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5 Standout Analyst Upgrades From Monday With Big Upside

With the S&P 500 hitting all-times again, 24/7 Wall St. is looking for value stocks and overlooked stories for its readers. It has been proven for almost four years now that investors will buy up literally every single pullback in the market. Wall Street analysts have made many upgrades and downgrades, and the goal here was to identify five of the key analyst upgrades that many investors may have overlooked.

These stocks to buy generally have been assigned much higher implied upside to their current share prices, and the objectives are all well above the consensus price targets seen from Thomson Reuters. Additional color on each call and trading history has been provided as well.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) might just sound ho-hum considering that its Buy rating was reiterated at Topeka Capital Markets. The big issue is that Netflix saw its price target raised from $604 to $723, another $110 higher than the closing price of $613.25. The international expansion is a big upside, as is the potentiality of getting into China, which drove Netflix shares last week above $600 for the first time ever. Netflix has a consensus price target that is actually down around $574, and its 52-week range is $315.54 to $619.25.

PDC Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCE) was flying high on a 4% gain to $57.45 after Goldman Sachs started coverage on the prized Conviction Buy List. The $77 price target is more than $8 higher than the consensus target. The big issue at hand is that Goldman lowered its oil forecasts, and it slashed and burned many stocks in the oil patch. To show how volatile this one is, its 52-week range is $27.91 to $70.44. It also has no dividend, but this left implied upside of close to 40%, based on the prior $55.06 closing price.

ALSO READ: Major Portfolio Changes for Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway

Penn National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) was started as Buy and was assigned a $21 price target at Goldman Sachs. With a prior closing price of $16.59, this leaves implied upside of almost 27%. Penn does not appear to have a dividend either, but this positive research call was on top of a JPMorgan positive call last week, with just a $19 price target. Penn National Gaming has a consensus price target just above $18, and its 52-week range is $10.07 to $17.22.

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: SCHN) was having a solid Monday with a 5% gain to $18.55 after KeyBanc Capital Markets lifted its prior Sector Perform rating up to Overweight, and the firm’s $25.00 price target implied upside of 43% from the $17.54 prior closing price. Schnitzer has suffered with other steel companies, and KeyBanc sees its metals recycling bottom is close. Schnitzer’s 52-week range is $15.06 to $28.44. The company also has an accidentally high dividend yield above 4%, and its consensus price target is only at $16.00 here. In fact, this is a street-high target, above the prior high of $18 from analysts.

WhiteWave Foods Co. (NYSE: WWAV) was up more than 1% at $47.76 after Credit Suisse reinstated its rating as Outperform. The new price target was $52, up $10 from the prior $42 price target. Credit Suisse’s target price is based on 40 times the firm’s forward 12-month earnings per share estimate. WhiteWave has been a very popular stock, and it hit a new 52-week high of $47.88 earlier on Monday.

ALSO READ: 5 Analyst Stocks Under $10 With Massive Upside Targets 

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