Oppenheimer's 7 Bull Market Leaders to Buy After the Sell-Off

With Dow and the S&P 500 both down more than 10% from their highs, investors have three paths to choose: panic and run for the hills, hunker down and hope for the best, or get some ambition and look for opportunities. For those who are looking for opportunities, Oppenheimer issued a portfolio strategy “Macro Musings” calling for investors to buy the bull market leaders.

While Oppenheimer is not exactly recommend that you go out and leverage up or mortgage your house to buy stocks, its Equity Risk Model remains moderately bullish for equities. The firm has seven bull market leaders that have all pulled back sharply and which it thinks are the ones to buy in this pullback.

Currently, seven of the model’s 10 component indicators are bullish and three are bearish. Oppenheimer decided to do an update due to recent market volatility, and the report said:

We suspect the most intense phase of the sell-off has already taken place; now the market will need some time to stabilize before moving sustainably higher. Option volume and volatility indicators have reached extremes not seen in several years, while measures of oversold have touched levels typically reserved for significant market lows. The key conclusion is that we want to be buyers of bull market leadership. … Please note that five of these seven stocks recorded new 52-week highs as recently as July, and that all seven have corrected by double-digit percentages over the past few weeks.

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The firm is revisiting its Triple Play Outperform-rated names with positive earnings revisions and an attractive technical profile seen before this sell-off hit. Top sectors include health care, financials and consumer discretionary. These are the seven stocks with Outperform ratings that it is revisiting as market leaders, but this is a technical and macro team call, so it is not necessarily using the firm’s fundamental analyst price targets.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) closed Monday at $103.12 and was indicated up 5% at $108 or so in Tuesday’s premarket. It has a 52-week trading range of $92.00 to $134.54. The stock was down 24% from its high as of Monday’s close. Apple has that huge buyback plan to boost its interest as well, and the shares have pulled back enough to where its dividend yield is now roughly 2%.
Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) closed down 6.3% at $463.37 on Monday, and shares were indicated up 4% at $481.98 on Tuesday. Amazon has a 52-week range of $284.00 to $580.57, and its recent pullback was down over 20% from its post-earnings high after it beat expectations.

Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE: AYI) was down 4.6% at $188.00 as of Monday’s close, against a 52-week range of $117.19 to $211.82. Acuity has a consensus analyst target of $211.30, and the highest analyst target now is $240. Acuity is into lighting solutions and components, is worth $8.2 billion and trades at about 31 times a blended 2015/2016 earnings per share estimate.

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Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) keeps getting upgrades this week from elsewhere too. After falling 5% to $15.29 on Monday, it was indicated up 5.8% at $16.15. Bank of America’s consensus price target is closer to $19.25, and the highest price target is $21.00 — although Dick Bove recently outlined how shares could double over the next four years or so.

CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) closed down less than 2% on Monday at $100.21, something that feels almost good compared to the rest of the market. Shares were also indicated up over 3% at $103.40 on Tuesday morning. Its consensus analyst price target is $120.32 and has a 52-week range of $77.40 to $113.65.

Schlumberger Ltd. (NYSE: SLB) may seem odd considering it is in oil services, but this is their call. Schlumberger closed down 4.7% at $73.87 on Monday but was indicated up 3.5% at $76.50 on Tuesday. Its 52-week range is $73.02 to $112.00, and the consensus price target is $101.81.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) is the only health insurer no longer involved in a game-changing growth merger, because it already did its major market roll-ups. Its stock fell 5% to $110.43 on Monday, and shares were indicated up 3% at $113.72 on Tuesday. UnitedHealth’s 52-week range is $80.72 to $126.21, and its consensus price target is now about $147. It also has a $105 billion market cap.

While Oppenheimer has been very positive on these names, investors need to keep in mind that it was not calling for an all-clear sign nor was it calling for an absolute bottom. 24/7 Wall St. has also warned its readers in recent days that there seems no choice for analysts who are remaining positive but to at least begin lowering their consensus price targets.

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