Increasingly, the companies that we cover on Wall Street are starting to agree that while the future is still bright for the U.S. economy, it may one of stock market gains that are much lower than the norm has been over the past 10 years. When that is the case, then investing strategies often shift from indexing to a more disciplined stock-picking routine, and that’s when investors need solid growth ideas.
Jefferies highlights the firm’s top growth stocks to buy each week, and this week is no exception. While these stocks are better suited for accounts that have a higher risk tolerance, they all make good sense now, and all have outstanding upside potential. We found four picks that look extremely good now.
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Aurora Cannabis
The Jefferies team has become wary of the industry, but this stock remains a top pick. Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) produces and distributes medical cannabis products. It is vertically integrated and horizontally diversified across various segments of the cannabis value chain, from facility engineering and design to cannabis breeding, genetics research, production, derivatives, high value-add product development, home cultivation, wholesale and retail distribution.
The company’s products consist of dried cannabis and cannabis oil, CanniMed vegan capsules and hemp products. It also sells vaporizers, consumable vaporizer accessories and herb mills for using herbal cannabis products. Its CanvasRX is a network of cannabis counseling and outreach centers, and the company provides cannabis analytical product testing services.
The analysts feel that Aurora can become EBITDA positive by next year, though they note that the relatively low number of retail stores and outlets has held sales back.
The Jefferies price target for the shares is $5.25. A Wall Street consensus was not available. The stock closed trading on Friday at $3.68 per share.
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e.l.f. Beauty
After a hot initial public offering a few years back, and this has come back nicely for investors looking to add shares. e.l.f. Beauty Inc. (NYSE; ELF) offers products for eyes, lips and face to consumers through its retail customers, stores and e-commerce channels. The company offers a range of products for eyes, such as eye shadow, eyeliner, mascara, eyelashes, eyebrows, concealer and primer, brushes and tools, and sets and palettes.
The company sells its products in national and international retailers (with international primarily serviced by distributors) and direct-to-consumer channels. It sells its products in retail stores in the United States across mass, drug store, food and specialty retail channels. The analysts estimate that 24% of its consumers are Hispanic.
The stock has struggled, but the Jefferies analysts remain positive and noted this in their research:
We raise our second half estimates to reflect strong consumption patterns with Nielsen data indicating a sales acceleration to +16%, incremental space gains at retailers owing to superior performance (and in advance of Spring 2020 floorsets), evidence of a rebound in brand equity from our survey of 1000+ US consumers on their beauty habits (#5 in terms of brands respondents are using now and didn’t use a year ago) and international distribution.
Jefferies has a price target of $20.25 a share, while the posted consensus target price is $18.23. The stock closed at $17.14 on Friday.
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Marvell Technology
This top company is one of the favored mid-cap technology picks at Jefferies. Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL | MRVL Price Prediction) is a fabless supplier of mixed-signal and analog semiconductor products to a number of storage, computing and communication applications, including hard disk drives, personal computers, servers, Ethernet switches, printers and connectivity markets.
Top analysts around Wall Street remain very positive on the company’s 2017 purchase of Cavium, and many feel the deal adds significantly to the growth element for the stock. The addition also helps make Marvell solidly positioned in data center, cloud, enterprise, security and 5G.
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The Jefferies team met with Marvell Technology management recently and noted this:
We hosted the company’s VP of Investor Relations for investor meetings this week and came away with increased confidence in the company’s 5G and Networking product cycles. Marvell believes it can currently address $4000 of silicon content per base station. Given low market share in 4G, we think 5G base station silicon would largely be upside from Marvell’s current quarterly revenue run rate. In the Networking business, we model a 20% year over year decline in the third quarter, due in large part to an inventory correction in the supply chain. That said, the new management team has identified Networking as a growth biz and reinvested in it and we view the business with an attractive growth profile.
Marvell Technology shareholders receive a 1.00% dividend. The $29 Jefferies price target compares with the $27.86 consensus price objective, as well as the most recent closing price of $24.04 a share.
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Charles Schwab
The iconic discount broker rocked the discount brokers recently with the elimination of commissions for online trading. Charles Schwab Corp. (NYSE: SCHW) is a leading provider of brokerage, banking and investment-related services to consumers and businesses. The firm has two business segments. Investor Services provides retail brokerage, banking, advice and other financial services, while Institutional Services provides business-to-business services to independent investment advisers and company benefit plan sponsors.
The analysts commented on the changes in commissions in the research report:
We think the commission cuts recently highlight the rising importance of scale and a diversified product offering and our 2020 estimated EPS estimates for the discount brokers come down by ~21% on average. We believe the tougher competitive and commission environment will drive more mergers and acquisitions and e*trade is the most likely candidate. We believe the acceleration in the shift to fee-based advice will continue and our survey suggests that of the respondents with brokerage accounts (only 25%), 61% indicated they would consider banking exclusively with a discount broker. We see Schwab as best positioned to capitalize on product, tech and customer service.
Charles Schwab shareholders receive a 1.82% dividend. Jefferies has set its price target at $43. The consensus estimate is $41.22, and the stock closed on Friday at $37.28, up over 3% on the day.
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These four stocks offer investors strength in their specific industries and the ability to generate some significant portfolio alpha. All are suitable for growth accounts that have a larger degree of risk tolerance.
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