Financial Mirror (Cyprus)

Upside)

-

Stocks remain close to all-time highs, but investors are getting used to being told that the bull market has become a stock picker’s market, but sometimes the stocks trading under $10 have incredible upside price targets from analysts.

As a note of caution, stocks trading under $10 are often among the riskiest stocks in the market. To prove a point, only four of the members in the S&P 500 Index have share prices under $10 - and only one of them trades under $9. Still, many investors are attracted to lower-priced stocks as they feel like there is larger room for upside.

Another considerat­ion on risk in most of the stocks under $10 is that almost all of these selected from this past week would fail the “widows and orphans” suitabilit­y test. This is what brokers and financial advisors have to consider when it comes to ethics and suitabilit­y for clients.

These are the nine analyst stocks we tracked this past week that were trading under $10 and have huge implied upside, if the analysts are correct in their calls.

saw a gain of more than 4% on Friday to $8.31, after Jefferies started coverage with a Buy rating and assigned a $14 price target. The driver is enrollment in its eye study trial has ended. While this biotech player has an implied upside of 68% to the Jefferies target price, the 52-week range is $5.06 to $10.86, and a call from Citigroup in May gave Ampio a whopping $21 price target.

analyst

calls under

$10,

with

is back again in the Imperial Capital starting coverage as Buy and with a $7 price target last Thursday. The $473 mln small cap power generator has a 52-week range of $2.11 to $5.36. This $7 target is the highest among analysts by far, and shares rose 4% on the upgrade and another gain of almost 6% on Friday to close out at $3.92.

saw keen analyst action last week, with one daring to call this $8.97 stock a double. Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating and assigned an $18 target price. The consensus price target is closer to $11. Another call was seen from BMO Capital Markets, raising its rating to Market Perform from Underperfo­rm (sell), and its price target was raised to $9.50 from $7.00.

is perhaps an overlooked and forgotten software and hardware player in storage. Shares closed at $4.41 on Friday after falling almost 4%, but Roth Capital Partners started coverage on Friday with a Buy rating and gave it a price target of $7.00. This implies nearly 60% upside, and the consensus price target is $6.00 on the stock.

saw a very unusual gain of almost 14% on Friday. The driving force was an analyst report from CIBC World Markets with a $3 price target. That would imply upside of more than 50%, even from the $1.93 post-upgrade gain on Friday. Just keep in mind that this was a $1.50 stock at the close of trading last Wednesday, so it has already ramped up 29% in just the past two trading sessions and on strong trading volume.

was covered much more favourably than rival Staples by Morgan Stanley, with an Equal Weight rating versus an Underweigh­t rating. The Equal Weight might not be excessivel­y bullish, but the $6.35 price target implied upside of 12% from the $5.66 prior close and slightly more than the $5.62 closing price on Friday.

was reiterated as Buy at Merrill Lynch earlier last week in more detailed coverage. While the consensus price target is $4.25, Merrill Lynch maintained its $5.00 price target. Sirius XM closed at $3.43 on Friday, implying upside potential of 45%.

was started with an Outperform rating on Thursday by Northland Securities. The $340 mln audio technology player was at $9.43 prior to the call, but by Friday’s close the stock was down to $9.01. Northland’s $15 price target now implies 66% potential upside. Its 52-week range is $7.58 to $17.90, and at least one other analyst sees the stock valued even above $20.

was picked up in new coverage by H.C. Wainwright & Co. on Friday with a Buy rating and a $2.65 price target. This microcap wireless and payment player closed at $2.02 on Friday, implying more than 30% upside remains. Its 52-week range is $1.40 to $2.48, and its market cap of $72 mln values it at well under two-times current revenue trends.

Last week’s high upside analyst picks under $10 included shares of Apollo Investment, Atlantic Power, BlackBerry, Ballard Power, Compugen, Orbitz, MeetMe and more for a total of 11 stocks. Also, our coverage of Friday’s key analyst upgrades and downgrades included Alcoa, Cigna, Intel, Molina Healthcare, Teva Pharmaceut­ical, UnitedHeal­th and more than a dozen additional stocks.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Cyprus