It sure seemed it was a matter of if and not when we would get a substantial pullback, and much to the chagrin of the uber-bulls on Wall Street and in the financial media, it is upon us. In fact, it could stretch farther, maybe even past 10%, but the difference between a healthy correction and a bear market is huge, and from the look of the economy and everything else, we are not headed for a bear market.
In a new research roundup from Jefferies, while they were among cooler heads expecting a reversal, they also remain positive on one of the higher volatility sectors of the stock market. In this week’s top growth stocks to Buy, they stick with some big cap plays that posted solid results. All are rated Buy at Jefferies.
Amazon
This absolute leader in online retail and dominant player in cloud storage business remains the top internet pick at many firms on Wall Street. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) serves consumers through retail websites that primarily include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those offered by third-party sellers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is also the undisputed leader in the cloud now, and many top analysts see the company expanding and moving up the enterprise information value chain and targeting a larger total addressable market. The company serves developers and enterprises through AWS that provides compute, storage, database, analytics, applications and deployment services that enable virtually various businesses.
The company absolutely blew out its earnings, and the Jefferies report said this:
The company reported robust fourth quarter revenue results last week. Operating Income was record-high driven by solid ad revenue and robust retail volume. As usual, guidance was conservative on margins for the first quarter. We find our long-term thesis intact and reiterate our view that Amazon will take online penetration from 10% currently to 25-30% long-term, the AWS opportunity will be a revenue growth engine with margin accretion for the entire business while international opportunities provide even further upside.
The Jefferies price target for the shares is a massive $1,750, and the Wall Street consensus target is $1,583.84. The stock closed trading on Monday at $1,390 per share.
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Alphabet
The search giant continues to expand and is even working on a driverless car now. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is a global technology company focused around key areas, such as search, advertising, operating systems and platforms, enterprise and hardware products. It generates revenue primarily by delivering online advertising and by selling apps and contents on Google Play, as well as hardware products. The company provides its products and services in more than 100 languages and in 190 countries, regions and territories.
Alphabet offers performance and brand advertising services. It operates through Google and Other Bets segments. The Google segment includes principal internet products, such as Search, Ads, Commerce, Maps, YouTube, Apps, Cloud, Android, Chrome and Google Play, as well as technical infrastructure and newer efforts, such as virtual reality.
The search leader provided mixed quarterly results, and the analysts said this in their research coverage:
Company reported fourth earnings last week and the quarter raised concerns around margin compression. Rising traffic acquisition costs and a seasonal spike in sales and marketing expenses drove operating margins below 30%. Despite these factors, 2017 op margins remained at 32%, in-line with 2016, and we think margins could drift modestly higher over time given the investments the company has in place. Top line outperformance continued with 24% revenue growth and we note Google Cloud is now at a $4 billion run rate.
Jefferies has a $1,360 price target for the shares. That compares with the consensus estimate of $1,256.16, as well as the closing price on Monday of $1,062.39.
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Electronic Arts
This leading video game developer should benefit from not only the continuing rise in new console sales but the rising trend of mobile gaming. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) produces top-selling games and related content and services under the EA brand in various categories, including action-adventure, role-playing, racing and first-person shooter games.
The company, which is very well known for its EA sports games like Madden Football, has made the move into mobile play by adapting many of the top franchise titles, which have been popular for years, into the mobile arena.
The key holiday launch of “Star Wars Battlefront” was disappointing and caused the shares to get hit hard. The Jefferies team remains positive and noted this in the report:
Company reported last week and earnings per share beat the prior outlook, but came in just below consensus. Strong sales across the entire portfolio offset underperformance for holiday title Star Wars Battlefront, which solid ~9 million units versus expectations for 13-14 million. Management was able to raise 2018 guidance by 5c nonetheless, which we think speaks to the strength of FIFA, mobile gaming and industry tailwinds.
The $150 Jefferies price target is above the posted consensus target of $138.12. The stock closed trading on Monday at $121.64 a share.
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PayPal
This stock has long been a Jefferies and Wall Street favorite, and it continues to deliver solid results. PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) operates as a technology platform company that enables digital and mobile payments on behalf of consumers and merchants worldwide.
The company enables businesses of various sizes to accept payments from merchant websites, mobile devices and applications, as well as at offline retail locations through a range of payment solutions across the company’s payments platform, including PayPal, PayPal Credit, Venmo and Braintree products.
PayPal’s platform allows customers to pay and get paid, withdraw funds to their bank accounts and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in various currencies. The Jefferies analysts noted this in the report:
Company reported results last week. They beat and offered guidance that may slightly underwhelm bulls. However, we believe the sell-off in after-hours trading was due to the announced restructuring of the company’s agreement with EBAY. EBAY will become Merchant of Record after the current deal expires in 2020; however, EBAY will continue to accept PayPal-branded transactions through 2023. We do not expect EBAY volume will be easily flowing off the platform for some time, but note that EBAY currently represents only 13% of the company’s overall volume.
Jefferies has set its price objective at $98. The consensus target price is $84.55, and the shares closed on Monday at $74.70.
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While the selling may stick around for a while, the bottom line is that equity investors may be being presented with the best buying opportunities in some time. It may make sense to nibble at these companies and see what happens over the next few weeks.
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