The U.S. President Joe Biden’s unveiling of the .3 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at rebuilding American roads, bridges, mass transit, and water infrastructure, has boosted the U.S. market’s morale heading into the second quarter of the year. . But more immediate concerns continue to stoke fear among Wall Street investors as the number of coronavirus cases across the globe continues to rise.
In these circumstances, top wall street analysts are favoring the following five stocks, as compiled by TipRanks for CNBC.
Here’s a list of the best-performing Wall Street analysts’ five favorite stocks right now, as compiled by TipRanks.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB): Monness analyst Brian White continues to remain bullish on the social media giant despite a recent House hearing which grilled the CEOs of Facebook, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) on misinformation.
The analyst reiterated a “Buy” rating on the stock and maintained a $375 price target, implying a 27% upside potential.
According to White, Facebook CEP appeared well-prepared, thoughtful, professional and respectful of the issues at stake and open to improving the social-media platform during the hearing.
Though, according to White, the hearing brought to fore certain serious issues that have been brought about by social media and meaningful changes are imperative, the hearing was a “brazen political grandstanding on both sides of the aisle,” and that lawmakers were trying to appeal to local constituents.
The subcommittee members also called for the “break up of Big Tech,” and as per White if such events takes place, the valuation of Facebook and other big tech companies could jump even higher.
As one of the top 75 analysts tracked by TipRanks, White’s calls see an average annual return of 28.2%, with the success rate landing at 73%.
Shares of Facebook closed 1.4% higher at $298.66 on Thursday and have a 52-week high of $304.67 and low of $150.83.
Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU): RBC Capital analyst Mitch Steves reiterated a “Buy” rating and raised the price target to $120 from $110 on the stock, implying a 36% upside potential.
Steves’ price target raise comes after the chipmaker’s quarterly earnings beat last week and a better-than-expected outlook. The analyst notes that Micron’s gross margins are “expanding rapidly considering that the firm guided to 41.5% gross margins at the midpoint.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Micron and Western Digital are considering a deal that would result in the acquisition of Kioxia for about $30 billion.
Steves has a 76% success rate and 35.2% average return per rating and is among the top 30 analysts tracked by TipRanks.
Shares of Micron closed 4.76% higher at $92.41 on Thursday and has a 52-week high of $95.75 and low of $39.52.
See Also: Tesla Finally Gets An ‘Outperform’ Rating From Long-Term Bull Wedbush, With A Higher Price Target
Benchmark Electronics Inc (NYSE: BHE): Needham’s James Ricchiuti has upgraded the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) stock to “Buy” rating from “Hold,” in addition to a $35 price target, spurred by increased confidence in its growth as well as the margin.
The five-star analyst believes noted that there is positive commentary coming in from the semiconductor-capital market, including from Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT), the company’s largest customer, and that his previous expectations could be “conservative.”
Despite the pandemic, Benchmark reported a strong bookings momentum in 2020 and the analyst expects the company’s 5% top-line growth targets through 2022 as reasonable in an improving economy.
Also, strength in defense could offset headwinds in the commercial aerospace part of the A&D business.
With a 67% success rate and 23.5% average return per rating, Ricchiuti is ranked 83 on TipRanks’ list of best-performing analysts.
Shares of Benchmark closed 1.39% higher at $31.35 on Thursday and has a 52-week high of $32.16 and low of $17.87.
Lantheus Holdings (NASDAQ: LNTH): SVB Leerink analyst Richard Newitter has reiterated a “Buy” rating and maintained the $25 price target on the stock, implying a potential 17% upside in the store.
Newitter expects Lantheus, which develops products that help healthcare providers identify diseases, to benefit from its recent acquisition of the global rights to Noria Therapeutics’ NTI-1309, a PET oncology imaging agent.
According to the deal, Lantheus will have the exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize NTI-1309.
“NTI-1309 has the potential to broaden Lantheus’ reach beyond prostate cancer…through additional diagnostic biomarker targeting and pharma service capabilities into other cancer types,” according to Newitter.
The analyst expects the company to sustain a roughly 20% 2020 –2023E revenue CAGR as it uses its expanding diagnostic image enhancing solutions pipeline to “target sizable, rapidly growing and underpenetrated cardio/oncology market opportunities.”
Landing the 178 spot on TipRanks’ ranking, Newitter has achieved a 71% success rate and 26.9% average return per rating.
Shares of Lantheus closed 1.73% lower at $21 on Thursday and have a 52-week high of $21.99 and low of $10.21.
Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL): Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland has maintained a “Buy” rating on the stock and raised the price target to $62 from $60 to reflect increased visibility. This new target implies 27% upside potential from current levels.
Rolland’s price target raise follows an analyst call with Marvell CEO Matt Murphy on the company’s ASIC strategy and the semiconductor company’s long-term growth prospects.
“Overall, management believes custom ASICs (5G, Cloud, Auto) could be billions of dollars of opportunities five years from now. The Inphi addition and its strong optics position should be an accelerator and attractant for new ASIC businesses more broadly,” according to Rolland.
Financially, the analyst believes that ASICs will only modestly impact gross margins, but other areas like NRE could give operating margins a boost.
A top 50-ranked analyst, Rolland boasts a 74% success rate and 21.7% average return per rating.
Shares of Marvell closed 1.39% higher at $49.66 on Thursday and have a 52-week high of $55.70 and low of $21.29.
Latest Ratings for GOOG
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Feb 2021 |
Citigroup |
Maintains |
Buy |
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Feb 2021 |
JP Morgan |
Maintains |
Overweight |
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Feb 2021 |
Morgan Stanley |
Maintains |
Overweight |
View More Analyst Ratings for GOOG
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