Stocks got off to a rocky New Year as investors faced the prospect of rising Omicron cases, higher bond yields and a tightening of Federal Reserve monetary policy.
These macroeconomic factors can confuse even seasoned investors, especially when setting up their portfolios for the longer term. TipRanks, a website dedicated to aggregating financial data, offers investors a number of tools that look beyond short-term market volatility.
Here are five stocks with strong long-term potential that Wall Street analysts love.
Intel
After a boom in e-commerce and a rapid acceleration of high-tech applications for almost all industries, there is strong demand for specialized semiconductors. The vast majority of the 5 nm wafers used to make the chips are developed in foundries in East Asia, although Intel (INTC) tries to fill the domestic political void. Under the leadership of CEO Pat Gelsinger, the company has committed $ 25 billion to $ 28 billion in investments in new foundries and several new initiatives, and analysts have taken note.
One of those analysts is Ivan Feinseth, who recently cited a number of reasons for his heightened bullish stance. In addition to aggressively expanding footprint and dispensing capacity, Intel has announced that it will launch its advanced driver assistance systems subsidiary Mobileye, which it believes will catalyze the upward momentum for INTC. (See Intel stock analysis on TipRanks)
Feinseth rated the stock as a buy and raised his price target from $ 68 to $ 72.
According to the analyst, Mobileye’s IPO “unlocks potentially tremendous shareholder value, provides additional capital for ongoing investments in key growth initiatives, and fosters the company’s partnership in the continued development of AV technology.” He expects the IPO to take place sometime in the summer of 2022.
In terms of additional initiatives, Intel will team up with its alleged competition to develop even more advanced semiconductors. In addition, the recently announced Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will provide state-of-the-art manufacturing expertise for other companies.
Feinseth expressed his expectation that Intel will regain its formerly dominant position in the data center and cloud infrastructure markets.
On TipRanks, Feinseth ranks 50th out of a total of over 7,000 analysts. His stock picks were right 74% of the time, returning him an average of 37.3% each time.
Kursra
Another industry bolstered by the stay-at-home trends from the pandemic was education technology, where ratings of several companies skyrocketed as the number of users increased. However, as vaccines progressed, investor interest shifted to more related game reopenings. One of these stocks is Coursera (COURT), whose valuation has fallen by around 45% since going public in early 2021. Now a top analyst sees a worthwhile discount option.
Needham & Co.’s Ryan MacDonald named Coursera one of his company’s top ed-tech picks for the new year and released an bullish report on the stock. In it he argues that the most important business areas are well positioned for this year. (See Coursera Insider Trading Activities on TipRanks)
MacDonald listed the stock as a Buy with a target price of $ 45.
The analyst expects the company’s increased budgets for talent retention will give its business segment the opportunity to continue to grow. In addition, Coursera has invested heavily in expanding its product range. The company added programs like LevelSets, SkillSets, and Academies, all tools that MacDonald expects will anchor the company better with its customers.
In addition, COUR is expanding its Degrees platform with additional content and jumping from 24 to 35 live programs.
The stock itself has “compressed significantly since it went public in March 2021 when education technology companies warranted premium ratings,” and now the analyst sees his stock price at an attractive entry point.
MacDonald ranks 439th out of over 7,000 analysts. Its success rate is 52% and its reviews have an average return of 30.6% each.
Apple
The world’s most valuable company by market capitalization recently briefly passed another milestone, a valuation of $ 3 trillion. On the heels of its huge product cycle, led by the iPhone 13, Apple (AAPL) is experiencing massive demand and posting record sales. All of this in view of a global semiconductor shortage that mainly affects smartphone manufacturers.
Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives reiterated his optimistic stance on the stock, who said the smoother supply chain will act as a catalyst for Apple as chip and component shortages relax by 2022. Additionally, he was optimistic about its expanding service segment as well as its pipeline product innovations on the way. (See Apple website traffic on TipRanks)
Ives listed the stock as a Buy with a target price of $ 200.
The analyst said consumer demand is well on the way to exceed supply by 12 million units and that Apple already sold more than 40 million units last Christmas season.
As for the services business, Ives predicts an addressable market worth about $ 1.5 trillion. There are tremendous opportunities for monetization from “Apple’s golden installed base” and already poised to reach $ 100 billion by 2024.
Beyond its iPhone and more traditional product cycles, Apple has already announced a potential automotive offering in 2025 that could give the company the opportunity to gain market share from emerging electric vehicle providers. Ives also stated that the “highly anticipated Apple Glasses AR headset” will be launched in the second half of the year and will provide Apple with access to metaverse-related revenue streams.
The financial data aggregator ranks Ives 60th out of more than 7,000 professional analysts. Its reviews have been rated successfully 74% of the time and achieved an average return of 51.8%.
Go Daddy
In a digitally transformed world, everyone needs a website. The listed domain registrar GoDaddy (GDDY) has stagnated relatively in the past year and a half until recently. Activist investor Starboard Value acquired a 6.5% stake and found that stocks were discounted and, according to its filing, “represented an attractive investment opportunity”.
Jefferies’ Brent Thill reveals his hypothesis on the subject, who shared the optimistic mood with Starboard, and wrote that GoDaddy is “a top value game among website builders”. In contrast to many other technology stocks, GDDY cut both the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (NDX), the analyst sees this as just another reason to buy in. (See GoDaddy Risk Analysis on TipRanks)
Thill listed the stock as a Buy with a target price of $ 110.
He said GDDY likes its “consistent execution, double-digit organic sales growth, strong uFCF production and attractive valuation”. Thill remains optimistic even after stocks rose more than 8% following the acquisition news.
Additionally, GoDaddy’s investment in innovation in 2021 is expected to act as a tailwind over the course of 2022.
The relatively new CEO of two years has focused the company on the introduction of product innovations, especially in the areas of hosting and presence, payment and “omnichannel commerce solutions”.
Thill is rated # 314 by over 7,000 expert analysts. It was successful 60% of the time and achieved an average return of 28.2%.
Netflix
As the streaming wars heated up, Netflix (NFLX) Supply cooled down. The past two months have been rather sluggish for the streaming service and production company as investors are deterred by poor exposure data and concerns about international profitability. However, the majority of analysts remained optimistic.
One of them is Scott Devitt of Stifel Nicolaus, who wrote that despite investor concerns, the company has done a good job posting popular content and has a robust pipeline that will result in the company moving away from its exclusive involvement in video product offerings. (See Netflix hedge fund trading activity on TipRanks)
Devitt considered the stock a buy with a price target of $ 660.
The analyst said that beyond its traditional business of streaming video content, Netflix has innovated in video games and visual effects opportunities. The company hopes to diversify its revenue streams and differentiate itself from other streaming-only companies.
Meanwhile, he maintains a confident long-term outlook for NFLX. According to Devitt’s calculations, the company will increase its total subscribers by 50% by 2025 and by 100% by 2030.
In addition to the engagement data numbers and skepticism about international reach, Devitt attributes the recent decline in the share price to a move away from growth and technology stocks and an “increased investor focus on new streaming competitions / the use of alternatives”. Though he’s not into the underlying fundamentals of Netflix’s business.
For his efforts, Devitt currently ranks # 177 out of more than 7,000 analysts vying for the top spots. Its ratings resulted in success 62% of the time and achieved an average return of 35.3%.
