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Hot Tech and Biotech Companies Highlight Jefferies Stocks to Buy
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With earnings coming full throttle again this week, and investors battening down the hatches for the final few weeks of what has been a torturous presidential campaign, top firms on Wall Street now have the benefit of at least about half of the third-quarter results, and for the most part, things look pretty good. While worries about interest rates increases remain, it looks as though growth stocks still are the best avenue heading into the final two months of the year.
A new Jefferies research report focuses on growth companies that have some very solid upside potential in the tech and biotech sector. These stocks are rated Buy and make sense for more aggressive accounts.
Advanced Micro Devices
This chip stock has been on a roll, and some on Wall Street think the company is a buyout candidate. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) is one of the largest suppliers of PC microprocessors and graphics processors worldwide to computing original equipment manufacturers. The company’s main product lines include desktop, notebook and server processors and chipsets.
The company also offers microprocessors for server platforms under the AMD Opteron brand; embedded processor solutions for interactive digital signage, casino gaming and medical imaging under the AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon, AMD Sempron, AMD Geode, AMD R-Series and G-Series brands; and semi-custom System-on-Chip products that power the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One game consoles.
The analysts noted this in the report:
The company announced a partnership with Alibaba which would use AMD GPUs in Alibaba’s cloud offering, the third such deal with a China-based company. We expect the company is focused on the region and expect more announcements over the next 6-12 months. Our checks indicate that the Zen server MPU has been gaining traction with China hyperscale players such as Alibaba and Baidu.
The Jefferies price target for the stock is $9, and the Wall Street consensus price objective is $6.41. The shares closed Monday at $7.
Alkermes
This is a top name in health care that many on Wall Street for years have thought to be an acquisition target. Alkermes PLC (NASDAQ: ALKS) is a fully integrated, global biopharmaceutical company developing innovative medicines for the treatment of central nervous system diseases. It has a diversified commercial product portfolio and a substantial clinical pipeline of product candidates for chronic diseases that include schizophrenia, depression, addiction and multiple sclerosis.
The stock was up big late last week, and Jefferies noted this in its research comments:
The company announced last week that the ALKS 5461 FORWARD-5 study for depression met its primary endpoint. The full analysis of the Phase 3 study will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting. While we note the scrutiny of the data is far from over, this de-risks 5461 enough that we raise our risk discount to 50%.
Jefferies raised its price target to $70, while the consensus target is at $52.82, but that should be going higher as well. The shares closed Monday at $56.69.
Kite Pharma
This company had a hot 2014 initial public offering and has done outstanding since the debut. Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development and commercialization of novel cancer immunotherapy products.
The company is developing a pipeline of engineered autologous cell therapy-based product candidates for the treatment of solid and hematological malignancies. Its lead product candidate is KTE-C19, a chimeric antigen receptors (CAR)-based therapy that is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients with refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma, including primary mediastinal B cell lymphoma and transformed follicular lymphoma.
The company is also conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 on patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma; a Phase 1-2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 on adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia; and a Phase 1-2 clinical trial of KTE-C19 in pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory. In addition, it engages in developing T cell receptors-based therapies, which targets self-antigens, viral antigens, and neo-antigens. The company has a research collaboration and license agreement with Amgen to develop and commercialize various CAR-based product candidates.
The Jefferies team noted:
Following the release of the ZUMA-1 data, we attended an analyst day during which management shared its commercial for the launch of KTE-C19. They have spoken to seven payers with positive feedback. Final ZUMA-1 data are on track for release during first quarter of 2017.
The $72 Jefferies price target is less than the consensus target of $74.33. Shares closed on Monday at $46.21.
PayPal
This company was spun-off from eBay last year and many on Wall Street think the real growth is in the payment sector. PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) operates as a technology platform company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide.
PayPal enables businesses of various sizes to accept payments from merchant websites, mobile devices and applications, as well as at offline retail locations through a range of payment solutions across company’s payments platform, including PayPal, PayPal Credit, Venmo and Braintree products. Its platform allows customers to pay and get paid, withdraw funds to their bank accounts and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in various currencies.
The research report noted:
The Company reported last week. Revenues were ahead and earnings-per-share were in line. The most notable takeaway was management’s post 2016 guidance, with the outlook through 2019 calling for 16-17% commercial credit revenue growth, an increase from the 15% prior, with stable to growing operating margins, which we view as an incremental positive as it mitigates concern for margin degradation from the Visa/Mastercard partnership.
Jefferies has a $48 price objective, and the consensus target is $44.94. The shares closed Monday at $43.87.
These four top growth stock have serious potential. While not suited for accounts without a high risk tolerance, they all make solid additions at current levels and have a solid base from which to move higher.
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