Investing

3 AI Stocks Wall Street Expects to Return Up to 595% in 2024

Trey Thoelcke

Published: March 28, 2024 8:40 am

Excitement over the prospects for artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be a significant driver for many stocks, including several of the so-called Magnificent Seven. The question for investors who have been wary about what might have been a fad, or those who are simply late to the party, is whether they have missed the boat. Have all the profits in AI stocks been made?

There may still be opportunities to be found. Take for example Exscientia PLC (NASDAQ: EXAI), Guardforce AI Co. Ltd. (NASDAQ: GFAI), and Microbot Medical Inc. (NASDAQ: MBOT). These AI stocks have retreated in the past year, and yet analysts anticipate strong rebounds for them in the next 12 months. So what’s up here? Let’s have a look.

Exscientia

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This AI-driven pharmatech company engages in the application of AI and machine learning to the discovery and design of therapeutic compounds. Its platform enables it to design candidate drug molecules, as well as to provide patients with drug therapies through AI-guided assessment.

The stock briefly spiked in February after the company’s CEO was ousted for having inappropriate relationships with employees. But the company has posted disappointing quarterly and full-year results since then, and the share price is now down almost 10% year to date. Shares went public at $22 apiece, but they have traded for as high as $9.12 in the past year. Analysts don’t expect it to go that high in the next 12 months but still see plenty of room for it to run.

Note though that two of the three analysts who follow the stock rate it at Hold. Their mean price target is less than the 52-week high, but the highest target is up at $10. That would be a gain of more than 74% for the shares. (Wall Street expects two AI stocks to return at least 50% in 2024.)

Guardforce AI

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This Singapore-based provider of integrated security solutions offers a range of security solutions that enhance safety and protection, including cash-handling security solutions, advanced robotics AI, and information security consulting. Its cash-handling services include cash-in-transit, vehicles to banks, ATM management, cash center operations, cash processing, coin processing, consolidating cash center, and cheque center services, as well as cash deposit machine solutions, such as cash deposit management and express cash services. The company also sells and rents robots. Its customers include local commercial banks, chain retailers, coin-manufacturing mints, and government authorities.

The announcement of a new three-year contract with a leading Japanese retailer last fall did nothing for a stock in retreat. Shares began this year in freefall but turned around when the company named a new chief financial officer back in January. Shares were changing hands for a 52-week low of $2.04 then, but the stock is up around 58% since. The consensus recommendation of analysts is to buy shares.

Microbot Medical

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This pre-clinical medical device company engages in the research, design, development, and commercialization of micro-robotics-assisted medical technologies. Its ViRob platform technology is an autonomous crawling micro-robot that users can control remotely or within the body. Its Self-Cleaning Shunt is a robotic system designed as the ventricular catheter portion of a Cerebrospinal Fluid shunt system and is mainly used for the treatment of hydrocephalus and normal pressure hydrocephalus. The TipCat platform, a self-propelling, flexible, and semi-disposable endoscope, provides see-and-treat capabilities within tubular lumens in the human body such as the colon, blood vessels, and the urinary tract.

The company reported successful study results back at the end of December, and it named a new chief medical officer last November. The share price briefly jumped after the study results, but the stock is down more than 12% in the past six months to a little more than $1 per share.

The two analysts who follow the stock recommend buying shares, and their consensus price target indicates that they see plenty of upside potential for the coming year.