Despite the recent market selling, most firms that we cover on Wall Street remain very positive on the technology sector for 2015. In fact, a new report from the analysts at Deutsche Bank points out that the technology hardware and supply chain group has seen significant changes over the past few years, and the analysts expect these trends to continue into 2015. They project explosive growth in the Internet of Things, big data analytics, wearables, phablets and 3D printing. In other words, the brave new world is here.
The Deutsche Bank report includes a slew of stocks that are rated Buy at the firm. We focused on five of the top picks for 2015. Now is the time for aggressive investors to review portfolios and realign for next year.
Amphenol Corp. (NYSE: APH) is one of the top tech stock picks at Deutsche Bank. It has traded at a premium to the market over the years, and the Deutsche Bank team feels that remains warranted due to the company’s faster-than-industry growth and very solid corporate execution. Amphenol is one of the world’s largest designers, manufacturers and marketers of electrical, electronic and fiber optic connectors, interconnect systems, antennas, sensors and sensor-based products and coaxial and high-speed specialty cable.
Amphenol shareholders are paid small 0.9% dividend. The Deutsche Bank price target for the stock is $53. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $52.70. The stock closed above both Tuesday at $53.88.
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Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is trading at a very low 9.2 times 2015 estimated earnings. The company has had a remarkable comeback under the leadership of Silicon Valley veteran Meg Whitman. Whitman’s most important point for 2014 was her plan to use free cash flows in order to reduce the existing debt, repurchase shares and maintain the dividend payout policy. Shareholders can rest assured she stays the course in 2015. The Deutsche Bank team feels that the company is cheap at these levels and should trade the historical 11 times forward earnings.
Hewlett-Packard investors are paid a 1.7% dividend. Deutsche Bank has a $45 price objective, and the consensus price target is $40.59. Shares closed Tuesday at $38.20.
Seagate Technology PLC (NASDAQ: STX) provides hard disk drives, solid state hybrid drives and solid state drives that are designed for enterprise servers and storage systems in mission critical and nearline applications; for client compute applications comprising desktop and mobile computing; and for client non-compute applications, such as digital video recorders, personal data backup systems, portable external storage systems and digital media systems. The company has 43% of the total market, and it is an outstanding technology stock to buy.
Seagate investors are paid a solid 3.3% dividend. Deutsche Bank has a $72 price objective and the consensus target is set at $64.89. Seagate closed on Tuesday at $65.76.
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Stratasys Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSYS) is a top company in the 3D printing area that has been red hot and very volatile over the past two years. In an effort to build up its Makerbot awareness, the company teamed up with eBay last year to utilize e-commerce to sell 3D printing services. The Deutsche Bank report pointed out that 3D printing and services, although maturing fast, remain at its early phase of growth, and they like others on Wall Street have emphasized sales based metrics over other valuation metrics. They also feel that the company can remain a significant player even when the bigger competition is in the game.
The Deutsche Bank price target is $125. The consensus price objective is higher at $132.76. The stock closed Tuesday at $88.31.
Western Digital Corp.‘s (NASDAQ: WDC) market share in the total addressable hard disk drive (HDD) market remains at a very impressive 45%. The company posted solid quarterly numbers, where revenue and earnings exceeded Wall Street expectations. Western Digital attributed much of the gain to the consumer electronics/gaming unit, which saw the biggest upside in its fiscal fourth quarter, shipping 10.9 million units, which was up 67% year-over-year.
Western Digital investors are paid a 1.5% dividend. The Deutsche bank price target is $118, and the consensus figure is set at $111.22. The stock closed Tuesday at $107.80.
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The name of the game at Deutsche Bank is to stick with the large cap tech leaders for the rest of the year and into 2015. This might make good sense for investors with more aggressive growth portfolios that have some money carved out to dedicate to technology.
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