While most of Wall Street focuses on large-cap and mega-cap stocks, as they provide a degree of safety and liquidity, many investors are limited in the number of shares they can buy. Many of the biggest public companies, especially the technology giants, trade in the hundreds, all the way up to over $1,000 per share or more. At those steep prices, it is difficult to get any decent share count leverage.

Many investors, especially more aggressive traders, look at lower-priced stocks as a way to not only make some good money but to get a higher share count. That can really help the decision-making process, especially when you are on to a winner, as you can always sell half and keep half.
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We screened our 24/7 Wall St. research database looking for smaller cap companies that could very well offer patient investors some huge returns the rest of 2021 and beyond. Many of the biggest companies in the world, including Apple and Amazon, traded in the single digits at one time.

While all five of the following stocks are rated Buy, it is important to remember that no single analyst report should be used as a sole basis for any buying or selling decision.

Akerna

This off-the radar company and has the potential to be a huge winner with the Senate signaling possible marijuana legalization. Akerna Corp. (NASDAQ: KERN) offers the MJ Platform, an enterprise resource planning system to the cannabis industry, and Leaf Data Systems, a tracking system designed for government agencies.

The company also provides consulting services to the cannabis industry. Its business intelligence infrastructure as a service tool delivers supply chain analytics for the cannabis, hemp and CBD industries. Last Call Analytics is a subscription analytics tool for alcohol brands to analyze their retail sales analytics. In addition, the company operates a seed-to-sale platform that allows cultivators to track and report various stages of their cannabis growing operations, production and sales processes.

Akerna also offers cannabis cultivation management and software to manage and optimize operational workflow in business analytics, as well as cannabis tracking technology that provides seed-to-sale-to-self data.

Lake Street just started coverage with an $8 target for the shares, the same as the Wall Street consensus target. The shares closed on Friday at $3.43.

This is one for traders seeking a health care play. Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: INFI) is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on developing novel medicines for people with cancer.
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It offers IPI-549, an orally administered, clinical-stage, immuno-oncology product candidate that selectively inhibits the enzyme phosphoinositide-3-kinase-gamma. Its product candidate IPI-549 is an orally administered clinical-stage immuno-oncology product candidate that inhibits the enzyme phosphoinositide-3-kinase-gamma (PI3K-gamma), which is in Phase 1/1b clinical study.

The company has strategic alliances with the following:

• Intellikine, to discover, develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products targeting the delta or gamma isoforms of PI3K
• Verastem, to research, develop, commercialize and manufacture duvelisib and products containing duvelisib, as well as duvelisib program for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma
• PellePharm, to develop and commercialize rights to its hedgehog inhibitor program, IPI-926, a clinical-stage product candidate

It also has collaboration agreements with Arcus Biosciences, F. Hoffmann-La Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Wells Fargo started coverage on Infinity Pharmaceuticals stock this week and has a huge $14 price target. The consensus target is $8.50, and shares closed trading at $2.12 on Friday.

IronSource

This company is in one of the hottest sector silos now, and the stock has outstanding potential. IronSource Ltd. (NYSE: IS) operates a business platform for app developers and telecom operators.

The company’s platforms include Sonic solution suite that supports developers to launch, monetize and scale their apps and games by providing solutions for app discovery, user growth, content monetization, analytics and publishing. Its Aura solution suite allows telecom operators to enrich the device experience by creating new engagement touchpoints that deliver relevant content for their users across the entire lifecycle of the device.

Goldman Sachs has set an $11 price target. This is another company that recently went public via the SPAC route, so there is no consensus price target yet. Since the conversion, the shares have traded between $7.80 and $11.25. The stock closed at $8.53 on Friday.

This stock had a hot initial public offering late last year, and though it has surrendered all the gains, it still offers an outstanding energy point. Payoneer Global Inc. (NASDAQ: PAYO) operates a cross-border payment and commerce-enabling platform that facilitates digital businesses, online sellers, and freelancers worldwide to receive and manage their international payments.
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The company delivers a suite of services that includes cross-border payments, working capital, tax solutions, merchant services and risk management. Its platform offers freelancers, web development companies and service providers with options to pay and get paid by companies and marketplaces worldwide. It also offers a solution for online advertisers, affiliates, publishers and content creators for getting paid by digital marketing platforms.

Payoneer Global also provides its platform for online sellers to receive payments from e-commerce marketplaces to one consolidated account; to monitor performance of multiple stores at a common place; to pay suppliers and contractors; to access funds directly to a local bank account; to view upcoming payments and payment history for e-commerce sites; and to receive payments for items purchased in stores. In addition, it offers working capital services.

Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage this week and has a $13 price target. The consensus target is just higher at $14, and on Friday the stock closed at $9.44.

Viking Therapeutics

Shares of this small-cap clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company could have monster upside potential. Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VKTX) is focused on the development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders.

Its lead drug candidate is VK2809, an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRA), which is in Phase 2b clinical trials to treat patients with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, as well as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The company also develops VK5211, an orally available non-steroidal selective androgen receptor modulator that is in Phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of patients recovering from non-elective hip fracture surgery. Its VK0612 is an orally available Phase 2b-ready drug candidate for type 2 diabetes, and VK0214 is an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the TRA for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy.

BTIG Research just started coverage on Viking Therapeutics stock, and its huge $20 price target is above the $18.92 consensus figure. On Friday, shares closed the trading session at $6.15.

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These are five stocks for aggressive investors looking to get share count leverage on companies that have sizable upside potential. While not suited for all investors, they are not penny stocks with absolutely no track record or liquidity, and major Wall Street firms have research coverage.

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