The week of June 17 did not turn out the way many of the bulls were hoping, despite Janet Yellen and the Federal Reserve signaling that a much more muted rate hike path is coming. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down almost 200 down for the week at 17,675, and the Brexit vote outcome still weighs.
What 24/7 Wall St. has noticed over and over is that investors are still looking for opportunities. They are using analyst research reports to find hidden gems or under-covered stocks. They are also busy buying major stocks during market pullbacks, despite the S&P 500 having hit a peak value of 18 times expected 2016 earnings.
24/7 Wall St. is always on the hunt for undiscovered opportunities and hidden value. We review dozens of analyst upgrades and downgrades each morning of the week, and this of course ends up having been hundreds of research calls each week.
Some analyst calls cover stocks to buy and others cover stocks to sell or avoid. Investors know that traditional bull market Buy and Outperform ratings come with average upside of 8% to 15% for most Dow and S&P 500 stocks. Then there is the category of stocks trading under $10, or stocks with market caps well under $1 billion. These stocks often have only a few analysts covering them, and sometimes the implied upside to the price target is up 35%, 50% and sometimes even more than 100%.
Make no mistake in understanding that the risk in these higher target prices, low market caps and low-priced stocks is massively higher than in Dow and most S&P 500 stocks. Here is proof: the S&P 500’s smallest market cap is $1.5 billion, and not even 10% of the S&P 500 has a market cap under $5 billion. And for low share prices in the S&P 500, only seven trade under $10. Only three are under $9.00, and only one is under $5.00.
It is imperative for investors not to trust any analyst call blindly. As we say over and over, there is no free lunch on Wall Street. Small-cap or low-priced stocks can come with massive risks. Some of these underlying businesses could eventually fail, and some can cease to exist in the years ahead.
Investors also need to consider that sometimes analysts just get it wrong. Sometimes markets become more risk averse, which crushes micro-cap stocks and small speculative stocks. Sometimes companies fail to live up to their potential, and sometimes you see things go wrong that were not even the company’s fault.
24/7 Wall St. has identified nine analyst stock picks in shares priced under $10 for the week ended June 17 in which analysts see huge upside, if their predictions prove right.
AMD
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD) was the double-double for the week, receiving two very favorable upgrades. Jefferies raised AMD’s price target to $5.50 from $4.50 on June 13, and not just because of the virtual reality upside.
AMD saw its rating raised to Buy from Hold and the price target nearly doubled to $6.00 from $3.25 at Canaccord Genuity late in the week. Jefferies has liked AMD’s path forward on virtual reality and learning, but Canaccord Genuity went so far as to predict the return to profitability.
AMD bucked the weak trends of the broader selling this week. A gain of 10.7% to $5.26 on Friday was up from $4.32 the prior week. AMD’s 52-week range is $1.61 to $5.27 – and that high was from Friday as well.
Achaogen
Wedbush Securities raised Achaogen Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAO) to Outperform from Neutral on June 14, and the price target was raised to $10 from $7, compared with a $3.79 prior closing price. Shares were up over 8% at $4.12 in the immediate reaction.
Achaogen shares closed out the week at $4.70, still implying more than 100% upside. This company targets antibacterials to treat multidrug-resistant gram-negative infections, but its market cap is a mere $86 million.
Capricor Therapeutics
On June 15, Capricor Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CAPR) was started with a Buy rating and price target of $12 at Roth Capital. What stands out here is that Capricor closed at $3.54 ahead of the call, but even a drop of 6% on Friday still had it end the week at $4.46.
Capricor targets cardiovascular disease, has a mere $80 million market cap and has a 52-week trading range of $1.88 to $5.48. After the call came word from the company that its CAP-1002 study demonstrated durable efficacy signal over 12 months in patients with advanced heart failure.
CareDx
Janney reiterated CareDx Inc. (NASDAQ: CDNA) as Buy with a fair value estimate of $11 on June 14. The firm sees positive kidney transplant clinical results potentially increasing its available market tenfold.
