With August and back-to-school season upon us, much of the outstanding second-quarter earnings results have been posted and analysts and investors on Wall Street are very satisfied with the results. While many investors remain very nervous, especially given the continuing big rally off the market lows and the lack of a 5% correction in almost a year, the “buy the dip” crowd continues to hold serve, at least for now.
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In a series of new reports, Goldman Sachs raised the price targets on some companies that have delivered the goods in a big way. Given the increases in price targets, they still look to have some very solid upside potential. Here we spotlight four of the stocks that are rated Buy at Goldman Sachs and saw their price targets there boosted.

AMD

This top semiconductor stock has been on fire and broke out to new all-time highs this week. Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) operates as a semiconductor company worldwide. Its products include x86 microprocessors as an accelerated processing unit, chipsets, discrete and integrated graphics processing units (GPUs), data center and professional GPUs, and development services. They also include server and embedded processors, and semi-custom system-on-chip products, development services and technology for game consoles.

The company reported outstanding second-quarter results, in which gross margins surpassed analyst expectations, growing by four percentage points year over year. The higher gross margin reflects greater operational efficiency, particularly key during the current global chip shortage. The company expects 2021 annual revenue to grow by approximately 60% year over year, driven by strong execution and increasing customer preference for its products.

Goldman Sachs raised the price target on Advanced Micro Devices stock from $115 to $130, which is well above the Wall Street consensus target of $104.79. Thursday’s final trade came in at $112.35, which was down over 5% and looks like some profit-taking after a big run.

FMC

This off-the-radar stock offers investors a very solid entry point. FMC Corp. (NYSE: FMC), an agricultural sciences company, provides crop protection, plant health, precision agriculture and professional pest and turf management products.

The company develops, markets and sells crop protection chemicals that include insecticides, herbicides and fungicides used in agriculture to enhance crop yield and quality by controlling a range of insects, weeds and disease, as well as in non-agricultural markets for pest control.

FMC also offers biologicals products, such as bionematicides under the Quartzo and Presence names. The company sells herbicides under the Authority, Boral, Centium, Command and Gamit brands, as well as Isoflex active herbicide ingredients; Rynaxypyr and Cyazypyr active ingredients; and insecticides under the Talstar and Hero brands, as well as flutriafol-based fungicides. It sells its products through independent distributors and co-ops, and national and regional distributors, as well directly to growers.

FMC posted very solid quarterly earnings of $1.81 per share, beating the Wall Street consensus Estimate of $1.77 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.72 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

Shareholders receive a 2.06% dividend. The $130 Goldman Sachs price target rose to $145. The consensus target is $132.50, and FMC stock pulled back over 5% on Thursday to close at $93.23.

Investors may not be familiar with this company, but it is in a red-hot industry and its shares have solid upside potential to the Goldman Sachs target. Rapid7 Inc. (NASDAQ: RPD) engages in the provision of cybersecurity analytics and automation services. Its products include its Insight platform, which offers InsightVM, InsightIDR, InsightAppSec and InsightConnect.
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Rapid 7 is advancing security with visibility, analytics and automation delivered through its Insight cloud. Its solutions simplify the complex, allowing security teams to work more effectively with IT and development to reduce vulnerabilities, monitor for malicious behavior, investigate and shut down attacks and automate routine tasks. Some 8,400 customers rely on Rapid7 technology, services and research to improve security outcomes and securely advance their organizations.

Analysts have noted that Rapid 7s’ portfolio of cloud security solutions helps address the need to improve infrastructure visibility, whether based on cloud-native development or traditional application architecture.

Rapid7 posted quarterly earnings that easily beat the Wall Street consensus estimates (a surprise of 133.33%) and were higher than a year ago. Last quarter, the company posted a smaller than expected per-share loss (a surprise of 57.14%).

The Goldman Sachs price target went from $114 to $130. The consensus target for Rapid7 stock is just $100.03, below the most recent close at $113.76 a share.

Simon Property

Commercial real estate has picked up again in a big way, and Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE: SPG) is a very strong company for investors looking to play the industry. It invests in real estate markets across the globe. It engages in investment, ownership, management and development of properties. The company primarily invests in regional malls, premium outlets, mills and community/lifestyle centers to create its portfolio.

Through its subsidiary partnership, it owns or has an interest in about 230 properties in the United States and Asia. The company also has a 28.9% interest in Klepierre, a European REIT with over 260 shopping centers in 13 countries.

One key driver of growth will include the $1.0 billion or more of development/redevelopment planned over the next few years. The company also posted solid results with net income attributable to common stockholders coming in at $617.3 million, or $1.88 per diluted share, as compared to $254.2 million, or $0.83 per diluted share in 2020.

Results for the second quarter of 2021 include a noncash gain of $118.4 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, because of the reversal of a deferred tax liability associated with an international investment.

Investors in Simon Property Group stock receive a 4.48% distribution. Goldman Sachs raised its $148 price target to $163. The $138.71 consensus target is closer to Thursday’s close at $134.03, after a gain of over 4% on the day.

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Four top companies are hitting on all cylinders, have earnings out of the way for the quarter and their stocks look poised to head higher the rest of 2021. With the seasonally weak time of the year almost upon us, it may make sense to buy partial positions and look to scale in more capital if we get a sell-off.

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