not all analyst calls work out as expected — and some crash and burn.

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