Top Wall Street Analysts Remain Bullish on These Stocks as Earnings Season Winds Down
Feb 21, 2022
The stock market has been roiled by geopolitical concerns, the potential of Federal Reserve rate rises, and inflation fears, leaving investors uneasy.
The main indices have recently lost for the second week in a row, and the crisis between Russia and Ukraine is still raging.
Investors are seeking direction and a reminder to maintain a long-term outlook. According to TipRanks, which analyzes the best-performing analysts, even in these uncertain times, top experts are highlighting their preferred selections.
These are the five equities that these Wall Street experts are recommending.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare (NET) is quickly establishing itself as a leader in the cybersecurity field. The company has been gaining clients and seeing retention rates rise, as seen by its most recent financial report.
Cloudflare's "strong technology is capable of solving crucial challenges and aiding emerging technological trends," according to Alex Henderson of Needham & Co. "Even with the interest rate and value turbulence, we urge investors to purchase and hold NET," he added. In this name, we have faith."
Henderson maintained his Buy rating on the stock and set a $245 price objective for it.
Cloudflare's impressive profits performance last quarter, which saw rising sales and a revised projection exceeding Wall Street consensus estimates, was also recognized by the analyst. Henderson continues to feel that the forecast is modest and set up for easy revenue beats in the future.
Cloudflare is presently "pivoting from network investment and a freemium customer capture strategy to the development of deeper service capability," according to the analyst.
Henderson is ranked No. 66 out of over 7,000 experts by TipRanks. He has been successful in predicting stocks 66% of the time and has an average return of 35.3 percent on each one.
Expedia
The Christmas season usually brings large amounts of travel and vacation planning business, but last year was unusual for firms like Expedia (EXPE). Another wave of pandemic-related cancellations was generated by the omicron version of Covid-19. The stock, on the other hand, currently seems to be on track for a solid summer.
That's according to Wells Fargo's Brian Fitzgerald, who believes that once omicron worries fade, demand for the vacation booking firm will return. Moreover, despite the hiccup in late-2021 travel, the business just reported positive quarterly results.
Fitzgerald upgraded the stock to a Buy and boosted his price objective from $225 to $250.
Even while cancellations increased throughout the Christmas season, they were not enough to put the company's finances in jeopardy. Furthermore, compared to the prior delta variation, the wave had less influence on Expedia. If the trend continues, this may let investors relax about the stock.
"EXPE is our favored option on the online travel industry revival," the analyst wrote, his tone strong. He predicts that the summer will be profitable, particularly for foreign and metropolitan tourists.
It's worth noting that Covid-19-related uncertainties might potentially cause EXPE to experience volatility in the short future. Fitzgerald did point out that the firm has made great success "across key priorities - consolidating brand strategy and tech platforms, and speeding the pace of innovation/execution," according to Fitzgerald. He went on to say that Expedia is poised to build up its loyalty program, which will help the company grow in the long run.
Fitzgerald is ranked 105th out of over 7,000 financial experts. His stock choices have given him a return of 41.1 percent and have been right 59 percent of the time.
Coursera
The online adult education course platform Coursera (COUR) went public last year amid the epidemic, but its stock has subsequently dropped in value. However, the company's margins are good, and it is continuing to grow.
Coursera's quarterly earnings, which topped Wall Street consensus projections on revenue and its 2022 guidance, were recently mentioned by Scott Devitt of Stifel. The analyst ascribed the increasing margins to strong Coursera Plus subscriptions and an "increased demand for career-oriented credentials and specializations."
Devitt upgraded the stock to a Buy, and his price objective was boosted to $26 from $25.
In a piece about Coursera's current shift, Devitt wrote that the company's management expressed "increasing confidence that the shift to lower-cost industry partner content is unlikely to meaningfully revert given current trends, implying material upside to the business's long-term gross margin potential."
Beyond this broad trend, Coursera's customers are gravitating toward higher-margin industry partner material rather than the more expensive instructor content.
Despite minor setbacks, such as the more employee-friendly labor market driving away potential Coursera students, the company's total addressable market remains huge, and its industry-leading position is solid.
Devitt is ranked No. 356 out of more than 7,000 professional analysts on TipRanks. He has been successful with his stock ratings 52 percent of the time, bringing him in at an average of 24.1 percent each per rating.
Intel
Intel (INTC) is the world's largest semiconductor company by sales, yet its chips are less sophisticated than those of other significant companies. Since its new CEO took over a year ago, the firm has been growing its infrastructure and business strategy, and it just announced the acquisition of chipmaker Tower Semiconductor.
The deal is worth around $5.4 billion, according to Quinn Bolton of Needham & Co., and will "add a broad range of specialty process nodes to [Intel Foundry Services] that perfectly complement Intel's advanced node process capabilities."
According to the analyst, buying Tower will provide Intel access to seven fabrication sites, as well as an "established foundry ecosystem" and a pre-existing client base.
Bolton assigned the stock a Buy rating and a $60 price target.
Intel is undergoing a significant business model transition. Despite Intel's near-term issues of limited gross margins due to substantial infrastructure and M&A spending, the long-term outlook is positive.
Bolton is ranked No. 2 within TipRanks' 7,000+ analyst database. He has a success rate of 79 percent when rating stocks. He has an average return of 82.5 percent on each one.
SolarEdge
As the price of oil and gas rises, the use of alternate energy sources becomes increasingly obvious. SolarEdge (SEDG) just reported good quarterly results and is now in high demand.
SolarEdge's solar panels are in high demand in Europe, which is "especially robust as corporate-level clean energy objectives, government efforts, and rising fossil fuel prices have fuelled demand," according to Mark Strouse of JPMorgan.
Strouse gave the stock a Buy rating and a $328 price target.
SolarEdge's commercial and industrial business area, according to the analyst, is nearing an inflection point and experiencing a boom in demand. He also expects SEDG's narrow gross margins to increase as the business sets up manufacturing in Mexico, which would dramatically lower transportation expenses. This contrasts with the high price of transportation from Asia to the United States.
Meanwhile, in Asia, production at the company's Vietnam facility has started resuming after being slowed by pandemic-related forced shutdowns.
Strouse believes the stock will begin to outperform its solar peers if it improves its vertical skills and global reach.
Strouse is ranked 399th out of over 7,000 professional experts. He has been successful 52 percent of the time when choosing equities, and he has averaged a 40.3 percent return on each one.