The stock market has remained very choppy so far in 2015. Still, the bull market is now six years old and many analysts and market pundits expect the gains to resume in the months ahead. Investors keep looking for value or undiscovered stories, and they keep buying their favorite stocks on pullbacks.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each morning to find new trading and investing ideas for its readers. While some analyst calls cover stocks to buy and some cover stocks to sell, a review for major upside calls at the end of each week almost always leaves many stocks trading under $10 in which analysts see enormous upside potential.
Analyst calls in Dow Jones Industrial Average stocks may be for upside of 10% or 20%, but small-cap and low-priced stocks often come with analysts calling for upside of 30%, 50% or even 100%. This also implies that there is more rick — much more risk. The higher the risk, the higher the expected returns.
Keep in mind that analyst calls frequently do not live up to expectations. They are just a riskier class of stocks. Some of the calls may even feel like they are all-or-none gambles. Some small-cap stocks actually implode or stay beaten down for many years.
Investors sometimes believe is that small-cap and low-priced stocks eventually grow into huge companies. If history has proven one point, it is that some companies make it big, but most companies do not.
ALSO READ: Are Small Cap Stocks Better Than Large Caps Again?
This past week 24/7 Wall St. tracked eight key analyst calls in stocks that were trading under $10 at the time. They are Christopher & Banks Corp. (NYSE: CBK), CytRx Corp. (NASDAQ: CYTR), Diana Shipping Inc. (NYSE: DSX), FuelCell Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: FCEL), MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD), Medgenics Inc. (NYSEMKT: MDGN), Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG) and PMC-Sierra Inc. (NASDAQ: PMCS).
A runner-up call has been included that would have made for nine key analyst calls in stocks under $10, but its shares rallied too much now to be counted in the sub-$10 category. These are this week’s eight analyst calls for huge upside in stocks trading at $10 or less.
Christopher & Banks
This women’s apparel and accessories retailer received an upgrade this last Monday from Piper Jaffray, from Neutral to Overweight, and with the price target rising to $10 from $5. The prior closing price was $5.63, but shares were back down to $5.74 on Friday after they initially went up to over $6.00 on the upgrade. The consensus analyst target for this stock is $8.00, and the shares have a 52-week trading range of $4.12 to $11.22.
CytRx
CytRx was started as Outperform with a price target of $10 at Oppenheimer on Friday morning. Given the prior $4.50 close, this implies more than a double, if the firm is correct.
Oppenheimer said that its lead candidate, aldoxorubicin (aldox), leverages this albumin-based platform technology to enhance the therapeutic window for doxorubicin, but also noted that toxicity limits its therapeutic utility. Clinical data suggests that aldox appears to improve upon safety. Aldox is currently in Phase 3 trials in patients with advanced metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma and the company is also developing aldox in small-cell lung-cancer and glioblastoma. The firm sees aldoxorubicin as an initial proof-of-concept.
Oppenheimer’s “double your money call” caused an 11% rally to $5.01 on Friday, but that is still effectively a call for it to double. Be advised Oppenheimer appears to be the sole analyst with a price target here.
ALSO READ: The 5 Best Dow Stocks of 2015 Have More Upside Expected
Diana Shipping
Diana Shipping is currently trading right at 52-week lows. Deutsche Bank raised its rating to Buy from Hold back on Monday, and the firm gave a price target of $8 in the call. Shares ended the week at $6.08, which implies close to 30% upside. The 52-week trading range is $6.02 to $12.20.
FuelCell Energy
Because it does not get analyst calls that often, FuelCell Energy has not appeared in our stocks under $10 list in some time. A firm named Dougherty & Co. started coverage with a Buy rating on Friday. The big call is the $2.45 price target. Even after the gain on Friday, the $1.28 close implies upside of 90% here.
The firm projected that FuelCell has reached an inflection point with its power stations, and it expects that the company will become profitable by the beginning of 2016. Its stock was called undervalued, as investors may still doubt that the market for stationary power stations based on fuel cells is ripe for the significant growth that can be expected ahead. FuelCell Energy shares have traded between $1.05 and $2.84 in the past year.
MannKind
This biotech faced one of those analyst ratings that is still positive in general, but which came with a lower price target ambition. We will leave it up to readers to decide how positive it is. RBC Capital Markets maintained its Outperform rating on Thursday, but the firm lowered its price target to $10 from $13. The prior closing price was $5.28, and we could not help but notice that shares slid to $5.18 on the day of the call and then to $5.04 by Friday’s close. MannKind has a 52-week range of $4.45 to $11.48 and a consensus analyst price target of $8.16.
ALSO READ: Over Half of Dow Stocks Outyield 30-Year Treasury Bond
Medgenics
Back on Monday, JMP Securities started Medgenics with a Market Outperform rating. The firm’s price target of $15 compared to a prior closing price of $8.69, and the price was $9.13 by week’s end. Just keep in mind that the price rose as high as $9.60 back on Monday around the call. This has a thin following, thin trading volume and a 52-week range of $3.68 to $9.63.
Plug Power
Like FuelCell, this stock was also started with a Buy rating by Dougherty & Co. on Friday. The firm issued a price target of $3.70, which implies a gain of almost 40% from the $2.67 close on Friday. The firm pointed to growth and margin expansion, the materials handling market gains, adjacent markets, its key partnerships and strong customer relationships. The firm expects that Plug Power can reach breakeven by the end of 2016. The stock has a 52-week range of $2.42 to $8.37.
PMC-Sierra
On Thursday, PMC-Sierra was started with a Buy rating and was given a price target of $12 at the boutique called Benchmark. This was versus a prior $9.29 closing price, and shares were at $9.24 at the close on Friday. That $12 target is almost 20% higher than the consensus price target of $10.20, and it implied upside of 30% ahead from Friday’s trading, of Benchmark’s call proves accurate.
If you want proof that not all small-cap tech stocks rally into larger companies, PMC-Sierra has traded under $10 going back to 2006, and its 52-week range is $6.52 to $9.86.
Runner Up
On Tuesday, SuperCom Ltd. (NASDAQ: SPCB) was started as Buy with a $17.75 price target at B. Riley. Shares had closed at $9.83 before the call, but they were above $10 at end of Friday — closing at $11.22. That means that sub-$10 investors will have to hope for a pullback. SuperCom shares have a 52-week range of $7.00 to $14.15.
ALSO READ: 5 Outstanding UBS Quality Growth at Reasonable Price Stock Picks
One late-week review came from Credit Suisse, wherein the firm shifted its bias to small cap stocks from large cap ones. It just sees better select values in that category. Still, one cannot consider small caps without considering that they are often taking on much larger risks than Dow and most S&P 500 stocks.
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