In this article we present 20 stocks that are at least 25% below their 52-week highs but have recently seen analyst upgrades. In fact these stocks are in the top 10 percentile in terms of changes in analysts’ consensus view during the past 30 days.
Company Name | Symbol | Target Price | Last Price | Upside Potential |
BPZ RESOURCES INC | BPZ | 8.09 | 4.76 | 70% |
DEMAND MEDIA INC | DMD | 26.50 | 16.57 | 60% |
HIGHER ONE HOLDINGS INC | ONE | 22.13 | 14.09 | 57% |
QUINSTREET INC | QNST | 26.89 | 18.08 | 49% |
MARVELL TECHNOLOGY | MRVL | 21.30 | 15.43 | 38% |
GEVO INC | GEVO | 24.75 | 19.35 | 28% |
PENN VIRGINIA CORP | PVA | 19.73 | 15.46 | 28% |
FELCOR LODGING TRUST INC | FCH | 7.91 | 6.36 | 24% |
DREAMWORKS ANIMATION | DWA | 32.56 | 26.49 | 23% |
TELLABS INC | TLAB | 5.93 | 4.90 | 21% |
SYNOVUS FINANCIAL CORP. | SNV | 2.98 | 2.50 | 19% |
MOMENTA PHARMA | MNTA | 22.00 | 18.86 | 17% |
FIRSTMERIT CORP | FMER | 19.70 | 17.47 | 13% |
OLD NATIONAL BANCORP | ONB | 11.58 | 10.35 | 12% |
BOYD GAMING CORP | BYD | 9.92 | 8.94 | 11% |
BEBE STORES INC | BEBE | 7.41 | 6.72 | 10% |
CAPELLA EDUCATION CO | CPLA | 54.17 | 49.60 | 9% |
NORDIC AMERICAN TANKER | NAT | 24.38 | 22.98 | 6% |
FORMFACTOR INC | FORM | 10.63 | 10.37 | 3% |
AMYLIN PHARMACEUTICA | AMLN | 13.06 | 13.30 | -2% |
BPZ Resources (BPZ) is an oil and gas drilling and exploration company. The stock is more than 30% below its 52-week high. The stock plunged at the beginning of March after its disappointing earnings. We like this company because George Soros has more than 4% of its outstanding shares. Analysts also have a target price of $8.09 for this stock. The stock has an upside potential of 70%.
Demand Media (DMD) shares were trading above $25 just three weeks ago. The stock plunged after Google (GOOG) changed its search engine ranking methodology. However, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst thinks that investors are overreacting. The consensus price target on this stock is $26.50 and the stock has an upside potential of 60%.
Another stock we like is Felcor Lodging (FCH). Felcor recently spent $140 Million on a Midtown Manhattan hotel by issuing shares at $6. Several insiders participated as well and bought significant amounts. They have significant incentives in place to make this work. Billionaire investor John Paulson owns nearly 5% of outstanding shares in this stock. Analysts also expect the stock reach nearly $8 in one year. We believe the economic recovery will benefit the travel market and Felcor and the stock will increase by more than 20% in one year.
Analysts don't upgrade all at the same time. We believe most of these firms will have additional analyst upgrades in the next few weeks and will perform better than the market. Short-term investors should consider buying all of these stocks, whereas long-term investors should focus on the stocks that have at least 20% upside potential.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
