In this piece, we will take a look at the 11 best upside stocks to buy right now. If you want to skip our overview of share valuation, then take a look at the 5 Best Upside Stocks To Buy Now.
The art of buying shares on the market has always gone hand in hand with share price analysis. A share price, in its simplest form, is the market's estimate of the company's future. This is why media reports often say that major events have been 'priced in' the shares, indicating that higher prices reflect positive developments that investors expect to occur in the future and vice versa. Investor expectations about a stock are also based on what the analysts are saying. Analysts are finance professionals who are tasked with digging through a firm's business statement, its business model, and its market to see whether there will be any catalysts to the stock in the future.
One way in which analysts measure a stock's worth is by projecting its earnings and cash flows into the future and then discounting it back to a present value. This value is compared to the market price to determine whether a stock is under or over valued. The positive difference between an analyst's share price target and the market price is called an upside, and naturally, the greater this upside is, the better the chances that the shares will perform well in the future.
This share price upside also increases when the market as a whole is down. This is because broader market movements bring down the share prices of most companies for a drop that might be unrelated to their fundamentals. And these days, a case can be made that stocks are broadly down due to unfavorable economic conditions in America. While the U.S. economy has continued to grow in 2023 despite rapid interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, the fact that rates are so high right now has depressed stocks and made money flow out of the stock market into other markets.
November 2023 though has started to mark a shift in these trends. For instance, the S&P 500, the NASDAQ Composite, the NASDAQ 100, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are up by 19.2%, 37.20%, 47.13%, and 6.8% year to date. However, all these stock indexes bottomed out on October 26th amidst jitters. Within these trends, while the two NASDAQ indexes still managed to hedge their losses amidst the hype surrounding the tech sector due to artificial intelligence (A.I.), the other two haven't done so well. This is because the S&P 500 tanked to 4,117 points on October 26, which was down significantly from its July peak of 4,588 points. Similarly, the blue chip stock index Dow tanked to 32,417 points on the same day, which made it enter into loss territory compared to its 2023 open of 33,136.
Over the past month though markets have roared back to life. Our four indexes, the S&P, the NASDAQ, the NASDAQ 100, and the DJIA, are up by 8.9%, 11.15%, 11.13%, and 7.13% over the month to near their H1 2023 high levels. This shift in sentiment has come after the data for October 2023 showed that inflation is continuing to drop, and while Fed officials have warned that their fight against inflation might not be over, Mr. Market seems confident that prices will continue to drop and a slow economy might even force the central bank to start cutting rates sooner than expected.
So how does this tie into share upside? Well, if the market continues to recover, then stocks will continue to rise. If they do, then those with the highest upside will see the upside gradually erode over time with those who were prudent enough to buy the shares during the depressed valuation era reaping profits. This makes understanding the relevance of economic data to stock markets ever more important, and if you want to learn how to read them, then here's what Ken Fisher of Fisher Investmentsthinks:
For the most part, all of those, like GDP, reported earnings, employment numbers unemployment numbers, or other things like that say nothing about the future. As it relates to markets, what's good for an investor, and really only relates to importance in how history will be written. But fundamentally you take something like GDP, as it's reported, it's telling you about what hashappened. Whereas always, always always always always always, markets are pricing the future. As I've said many times in many other videos in the past, stocks tend to be pricing in the future sometime between 3 and 30 months into the future. Sometimes a little on the long side, sometimes a little on the short side, usually more commonly in between. But they never pricing the past.
So, what are the best upside stocks to buy? We took a look and the top three picks are Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR).
11 Best Upside Stocks To Buy Right Now
A trader watching stock prices tick up and down on the monitors in a trading room.
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the best upside stocks to buy, we first made a list of the 30 stocks with the highest percentage share price upside and a market value greater than $300 million. Then we chose those with the highest number of hedge fund investors out of the 910 that were part of Insider Monkey's third quarter of 2023 database.
Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR) is a small biotechnology company headquartered in San Francisco, California. The shares are rated Strong Buy on average and analysts have set an average share price target of $89.17.
By the end of this year's third quarter, 29 out of the 910 hedge funds profiled by Insider Monkey had held a stake in Structure Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:GPCR). It joins Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) in our list of the best upside stocks to buy right now.
Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) is a Panama based airline headquartered in Panama City, Panama. The firm has been capitalizing on the resurgence in global air travel after the pandemic since it has beaten analyst EPS estimates in all four of its latest quarters.
As of September 2023, 31 out of the 910 hedge funds part of Insider Monkey's research were Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA)'s investors. Ken Griffin's Citadel Investment Group owned the biggest stake among these which was worth $61.1 million.
Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM) is a biotechnology firm developing treatments for nervous system diseases and disorders. Like several other stocks on our list, the shares are also rated Strong Buy on average and analysts have set an average share price target of $115.45.
Insider Monkey scoured 910 hedge fund portfolios for this year's third quarter to find 31 stakeholders in the company. Axsome Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXSM)'s largest hedge fund investor is Mark Lampert's Biotechnology Value Fund / BVF Inc due to its $148 million investment.
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDGL) is a biotechnology company developing treatments for liver complications resulting from alcohol use. November 2023 saw several management shakeups at the firm since it appointed new chief information and chief commercial officers.
During this year's September quarter, 35 hedge funds out of the 910 part of Insider Monkey's database had bought and owned Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MDGL)'s shares.
Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB) is an American chemicals company that is also one of the biggest lithium companies in the world. November 2023 was a tough month for the stock as the shares dropped in the wake of lower lithium prices.
By the end of 2023's third quarter, 37 out of the 910 hedge funds profiled by Insider Monkey had invested in Albemarle Corporation (NYSE:ALB). Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management owned the biggest stake among these since it owned $100 million worth of shares.
Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) is a biotechnology company that is developing treatments for cancer and other serious ailments. A star of the stock market due to its coronavirus vaccine, the shares are rated Buy on average and analysts have set an average share price target of $125.82.
During Q3 2023, 37 out of the 910 hedge funds polled by Insider Monkey held the firm's shares. Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)'s largest hedge fund investor is Patrick Degorce's Theleme Partners since it owns 6.8 million shares that are worth $712 million.
Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SRPT), Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA), and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) are some top stocks with great upside that hedge funds are buying.
