Investing

Jefferies Red-Hot Tech and Biotech Growth Stocks to Buy Now

Lee Jackson

Published: September 26, 2017 8:25 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:49 am

With the fourth quarter right around the corner and earnings season ready to rev back up, many investors are shuffling their portfolio for the stretch run of 2017. While it probably makes sense to use caution, as we are in the seasonally risky time of year, most Wall Street analysts and strategists are positive on the outlook for third-quarter earnings.

A new Jefferies research report features a new list of top growth stocks to buy, and the list is dominated by top technology and biotechnology companies. While better suited for more aggressive portfolios, they could hold some serious upside for those with higher risk tolerance.

Advanced Micro Devices

After years of frustrating performance, this company appears to have turned the corner and is a hot commodity on Wall Street, despite a recent earnings hiccup. 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 graphics processors, and embedded/semi-custom chips.

The analyst feels that AMD, which is releasing the first major offering in five years, the Ryzen chipset, is in his words “uniquely positioned” to compete with the big players like Intel and Nvidia in the $50 billion total addressable market for personal computers, gaming, artificial intelligence and servers.

AMD is only held by less than 5% of active managers, which is way below the historical 10% ownership level at a relatively equal weight position. The Jefferies team has been bullish on the shares for some time and said this in the report:

Last week, CNBC reported that Tesla is working with AMD to refine an artificial intelligence chip for autonomous driving tasks in its cars. We think the unconfirmed partnership would make sense and though we would not expect the shipment of AMD chips to Tesla to have a material impact near-term, we think this would constitute a critical win for AMD and support our thesis that the company is a primary beneficiary of the shift to parallel processing GPUs.

The Jefferies price target on the stock is $19, and the Wall Street consensus target is $14.23. The stock closed Monday’s trading at $12.61 a share.

Adobe Systems

This high-profile, old-school software company has posted outstanding earnings. Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) operates in three segments. The Digital Media segment provides tools and solutions that enable individuals, small and medium businesses, and enterprises to create, publish, promote and monetize their digital content. The other segments are Digital Marketing and Print and Publishing.

Top analysts feel there are an additional 11.7 million potential users, driven by growth in the creative community, student and teacher penetration and conversions from the piracy. Market and value expansion provide additional upside. The company posted outstanding second-quarter numbers and the rest of the year looks very solid.

The analysts noted this:

Company reported last week and though revenue and earnings-per-share beat Street expectations, focus was on the lackluster third quarter bookings in Experience Cloud and shares traded slightly lower. We believe the forecasting miss was due to Adobe’s increasing strategic role and success in selling larger deals with lengthening sales cycles.

Jefferies has a $180 price target, which compares with the consensus target of $164.33. The shares closed on Monday at $144.57 apiece.

Abiomed

Many on Wall Street feel this top company has virtually no competition in its space. Abiomed Inc. (NASDAQ: ABMD) engages in the research, development and sale of medical devices to assist or replace the pumping function of the failing heart. It also provides continuum of care to heart failure patients.

The company offers Impella 2.5 catheter, a percutaneous micro heart pump with integrated motor and sensors for use in interventional cardiology. Its Impella CP provides partial circulatory support using an extracorporeal bypass control unit. The Impella 5.0 catheter and Impella LD are percutaneous micro heart pumps with integrated motors and sensors for use primarily in the heart surgery suite, while the Impella RP is a percutaneous catheter-based axial flow pump.

Abiomed has continued to post a string of positive catalysts, and the Jefferies analysts noted:

The company received a premarket approval (PMA) application clearance for Impella RP to treat right side heart failure. The PMA removes the 8000 patient cap and removes adoption hurdles for hospitals. The accelerated adoption that we expect should result in an annual opportunity closer to $375 Million per year in revenues and supports upside to our current forecasts (company did $475 million in revenues over the last 12 months). The analyst believes Abiomed remains his best growth story.

The $175 Jefferies price target is well above the $164 consensus target. The stock closed Monday at $160.31 a share.

Celgene

This is a top large cap biotech pick with big upside potential. Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) is a very profitable biopharmaceutical company that develops and markets therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, solid tumors and inflammatory conditions. The company’s key growth driver and contributor to the top line is Revlimid for the treatment of multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes.

Its blockbuster blood cancer drug Revlimid continues to dominate. Pomalyst sales also continue to be solid, and cancer drug Abraxane is growing at a respectable rate. So the company continues to have a strong lineup of top-selling drugs. Top Wall Street analysts feel that Celgene is best large-cap de-risked growth story, with possible 15% to 20% earnings growth over the next five years, two new growth drivers (new oral pills for UC and Crohn’s), and the large pipeline of more than 35 partnerships of early-stage next-generation cancer drugs.

The company continues to show promise partnering with peers, and the analysts commented on that:

Celgene’s partner Acceleron Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: XLRN) hosted an R&D day to detail the long term plans for luspatercept, which Celgene has commercial rights on and is not well accounted for in consensus. We believe the company’s long-term partnerships with 25+ companies are nearing potential to bear fruit and combined represent $50-$90/share net present value.

Jefferies has set its price target at $160. The posted consensus price objective is $153.48, and the stock closed most recently at $144.94.

Four big time plays for aggressive accounts looking to add fourth-quarter alpha. All make good sense strategically, but it may be smart to scale capital in given the risky time of year we are in, and with earnings coming up for some.