The pre-report closing price of $4.70 was after a 20% drop, but the stock closed the week at $5.12. This call implied upside of more than 130%, if the call is correct. It only has a $71 million market cap and a 52-week range of $3.70 to $8.00.
GigPeak
Needham started GigPeak Inc. (NYSEMKT: GIG) with a Buy rating and a $3.50 price target (versus a $2.11 prior close). It was also started as Outperform with a $3.50 price target at Raymond James. Investors might want to keep in mind that this is the week after GigPeak sold 13.19 million shares for $2 per share.
The stock ended the week at $2.15, and it has a 52-week range of $1.48 to $3.42. The company provides integrated circuits and software solutions for high-speed connectivity and video compression, and it has a market cap of only $140 million.
Huntington Bancshares
Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) stood out as an unusual winner this week, because without any Federal Reserve rate hikes, there is just no excitement for the banking sector. It was reiterated as Buy with a $12 price objective at Merrill Lynch on June 17. The firm is more confident about the future execution on the First Merit integration and organic opportunities in its footprint.
After meeting with the Chairman/CEO the Merrill Lynch team after investor meetings, they said:
We came away more confident about the future execution on the FirstMerit integration and organic opportunities in their footprint. Given the macro uncertainty, we believe banks that are in better control of their returns like Huntington Bancorp are best positioned… Our price objective of $12 suggests 30% potential upside, the highest in our regional bank coverage…. Mr. Steinour allayed any concerns regarding the timing of the deal close (third quarter 2016) and Huntington Bancorp’s ability to extract 40% cost synergies.
The stock closed the week at $9.30, versus a consensus price target of $11.16 and a 52-week range of $7.83 to $11.90.
RadiSys
On June 17, RadiSys Corp. (NASDAQ: RSYS) was reiterated as Buy, and the price target was raised to $7.25 to $6.00 (versus a $4.80 close) at Jefferies. The firm called RadiSys a growth engine and a play on the SDN/NFV market in that call. The report said:
We hosted investor meetings with Jon Wilson, CFO of Radisys. We believe RSYS is poised to be a significant beneficiary of a tsunami of change to carrier architectures as they increasingly move away from traditional central office equipment to a software-defined data center architecture.
Still, RadiSys shares closed down 4% at $4.61 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $2.25 to $5.31. It has a consensus analyst target of $6.04.
Synergy Resources
Perhaps Synergy Resources Corp. (NYSEMKT: SYRG) should have been in the oil and gas section, but that was packed already this week, and the price is after all under $10. The stock was started with a Strong Buy rating and was given a $9.50 price target (versus a $6.78 prior close) at Raymond James on June 17.
The company is into exploration and production of oil and gas properties, primarily located in Colorado. Synergy shares closed out the week with a 5.75% gain to $7.17, in a 52-week range of $5.01 to $12.74.
Vonage
On June 14, Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG) received a highly positive note from Citigroup, raising its rating to Buy from Neutral. The firm also raised its price target to $8.00 from $4.75. Despite a bad week for stocks, Vonage shares were up 11% at $5.29 as analyst Michael Rollins upgraded Vonage, after seeing good risk and reward trade-offs as the company pursues an opportunity to improve business revenue growth, grow consumer cash flow and generate a favorable free cash flow yield of more than 10% on the firm’s 2017 estimate.
By the close of Friday, Vonage shares traded at $5.53, within a 52-week range of $3.82 to $7.42.
Want to Retire Early? Start Here (Sponsor)
Want retirement to come a few years earlier than you’d planned? Or are you ready to retire now, but want an extra set of eyes on your finances?
Now you can speak with up to 3 financial experts in your area for FREE. By simply clicking here you can begin to match with financial professionals who can help you build your plan to retire early. And the best part? The first conversation with them is free.
Click here to match with up to 3 financial pros who would be excited to help you make financial decisions.
Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.
Latest from 24/7
