7 Growth Stocks That Analysts Are Loving Right Now
It’s tough investing in growth stocks right now. Many of them are ensnared in painful bear markets, with many of the stocks down 40% or more. However, not all growth and tech stocks are under pressure.
In fact, many are doing quite well. If the stocks are acting well, the businesses sure are and Wall Street isn’t missing its opportunity in these stocks.
Whether that’s from investor presentations or more commonly, quarterly earnings reports, analysts have been quick to jump on the companies that are doing well. Despite the bear market in growth stocks weighing on the sentiment in tech stocks, not all are doomed in the short term.
Let’s look at a handful of growth stocks that are still getting praise from the analysts:
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)
- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
- Micron (NASDAQ:MU)
- Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)
- Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)
- Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Growth Stocks With Analyst Love: Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla isn’t the quintessential analyst love affair. There are – and always have been – analysts and investors who poke holes in the stock. That’s for varying reasons, but usually centers on valuation.
Simply put, it’s hard for Tesla to justify its $1 trillion market capitalization, yet it continues to boast that mega market cap regardless of anyone’s opinion.
The average analyst price target sits at $987, implying roughly 10% downside from current levels. So how in the world did the stock make this list?
It’s due to the optimism among the bullish analysts. Wedbush’s Dan Ives reiterated his buy rating again on Dec. 24 and he has done some of the better analysis on this stock. The firm is now using a $1,400 price target as its base case and an $1,800 price target in its bull case. Goldman Sachs hit Tesla with a buy rating on Dec. 21 and a $1,125 price target. Between Dec. 7 and Dec. 14, the stock garnered four price targets of $1,000 or higher.
One of those targets? $1,580 – implying almost 50% upside from current levels.
Apple (AAPL)
On the other end of the spectrum, we have a much less controversial pick with Apple. Standing as the most valuable stock in the world, Apple weighs in with a $2.9 trillion market cap.
Earlier this month, the stock made a push to a $3 trillion valuation, but fell just short before finding its footing again.
In any regard, this stock hasn’t found any shortage of analysts’ praise. The average price target sits at roughly $175, which is in line with current prices. Darn. But then you look at the last couple of weeks.
On Dec. 22, Citigroup analysts and Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty – the latter of which is a well-known and highly respected analyst –both slapped a $200 price target on Apple to go along with their buy ratings.
The week before that, Evercore assigned a $200 price target too. Dan Ives also assigned that price target on Dec. 12, while two others assigned a $210 target.
In short, the bulls are still bullish on Apple and it’s not hard to see why. The company continues to generate immense revenue, earnings and free cash flow, while using those products to generate Services revenue, which comes with double the margins as its Hardware business.
Apple also has one of the best-looking charts heading into the end of the year.
Nvidia (NVDA)
Another stock that’s no stranger to the bullish spotlight? Nvidia.
Now this is one the analysts can’t help but gush over. The average price target of $360 represents about 17% upside from current levels. While there hasn’t been a bevy of upgrades and price-target hikes in the last two weeks, the most recent are pretty impressive.
Specifically, they sit at $350, $370 and at $400 – the last one of which is the highest on Wall Street.
If the stock gets there, it represents about 33% upside from current levels. Should Nvidia reach this level, it will see its market cap swell to the coveted $1 trillion level.
Not many would have expected that a few years ago, but long-term bulls are unlikely to be surprised by the potential. Nvidia has its hands in every meaningful secular growth industry in tech, including data centers, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, drones, supercomputing, graphics, crypto, self-driving cars, cloud-computing and everyone’s latest favorite, the metaverse.
Growth Stocks With Analyst Love: Micron (MU)
Micron is one of the few tech stocks that reports its quarterly results way outside of the typical earnings-season window.
However, the company reported its results just a few days ago, on Dec. 20. That sent Micron higher by more than 10% in the following session and kicked off a strong move to the upside. In that run, it has held a number of key levels.
It has also put the all-time high from the year 2000 in play at $97.50.
Other than that, it’s also drawn a lot of analysts’ praise since the report.
Since the report, it has drawn at least 17 buy ratings (or reiterations for a buy rating) and 17 price targets of $98 or higher. To be fair, 16 of those price targets were of $100 or higher, with the new Street-high target weighing in at $165.
That implies almost 75% upside from current levels, although the average price target calls for an average gain of “just” 15%.
Still, it’s clear that the stock hit a turning point last quarter. Its strong results drove a better-than-expected quarter and a solid outlook. That has analysts jumping on the bandwagon and looking to ride this stock to its highest price in more than 20 years.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Advanced Micro Devices has made it a habit to put in a significant rally, then consolidate for several months or even quarters. That type of action is rewarding for long-term investors but frustrating for just about everyone else. If you miss the move, you miss almost all of the gains.
However, we could be setting up for something different this time around. The stock is consolidating nicely and now giving us the key rotation we needed back over $150. If AMD can hold up above this level, the highs near $164.50 are back in play.
It’s clear that there are secular growth drivers behind companies like AMD and Nvidia, as demand continues to churn higher. It’s been clear for a while now that analysts have been behind the curve on these stocks.
That’s clear through the consensus earnings and revenue estimates – which have been way behind the curve over the past 18 months. I now feel that way about the price targets and upgrades.
Just like Micron, we saw a wave of higher price targets for AMD when the company reported earnings in late October.
We saw multiple price targets of $140 to $150 the day after AMD’s report. They were notable after a big breakout and as shares were trading in the $120s. However, there were several price targets between $175 and $180, which implies 16% upside from current levels.
Like consensus estimates, I believe most price targets will be behind the curve and need to be raised again in the coming months and quarters.
Broadcom (AVGO)
Most don’t look at Broadcom like a growth stock, but with the way the stock is trading right now perhaps investors ought to change their tune a bit.
The stock continues to hit new all-time high after new all-time high ever since reporting a robust earnings report on Dec. 9. As of Dec. 27, Broadcom stock has hit a new high in five straight sessions.
Since the report, Broadcom has garnered at least eight price targets in excess of $700. The highest on Wall Street sits all the way up at $750, which still implies about 12% upside.
Can Broadcom get there? It will likely need some rest, but if the current trend continues then it only seems like a matter of time.
Growth Stocks With Analyst Love: Netflix (NFLX)
Last but certainly not least is Netflix. Among the FAANG stocks that have struggled through 2021, Netflix is on the list. Unlike some of others that did quite well, Netflix has struggled for traction even though it did hit new all-time highs earlier this year.
In fact, it did so in mid-November when most growth stocks were struggling.
Despite a resurgence among Covid-19 cases, Netflix stock hasn’t reacted the way it did when the coronavirus first bombarded its way into the world.
Although the company reported solid earnings this quarter (which sent the stock to new highs), Netflix stock has been under pressure lately. However, the analysts haven’t bailed.
Just this month alone, Netflix has garnered three buy ratings with price targets in excess of $700. Even from current levels, getting to $700 would represent 14% upside.
At the top of the list is an $800 price target, which came soon after the company reported earnings in October. To get there represents 30% upside from current levels.
On the date of publication, Bret Kenwell held a long position in NVDA. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell.
