Investing

Goldman Sachs Newest Favorite Stocks for Serious Upside in 2019

After a rocky 2018, the markets have gone back to a rock ‘n’ roll bull market posturing at the start of 2019. There are hopes for China trade and tariffs issues being resolved, the Federal Reserve has figured out that it was being far too hawkish and a solid earnings season and less inflation-threatening economic reports have all helped the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 to be up roughly 11% so far in 2019.

After such strong gains and a classic V-bottom recovery, investors need to consider how they want their assets and portfolios positioned for the rest of 2019 and beyond. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst calls and research reports each day of the week, and this ends up being hundreds and hundreds of analyst calls over a multi-week period. One firm’s research that captures the attention of the investing community is Goldman Sachs. After all, the firm caters exclusively to wealthy individuals and institutional clients.

After seeing that Goldman Sachs made several key changes to its prized Conviction Buy List in January, it turns out that the firm issued even more new Buy ratings in February and at the start of March. These are fresh picks over the past month, some ahead of and some after earnings, in which the Goldman Sachs analysts see big upside for investors in 2019.

24/7 Wall St. has tracked the positive analyst calls, with newly issued Buy ratings or when the firm upgraded the rating to Buy or added it to its prized Conviction Buy list. We did not count the calls when the firm reiterated its Buy ratings that only came with updated price targets.

It is the responsibility of each investor to decide if these stocks are appropriate for their own portfolios. The year 2019 seems to be, at least for now, on slightly more stable ground than just two months ago. As a reminder, most Buy and Outperform ratings in large-cap stocks are issued with roughly 8% to 12% in implied total returns (capital gains plus dividends) at this stage in the bull market.

We have provided consensus estimates and targets from Thomson Reuters (now Refinitiv) and trading and performance history on each for a reference. Additional color on each call has been added as well. Here are 12 stocks in which Goldman Sachs has issued stellar upside calls in the past three weeks that still have not hit their implied price targets.

Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV), which investors previously knew as Delphi Automotive, was already rated as Buy but Goldman Sachs added it to its prized Conviction Buy list with a $102 target price on February 13. Its shares had traded at $77.16 ahead of the call, representing a well-above-average implied upside of 32% at the time. Aptiv was last seen trading at $84.00, with a $22 billion market cap.

The stock has a 52-week trading range of $58.80 to $103.23 and a consensus analyst price target of $90.46. It has a dividend yield of 1.1%. The top analyst target on Wall Street is $110. While this is above-average upside in the call, the 52-week range indicates that this call might not be out of the realm of expectations for this electronics parts-maker for the auto and transportation markets.

Box Inc. (NYSE: BOX) is a call that has so far not lived up to Goldman Sachs’ expectations after earnings. The firm started coverage with a Buy rating and issued a $31 price target on February 5. The shares were trading at $21.57 ahead of the call, implying that Goldman saw close to 50% upside at the time.

Shares had risen to almost $25, but the earnings report at the end of February came with guidance that was softer for the first quarter of 2019. Box recently traded back down to $20.10. Whether Goldman Sachs will keep its strong bullish views remains to be seen, and it is not uncommon for analysts to keep a positive rating while dialing down some price targets after unexpected earnings or guidance disappointments.

Box has traded in a 52-week range of $15.64 to $29.79, and it has a consensus price target of $24.57.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the target price was raised to $82 from $76 at Goldman Sachs on February 4. Its shares were trading at $69.61 ahead of the call, adjusting for the dividend paid after that date. More recently its shares were trading at $68.60, still implying about 20% upside before considering the dividend.

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