With stocks finally showing that they can drift lower again, investors and traders have been looking for opportunities to get in now that stocks have backed off all-time highs. 24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of Wall Street analyst reports and boutique research reports each day of the week, or hundreds each week. The goal is to find new trading and investment ideas for our readers, some of which cover stocks to buy and others that cover stocks to sell.

Wall Street research reports generally call for 10%, 20% or even 30% from traditional “Buy” recommendations, but that is not necessarily true when it comes to small-cap stocks trading under $10. This sub-$10 sector gets less analyst coverage, but that coverage often calls for shares to rise by 50%, 100% or much more.

Investors looking at analyst reports in small cap and low-priced shares should take heed: These are rarely S&P 500 or DJIA equivalent calls, and the companies are generally loaded with more implied risks than are traditional DJIA and S&P 500 stocks. Calling for upside of 40%, 75% or exponential upside is far from normal expectations and is not the typical risk-reward scenario for most stocks.

A key issue to consider is that almost none of these low-priced stocks would pass the old “widows and orphans” suitability tests by almost all counts. Also, a key note should made in speculative stocks of this sort — many speculative analyst stocks do not live up to expectations, and many of them can crash and burn.

We have included a research summary of each analyst call of these top stocks under $10. Also included is a note tied to the price, value or trading range, and some color has been added on each. These were the top analyst stocks to buy under $10 seen in research calls issued this past week.

Aerohive Networks Inc. (NYSE: HIVE) has not taken off handily since its IPO, despite its cloud-managed mobile networking platform that enables enterprises to deploy a mobile-centric network-infrastructure for a mobile and remote workforces. Macquarie sees big upside, starting coverage with an Outperform rating and assigning a $10 price target. Morgan Stanley was more cautious this week with an Equal Weight rating, but that is what makes a ball game.

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Callon Petroleum Co, (NYSE: CPE) was raised to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey last Wednesday. The price target of $12.00 implied upside of 31%, but Callon was up at $9.42 mid-Friday. What was interesting about this was that Callon sold 12 million shares at $9.00 per share in a secondary offering this week as well — and SunTrust wasn’t in the offering group. Canaccord Genuity had Callon on this same list last week as well.

Good Times Restaurants Inc. (NASDAQ: GTIM) is a tiny, micro-cap restaurant chain with only 36 locations. Roth Capital Partners initiated coverage with a Buy rating this week and it assigned a $7.50 price target. This was trading at $4.00 earlier in the week and was up over 2% at $5.08 mid-Friday. This leaves almost 50% upside, and the market cap was only $38 million.

Kinross Gold Corp. (NYSE: KGC) was listed with five gold stocks that could rise 40% or more this week. RBC rates it as Outperform, and while it lowered the price target to $5.50, that is still some 50% in implied upside. The call is based somewhat on its plans to slash capital spending by as much as $555 million this year while it has problematic cash flow issues. Still Kinross has been considered a potential acquisition by some. Kinross was at $3.65 early in the week and $3.70 in mid-Friday trading.

Maxwell Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: MXWL) was started as Outperform with a $12 price target (versus a $9.33 close) at Cowen on Friday. The company is a leading supplier of innovative ultra-capacitor solutions targeted at automotive, wind, heavy-duty transportation, rail, consumer electronics, industrial motive power and utility metering applications. Maxwell has solid opportunities in China with sales for regenerative braking systems for municipal buses. Cowen places the initial price target at $12, while the consensus target is much higher at $16.

Noranda Aluminum Holding Corp. (NYSE: NOR) was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $7 price target at Goldman Sachs on Friday. After a $4.24 close, the price jumped some 20% to $5.10 in mid-Friday trading, and the stock had hit a new 52-week high as well. It is very unusual to see firms like Goldman Sachs issue ratings of this magnitude — particularly in stocks with low prices.

Sigma Designs Inc. (NASDAQ: SIGM) was reiterated as Buy at Needham this week, but the price target was raised to $7 from $5.50 after the company introduced its set-top box chipsets this week. The stock had been under $5.00 earlier in the week, but the $5.45 price mid-Friday implies upside of close to 30%, if the call is right.

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Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform and was given an $8 price target at Cowen. In a separate note, Barclays raised its price target to $7 from $6 this week as well. Zacks Investment Research also talked up the stock to say to look for more gains ahead — while not changing its rating.

VimpelCom Ltd. (NASDAQ: VIP) is unusual to see right now because of extensive exposure to Russia. Still, RBC Capital markets started coverage with an Outperform rating and $11 price target on Tuesday. The stock slid during the week and the ADSs were at $8.57 in mid-Friday trading, which implies upside of almost 30%. VimpelCom shares have traded in a range of $7.53 to $14.74 over the past year.

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: VTSS) has been forgotten about by many chip investors, but a boutique firm named Ascendiant Capital believes differently. This firm started coverage with a Buy rating and a $5.25 price target. This represents 50% upside, if the call proves right. Vitesse was up at $3.57 on Friday, and its 52-week range is $2.42 to $4.69.

Wet Seal Inc. (NASDAQ: WTSL) doesn’t seem to have anything good going for it, though the return of its former CEO may offer some hope for the company. The apparel company was raised to Buy from Neutral with a $1.50 price target at B. Riley this week after having been at $0.68 before the call. Shares were up at $0.75 mid-Friday, against a 52-week range of $0.65 to $4.11. Effectively, this is a “double or nothing” call.

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In case you missed last week’s installment of analyst stocks to buy priced under $10, they were in shares of Callon, Groupon, Glu Mobile, Orexigen, Radisys, SandRidge Energy, Scorpio Bulkers, and Threshold Pharma.

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