One thing earnings season always does is shake out the truth on what’s really going on at the top companies, as the numbers don’t lie, and giving forward guidance that is unreasonable is always frowned upon. With the first-quarter earnings parade starting to wind down this week, the top Wall Street firms are taking a hard look at how things went to start the year off and how they may proceed going forward.

In a series of new research reports, Deutsche Bank analysts focus on earnings results and where they think some of the stocks they cover are headed as we roll into May and are almost halfway through the second quarter. We found four companies rated Buy, and three are well off their 52-weeks highs, that the analysts stay positive on.

Inphi

This is a top chip company that often stays under the radar. Inphi Corp. (NYSE: IPHI) provides high-speed analog and mixed signal semiconductor solutions for the communications, data center, and computing markets worldwide. The company’s end-to-end data transport platform delivers high signal integrity at leading-edge data speeds, addressing performance and bandwidth bottlenecks in networks, from fiber to memory. Inphi’s solutions minimize latency in computing environments and enable the roll-out of next-generation communications infrastructure.

Many on Wall Street feel that the battle for dominance in outsourced cloud services between Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others should continue to drive growth in data center capital expenditures. The analysts feel that cloud data center customers are more likely to embrace Inphi’s exciting 100G products like the PAM-4 solutions, ColorZ and others. The company reported solid first-quarter earnings and had positive guidance for this quarter.

The Deutsche Bank price target for the stock is $40, and the Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $37.85. Shares closed Monday at $30.47.

Juniper Networks

This is a solid technology stock that has been on a long roller-coaster ride for investors over the past two years. Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) is a provider of high-performance network infrastructure to service providers and enterprises. Key products include IP-based routers for service provider core and edge networks, security solutions and high-end enterprise routing equipment. Juniper’s products support converged data, voice, video and wireless applications across extended networks.

The stock has taken a big hit since printing highs in November and is back to a reasonably solid support level for investors looking to buy shares. The company had negatively pre-announced prior to releasing earnings, but at least came in at the top level of that guidance. While the second-quarter outlook was somewhat weaker than consensus, it appears margins are firming and the stock looks cheap here.

Investors receive a 1.71% dividend. The $30 Deutsche Bank price target is higher than the consensus price objective of $26.86. The stock closed Monday at $23.35.
NetSuite

This company has bounded nicely off the February lows but still trades way below levels printed last year and in 2014. NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N) provides cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software suites in the United States and internationally. Its business management application suite includes NetSuite, a platform for financials/ERP, customer relationship management, professional services automation, and e-commerce capabilities that automates processes across departments; and NetSuite OneWorld to manage various companies or legal entities, with different currencies, taxation rules, and reporting requirements.

The company reported much better first-quarter numbers after two very mediocre quarters. With 30% and 32% increase in revenues and billings growth, the company also put forth a more bullish tone in commentary and modestly guided higher. The analysts also noted that the company stressed that it was not seeing any “macro” pressure on its business and noted that the enterprise segment was strong.

Deutsche Bank has a price objective of $95. The consensus target is $86.55 and the stock closed Monday at $81.61.

Western Digital

This long-time innovator in the storage industry is a leader in the total addressable hard disk drive (HDD) market. Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) is an industry-leading developer and manufacturer of storage solutions that help to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content.

Western Digital is responding to changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage products with effective technology deployment, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Its products are marketed under the HGST and WD brands to original equipment manufacturers, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers.

The most compelling news is that the company announced a stunning $19 billion purchase of SanDisk last year. This could be a strong addition to the Western Digital current offerings. The company could significantly benefit from SanDisk’s technology and portfolio leadership in the NAND flash semiconductor and enterprise flash systems market. The value of the deal for SanDisk is now $78.50 per share, down from $86.50 when it was originally struck.

The company missed earnings estimates and guidance was much lower than expected when it reported last week, as weakness in the HDD arena persists. However, the Deutsche Bank team sees the SanDisk purchase as an accretive one, and operating savings from the integration of the two HDD businesses are not reflected in the current stock price.

Western Digital shareholders receive a 4.9% dividend. Deutsche Bank has a whopping $68 price target, while the consensus target is $63.08. The stock closed Monday at $40.85.

Three of these four stocks trade well off of highs printed last year, and all four have solid upside potential. These are more suited for aggressive growth accounts that can tolerate volatility.

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