Investing

Jefferies Top Growth Stocks to Buy Could Have Monster Q4 Results

Lee Jackson

Published: October 7, 2019 7:35 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 2:59 pm

Increasingly, the top brokerage firms and banks that we cover on Wall Street are starting to agree that while the future is still bright for the U.S. economy, it may be one of stock market gains that are much lower than the norm has been over the past 10 years. When that is the case, investing strategies often shift from indexing to a more disciplined stock-picking routine. That’s when investors need solid growth ideas.

Jefferies highlights its top growth stocks to buy each week, and this week is no exception. While these stocks are better suited for accounts that have a higher risk tolerance, they all make good sense now, and they have outstanding upside potential. These four look extremely strong now.

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Activision Blizzard

This remains a top video gaming pick on Wall Street and Jefferies is still very positive on the shares. Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) develops and publishes online, personal computer (PC), video game console, handheld, mobile and tablet games worldwide. The company develops and publishes interactive entertainment software products through retail channels or digital downloads and downloadable content to a range of gamers.

Shares of the gaming giant have been volatile and are down a stunning 45% from highs posted last fall. Some recent positive announcements could be meaningful for the stock to regain traction. The analysts said this:

Our early checks on downloads, player checks and online ratings are suggestive of a successful initial launch of CoD Mobile. CoD mobile is the top free iOS app in 77 countries and early reviews look overwhelmingly positive, with CoD mobile achieving a 4.8 star rating on the app store and Spiketrap sentiment data indicating a score of 75 out of 100. Longevity will be key as some mobile games from others have started strong and then fizzled. We conservatively estimate $250 million in CoD mobile bookings in 2020 estimated. The mobile version should also help the company expand its foothold in Asia, which accounted for just 8% of segment net revenue in 2018.

Activision pays investors a small 0.73% dividend. Jefferies has a $65 price target on the shares, while the Wall Street consensus target is lower at $57.03. The stock was last seen on Friday trading at $55.44 a share.

Edwards Lifesciences

This company pioneered the artificial heart valve, and it could be poised for big growth. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) provides products and technologies to treat structural heart disease and critically ill patients worldwide. The company offers transcatheter heart valve therapy products, comprising transcatheter aortic heart valves and their delivery systems for the nonsurgical replacement of heart valves.

The company also provides surgical heart valve therapy products, such as pericardial valves for aortic and mitral replacement, and minimally invasive aortic heart valve system, as well as tissue heart valves and repair products, which are used to replace or repair a patient’s diseased or defective heart valve.

The company’s acquisition of privately held CardiAQ a few years ago has proven to be a very successful addition. CardiAQ has human implants of transcatheter mitrial valves, and Edwards is focused on the mitrial valve opportunity after its very strong success in aortic valves.

The company also has had tremendous success with transcatherter valve replacement. These are rapidly gaining favor in the medical community for use in those patients who are deemed unsuited for open heart surgery, and they are a fast-growing revenue stream for the company.

We’re out with the latest update to our monthly TAVR tracker with data through August. The updated model has Edwards US TAVR growth for third quarter at ~30%, an acceleration from second quarter levels and better than the +18-19% forecasted by consensus. The growth is down from our last read, but that number was very early and we expected change. The data is still incomplete at this point in the quarter, with just two months of data from an incomplete set of centers.

The Jefferies price target on the stock is $255, and the posted consensus target price was last seen at $216.78. The shares closed at $229.40 on Friday.

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This stock has rallied large and may be a breakout candidate. HubSpot Inc. (NYSE: HUBS) is a cloud-based provider of inbound marketing tools such as website content management, blogging tools, email campaign, search engine optimization, social media monitoring and management, customer relationship management and others for small businesses and midsized companies.

The company’s tools provide a single console for marketing professionals to generate new customer leads, convert leads to customers and customers to repeat customers. The Jefferies analysts remain impressed and the report noted this:

We recently spoke with one of HubSpot[‘]s largest partners. The commentary was positive on deal activity, competitive positioning and views on pricing. We believe the pullback since the Sep analyst day offers a compelling opportunity. In addition, considering that salesforce.com and [Shopify] charge for third party apps, if the company were to do the same, we estimate third party apps could reach 2-4% of total subscriber revenu[e]s.

The $230 Jefferies target price for HubSpot compares with the $204.47 consensus price target, as well as the most recent close at $159.38 per share.

Teladoc Health

This innovative health care stock may be a great buy now. Teladoc Health Inc. (NASDAQ: TDOC) offers a telehealth platform, delivering on-demand health care anytime, anywhere, through mobile devices, the internet, video and phone.

The company’s solution connects its members, with its more than 3,000 board-certified physicians and behavioral health professionals treating a range of conditions and cases from acute diagnoses, such as upper respiratory infection, urinary tract infection and sinusitis to dermatological conditions, anxiety and smoking cessation.

Teladoc Health serves over 7,500 employers, health plans, health systems and other entities. These clients collectively purchased access to its solution for more than 20 million members. The Jefferies report said this:

We estimate US telehealth’s volume total addressable market is ~275 million visits and penetration estimates vary from 5-11%. Teladoc leads in the space with 30%+ market share. We forecast mid-20% growth over the next several years with substantial margin expansion.

Jefferies has set a $76 price target, but the consensus target is up at $80.42. The shares were last changing hands at $66.81 apiece.

These four companies all offer investors strength in their specific industries, as well as the ability to generate some significant portfolio alpha. And these top growth stocks are suitable for growth accounts that have a larger degree of risk tolerance.