Technology

Oppenheimer Says Buy 4 Top Internet Stocks on Any Market Weakness

Needless to say, the two most nerve-wracking months for investors in most years are September and October. Historically they have been among the weakest, and September has already proven to be very volatile. A new research report from Oppenheimer says to use any market weakness to initiate or add to positions in the top Internet companies.

The report combines superb work from the firm’s technical team, layered over with the fundamental analysis by the equity analysts. Four top stocks to buy are rated Outperform at Oppenheimer, and show up very well on a technical basis.

Amazon

This absolute leader in online retail and also a dominate player in cloud storage business just crushed earnings last week. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) serves consumers through retail websites, such as Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, which primarily include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers.

In addition, the company serves developers and enterprises through Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides computing, storage, database, analytics, applications and deployment services that enable virtually any businesses.

Despite currency headwinds that amounted to $1.4 billion, Amazon still had worldwide unit growth that grew 22% in the most recent quarter. Plus, AWS revenues increased an astounding 81% to $1.8 billion and that was $400 million more than the analysts’ estimates.

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The Oppenheimer price target for the stock is $640, and the Thomson/First Call consensus target is $647.63. The stock closed Monday at $548.39.

Salesforce

This company again posted outstanding quarterly earnings, and it is one of Wall Street’s favorite large cap growth ideas now. Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM) has been the momentum stock trader’s dream over the past few years. Many on Wall Street feel that while the stock trades mostly in line with its fast organic software-as-a-service (SaaS) peer group, which many see as having the largest growth rate in 2015, the company should trade at a premium to the group.

The company posted year-over-year billings growth way above estimates and has seen operating margins expand by 1.7%. Oppenheimer and others see the company’s growing portfolio of enterprise-class solutions as not only enhancing the brand, but helping to achieve access into bigger companies.

Wall Street as a whole sees substantial billings growth and many firms have raised their fiscal 2016 estimates on both revenues and earnings. The general take is that the company’s new analytics product is factored into 2016 estimates and could provide upside. Some analysts also have said they think that the company’s growth guidance could be conservative as well. Lastly, Salesforce is constantly apart of Wall Street takeover chatter, and that tends to keep short sellers at a distance.

The Oppenheimer price target of $80 is right in line with the $80.98 consensus. The stock closed Friday at $72.14.

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Facebook

The stock has fought back from a huge drop a month ago and is trending higher. Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) has Instagram, Premium video and Graph Search capabilities to strengthen its earnings flow. Some analysts feel that the social media giant can drive revenue growth even without a huge increase in advertising placement. It has been reported that Instagram is opening its platform for advertisers, particularly direct response advertisers via new direct response ad units like mobile app install ads. With a talented and experienced sales team, this should only continue to drive revenue higher.

Most Wall Street analysts point to the fact that Facebook remains the top beneficiary of the adoption of mobile Internet trends, with total U.S. Internet time spent on Facebook and Messenger. Other metrics continue to explode, and the key is no viable challengers are anywhere in sight. They cite positive monthly data use, easier growth comparisons and positive data on ad revenue drivers as the top catalysts.

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Facebook announced earlier this summer a willingness to share ad revenue to acquire premium content, a totally new avenue for the company. Facebook will offer contributors 55% of the revenue from ads that appear alongside videos, the same split as Google’s YouTube. This is yet another step forward for the company as its builds a hedge to the social media train that at some point may hit critical mass.

The Oppenheimer price target is $110. The consensus target is $111.60. Shares closed Monday at $95.55.

Priceline

This remains the pre-eminent force in online travel. Priceline Group Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLN) operates Booking.com, which provides online accommodation reservation services, and Priceline.com, which offers hotel, rental car and airline ticket reservations services, as well as vacation packages and cruises through its Name Your Own Price and Express Deals travel services. It also operates Agoda.com, an online accommodation reservation service for consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, and RentalCars.com, which offers car rental reservation services.

Trading at 18.6 times fiscal year 2016 earnings, the travel giant is seen by many Wall Street analysts as an “open-ended” growth story. Wall Street analysts continue to see comparisons easing for international bookings in every quarter this year, and they believe margins will improve in the second half of the year.

The Oppenheimer price target is $1,580, and the consensus target is $1,475.22. Shares closed trading on Monday at $1307.48.

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The Oppenheimer team says to look for market weakness to scale in to these top Internet stocks. We have noted recently that market corrections follow similar patterns, and this one might as well.

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