Navigating the stock market is a difficult task for the inexperienced. The first step in making a successful trade is understanding how prices work and what they represent. However, one of the best approaches you can take is seeking out high-upside stocks.
It is a value investing approach. A good value investor looks for companies with low prices relative to their intrinsic worth and is willing and able to buy shares when they’re cheap. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy, but intelligent risk management demands caution.
I’m taking a deep dive into high-upside stocks that are looking to break out of this list. But at the same time, all of these companies have solid operating models; these aren’t fly-by-night operations. But a word of caution before moving forward: even the best consensus estimates are just estimates in the end. They can go wrong. It’s very important to make sure the stock that you are interested in actually matches your risk-return profile.
With that in mind, here are seven high-upside stocks to buy:
- Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:OXY)
- Penn National Gaming (NASDAQ:PENN)
- Fox Corp. (NASDAQ:FOX)
- ChargePoint Holdings (NYSE:CHPT)
- Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)
- Teladoc Health (NYSE:TDOC)
- Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)
High-Upside Stocks: Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $39.21 (17% upside potential)
Occidental Petroleum is a privately owned company that produces and sells crude oil. The stock of this American multinational corporation has been steadily rising over recent decades due largely to increased sales from its operations in Latin America, especially Colombia.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic was devastating for Occidental Petroleum and other companies in the space. The energy company was already dealing with the $57 billion purchase of Anadarko Petroleum. At the purchase, many analysts questioned the wisdom of accepting so much additional debt to finance the purchase. The pandemic added to the company’s miseries. In response, Occidental is disposing of non-core assets to decrease leverage.
But now, things are getting back to normal, and energy prices are on the move. Therefore, OXY stock has all the potential for a comeback.
Penn National Gaming (PENN)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $95.33 (26% upside potential)
Penn National Gaming operates casinos and racetracks with 44 facilities spread across America and Canada. It also owns a 36% stake in Barstool Sports company.
Over the last decade, the regional land-based casino operator has done very well, a rare outlier the last year. Penn National Gaming’s revenue for 2020 was $3.579 billion. In 2019, annual revenue came in at $5.301 billion, representing a decrease of 32%.
However, things are doing very well in the year thus far. But by investing in Barstool Sports, the company has carved out a niche in mobile sportsbook betting.
High-Upside Stocks: Fox Corp. (FOX)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $44.50 (13% upside potential)
Fox Corporation has become one of America’s most successful media companies. They produce and license news programs for distribution through cable television systems as well direct broadcast satellite operators.
With advertiser spending rebounding, things are looking pretty good for FOX. Most recently, the company reported record earnings for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 financial results. Revenue grew by 20%.
A rise in advertising revenue was seen across all three segments: television (51%), cable network (17%) and other revenues (30%). With the pandemic slowly receding into the background, things will only get better from this period. According to Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch, “We look forward to the year ahead, anticipating the return of normalized sports and entertainment calendars and the start of the midterm election cycle.”
ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $32.89 (54% upside potential)
ChargePoint operates the largest network of separately owned EV charging stations, active in 14 countries. As the world pivots towards clean energy, companies like ChargePoint stand to benefit immensely. We have already seen President Joe Biden release a comprehensive $2 trillion infrastructure and economic recovery package that has a significant EV component.
To accommodate the expected growth of EVs by 2030, AlixPartners estimates $300 billion is needed to build out global infrastructure, including $50 billion in America, a feat that would take quite some time and effort. But as the Chinese proverb goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Under Biden’s infrastructure plan, 500,000 charging devices would be installed in a national EV charging network in America by 2030.
Against this backdrop, ChargePoint, an industry leader, becomes an enticing prospect for any portfolio. Most recently, analysts expected the company to narrow losses to 12 cents apiece. But ChargePoint reported a second-quarter loss of 13 cents. However, sales finished at $56 million — an increase from their prior year’s same quarter by 61% and beating expectations.
Looking ahead, ChargePoint expects revenue between $60 million and $65 million for its third quarter. In addition, the company hiked full-year revenue guidance between $225 million and $235 million, from $195 million to $205 million, for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2022.
High-Upside Stocks: Barrick Gold (GOLD)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $25.79 (31% upside potential)
Barrick Gold is a Canadian multinational mining company that engages in the production and sale of gold and copper and mining-related activities such as exploration for new deposits or mine development on old ones to increase its reserves quantity.
Global miners have been a major hot topic in the investment world this year. Shares of global mining companies skyrocketed to record highs last year. It turns out these stocks were not worth their value, though, as prices fell with international turmoil.
Barrick’s latest EPS figure of 29 cents beat analysts’ expectations by a narrow margin. The company reported revenue of $2.89 billion, which missed estimates of $2.92 billion. Even though gold production fell 9.4% in the second quarter, realized prices rose 5.5%. This is because there were more buyers than ever before, thanks to people who wanted one safe-haven asset during this time of uncertainty caused by pandemic fears and a weakened dollar.
Barrick restated a capital investment plan of $1.8 billion to $2.1 billion on the bright side. The production plan is reaffirmed at 4.4 million ounces to 4.7 million gold ounces and 410 million pounds to 460 million pounds of copper.
Teladoc Health (TDOC)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $200.95 (45% upside potential)
Teladoc Health is multinational telemedicine and virtual healthcare company. They have primary services including, but not limited to, medical opinions via teleseminars or email correspondence, AI-powered analysis on prescription drugs and patient records from various providers such as hospitals or insurance companies.
Last year was a satisfying one for the company. Due to strict lockdowns, patients turned towards telemedicine for their needs. It led to a bonanza for companies like Teladoc, which saw full-year revenue jump 98% year-over-year to $1.1 billion. However, now that things are getting back to normal, there is a fear that a slowdown may occur. In the second fiscal quarter, Teladoc finished with a net loss of $133.8 million, or 86 cents a share, which more than doubled the loss from the year-ago period.
Looking ahead, the company anticipates third quarter revenue between $510 million and 520 million, with a net loss range of 78 cents to 68 cents a pop. For the full year, they guided for $2 billion to $2.025 billion in sales alongside an expected per-share loss range from $3.35 to $3.60.
High-Upside Stocks: Shopify (SHOP)
TipRanks 12-Month Consensus Price Target: $1,709.95 (20% upside potential)
Shopify is the go-to platform for e-commerce stores. It offers secure, reliable and scalable cloud services that enable online retailers to sell their products across different channels with a single click of a button from anywhere in the world.
In announcing second-quarter 2021 financial results, the tech giant, for the first time, achieved a $1 billion revenue quarter on record gross merchandise value (GMV). Total revenue ended up at $1.1 billion, an increase of 57% from the year-ago period. GMV was $42.2 billion, a jump of $12.1 billion or 40% year-on-year. Adjusted net income came in at $284.6 million, or $2.24 per diluted share. These figures compare very favorably with adjusted net income of $129.4 million, or $1.05 per diluted share, last year.
Shopify’s digital commerce trends were very strong in the first half of 2021. It combined the secular growth in e-commerce, stimulus distributed this March and April, and lower than expected operating expenses. As a result, full-year 2021 adjusted operating income is expected to outpace last year’s results.
On the publication date, Faizan Farooque did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Faizan Farooque is a contributing author for InvestorPlace.com and numerous other financial sites. Faizan has several years of experience in analyzing the stock market and was a former data journalist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.