The stock market has taken investors and companies on the kind of ride rodeo cowboys go through on a bucking bronco. While many top stocks have been thrown during this difficult period, some are hanging on and showing some pretty impressive results. With the first-quarter earnings results winding down, some of the last companies to report are coming in with some outstanding results.

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A series of new Stifel research reports not only dissect the numbers and the forward guidance, if any was given, they also included adjusted price targets. In many cases, even with shares rated Buy, they have been raised.

We screened the Stifel research looking for stocks to buy for which the analysts actually raised the price targets. We found five that either beat estimates or delivered a bullish quarter with positive commentary that look like solid picks now for growth accounts with a degree of risk appetite.

Fastly

This edge cloud computing company posted another strong quarter. Fastly Inc. (NYSE: FSLY) is an emerging technology leader in the high-growth content delivery networking (CDN) market. CDN vendors deliver content for enterprises and media/content providers, charging per bandwidth delivered.

Fastly’s network architecture is a combination of best-of-breed hardware and a patented software stack based on open source protocols. This unique stack enables the company to immediately deliver content globally and provide differentiated edge compute services and programmability.

The company reported solid quarterly results and the analysts noted this:

Fastly delivered another quarter of strong top-line growth (+38.1% Y/Y), driven by stronger demand for the company’s edge cloud platform among both new and existing users across all geographies and verticals (management called out FinTech and E-Commerce verticals). Revenue growth was additionally supplemented by increased internet usage, due to recent “stay-at-home” measures.

The Stifel price target was raised from $25 to $30 and probably will go higher. The Wall Street consensus target is $26.78. Fastly stock closed Thursday at $33.58, up a gigantic 45% on the day.

HubSpot

This stock has rallied up from the March lows but looks ready to break out. 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 Stifel analysts remain impressed and noted this:

On Wednesday, after the market closed, HubSpot announced first quarter 2020 results that beat consensus estimates across key areas. Notably, HubSpot achieved its first quarter of >5000 net customer additions while growing its average subscription revenue per customer by 2% year-over-year. As its community navigates COVID-19 and the related shutdown, HubSpot has proactively offered flexible terms to certain customers and commission prepayments to partners. While the result of decisions may be near-term contraction in fundamentals, we believe HubSpot will reap the rewards of these moves longer-term, as the cost to acquire a customer far exceeds the cost of retaining one.

Stifel has lifted its $175 price target to $200, while the consensus target is $167.29. HubSpot stock closed Thursday at $188.53, after a solid 7.6% gain for the day.

Papa John’s

This well-known pizza company has been a COVID-19 winner and is always a solid play for more conservative accounts. Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) operates and franchises pizza delivery and carryout restaurants.

Its Domestic Company-Owned Restaurants segment consists of the operations of all domestic company-owned restaurants and derives its revenues principally from retail sales of pizza and side items, including breadsticks, cheese sticks, chicken poppers and wings, dessert items and canned or bottled beverages.

The North America Commissaries segment consists of the operations of regional dough production and product distribution centers and derives its revenues principally from the sale and distribution of food and paper products to domestic company-owned and franchised restaurants in the United States and Canada.

Papa John’s North America Franchising segment consists of franchise sales and support activities and derives its revenues from sales of franchise and development rights and collection of royalties from franchisees located in the United States and Canada.

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The analysts noted the current demand increases:

With pandemic-assisted sales increases and lowered input costs, management indicated the health of franchise restaurants is currently the best in three years, and recorded the highest April AUVs and system-wide sales in Papa John’s 35-year history. Moreover, median franchise unit profitability in the first quarter was the highest in eight quarters, even with net commodity cost inflation.

Papa John’s stock investors receive a 1.14% dividend. The $80 Stifel price target went to $95. The consensus target is $71.08, and shares traded 7% higher on Thursday and closed at $80.81.

Peloton Interactive

This cycling and exercise platform had a 2019 initial public offering that initially performed poorly but has taken off. Peloton Interactive Inc. (NASDAQ: PTON) is the largest global interactive fitness platform, with a community of over 1.4 million members.

The company offers workout bikes and treadmills that include a touchscreen that streams live and on-demand classes for indoor cycling, running, walking, boot camp, yoga, strength training and meditation. The company serves customers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Germany.

Recent reports suggest that Peloton could introduce a lower-priced treadmill and a rowing machine this year. Data suggests the tread market could be larger than the bike, so a tread priced similar to the bike should see better adoption. With a focus on at-home fitness even greater with the stay-at-home and lockdown edicts in place around the country, the company has plenty of upside.

The analysts are extremely positive on the company:

Peloton is in the early stages of building the world’s first global fitness platform. Peloton is a hybrid model built around hardware and subscription. Peloton will grow into a multi-product hardware platform beyond bike and tread to match its unparalleled content. Like Netflix, Peloton can pay more for content than its competition given its large and growing subscriber base. The most talented instructors come to Pelton and they never leave because it is fun and they get paid. To us, this company is an unstoppable juggernaut to be stopped only by way of self-inflicted wounds from here.

Stifel raised its price target from $42 to $50, well above the $38.48 consensus target. Peloton stock closed Thursday at $44.12, up 16% on the day.

Wingstop

This company has huge upside potential, and with the stay-at-home measures still in place, there is continued momentum. Wingstop Inc. (NASDAQ: WING) operates and franchises more than 1,300 locations worldwide. The company is dedicated to serving the world flavor through an unparalleled guest experience and offering of classic wings, boneless wings and tenders, always cooked to order and hand-sauced-and-tossed in fans’ choice of 11 bold, distinctive flavors. Wingstop’s menu also features signature sides including fresh-cut, seasoned fries and freshly made ranch and bleu cheese dips.

With a vision of becoming a Top 10 Global Restaurant Brand, the company’s system consists of independent brand partners who account for more than 98% of Wingstop’s total restaurant count. The company has been ranked on Franchise Business Review’s Top 30 Food and Beverage Franchises (2019), Fast Casual’s Movers & Shakers (2019), QSR Magazine’s The Industry’s 9 Best Franchise Deals (2019) and The QSR Top 50 (2019) for limited-service restaurants in the United States.

The first-quarter numbers were strong. The analysts commented on the rising sales:

The company’s customer data has grown in recent weeks with the growth in digital sales (65% of total sales vs. 40% prior to the crisis). The 65% digital sales mix is similar to the major pizza chains, which we expected Wingstop would reach, albeit 2-3 years from now. We would not be surprised if Wingstop’s digital mix remained at this level for the foreseeable future for two reasons: 1) consumers will likely become accustomed to using the convenient/safe means of ordering/paying; and 2) the company will have a strong incentive to continue encouraging digital usage as it typically leads to a higher check average.

The Stifel price objective rose from $115 to $140. That compares to a $107.63 consensus target, as well as Wingstop stock’s most recent close at $123 a share.

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These five top companies posted strong first-quarter results and look poised to deliver solid numbers this quarter as well. Investors may want to read carefully as the market may be running into some resistance here. With that noted, four of the five were directly aided by the pandemic, and while that will slow, the stay-at-home mode may have become a habit for many.

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