As we continue to advance, more businesses and companies come on the scene to innovate new technologies that can make our lives easier and further connect us. Merrill Lynch has highlighted a trend in this vein that it sees growing in 2015 and the years to come. The firm believes that connected devices will emerge as a top multi-sector investment theme, which in turn will drive revenue growth in technology and operational cost efficiencies across multiple sectors.

Merrill Lynch would define this phenomenon as:

There are several names such as Pervasive Computing, Ubiquitous Computing, Internet of Everything, Industrial Internet, and Internet of Things that refer to the trend of computing and communication technologies embedded in everyday consumer products as well as industrial machines. We use the term Internet of Things (IoT) in this report to describe this major technology trend that has broad implications.

24/7 Wall St has selected a few companies from Merrill Lynch’s report that we see as having the biggest upside potential going forward with the Internet of Things trend.

Pandora Media Inc. (NYSE: P) has a platform that is available on over 1,000 devices and growing. The company is likely to benefit from the Internet of Things with its growing connectivity ranging from devices to cars. This will allow for improved data collection and targeted advertising.

Shares were up over 3% at $17.48 in the second half of Tuesday’s trading. Merrill Lynch has an upside price target of $36, against the consensus analyst price target of $29.43, and a 52-week trading range of $16.61 to $40.44. The company has a market cap of over $3 billion.

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FireEye Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) is a leading security network to protect against APTs and sophisticated zero-day attacks, which should benefit as the Internet of Things increases network complexity and access points from devices.

Shares were up 2% at $28.30 in Tuesday afternoon trading. Merrill Lynch has an upside price target of $44, against the consensus analyst price target of $37.95. The 52-week trading range is$24.81 to $97.35.

Ultratech Inc. (NASDAQ: UTEK) provides advanced packaging technologies for semiconductors that carry high margins. The Internet of Things trends should drive advanced packaging growth.

Shares were down less than 1% at $17.43 Tuesday. Merrill Lynch has an upside price target of $30. That is against the consensus price target of $23.00, as well as a 52-week trading range of $16.84 to $30.13.

Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK) provides a data platform for collecting, storing, indexing, searching and analyzing machine data. This is positioned at the center of the Internet of Things data as the company develops infrastructure to process and analyze devices and machine to machine communication.

Shares were up over 3% at $55.72 Tuesday. The Merrill Lynch price target is $82, against the consensus price target of $75.84 and a 52-week trading range of $39.35 to $106.15.

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