We enter into the new year with a largely unmodified macroeconomic backdrop and a recession waiting for us. But investors can maintain a healthy portfolio if they keep a longer-term view, not considering all unnecessary things.
In that context, we jump-start 2023 with five stocks chosen by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipiRanks, a service that ranks analysts depending on their past performance.
STAAR Surgical:
STAAR Surgical is a medical technology company benefiting worldwide from solid demand for refractive corrections. Moreover, Ryan Zimmerman, a BTIG Analyst, believes that favorable demographic trends, which include an aging population and increased myopia cases, are also urging demand for STAAR’s products.
Earlier in December, the company reported that Caren Mason, its president, and Chief Executive Officer, is retiring by the month’s end. Thomas Frinzi, who has served before as the head of Johnson and Johnson’s vision unit and President of Abbott Medical Optics, will succeed Mason. Zimmerman said that Frinzi’s appointment could satisfy investors, thanks to his 40 years of experience in medical optics.
Papa John’s:
The stock of Papa John’s, a quick-service pizza chain, has significantly depreciated this year because of the challenges in the U.K. and inflationary pressures, but its longer-term outlook remains resilient. Peter Saleh, a BTIG analyst, pointed out that during these times, when inflation is more, and a recession is on the horizon, consumers with lower income spend less on eating outside. Therefore, the value offerings of Papa John’s, such as Papa Pairings, are attracting new lower-income guests.
After surveying more than 1000 customers of Papa John’s, Salen found that only a low-single-digit percentage of them find the menu prices too costly, even after the company raised prices by three to four times in 2022. Encouraged by these trends, the analyst slightly raised his 4Q22 domestic same-store sales expectations.
Alphabet:
The next on our list is the analyst from Monness Crespi Hardt, Brian White’s stock pick, Alphabet, which has shown to be more resilient than its peers in the digital ad market this year. Besides, the firm could reduce the effect on its business with the help of solid growth in Google Cloud. However, White said that as a challenging year nears an end, severe headwinds persist in 2023. As a result, the alphabet began to decrease its expenditures to be prepared in a better way.
White added that in their view, Alphabet is well-positioned to finance on the digital-ad trend, which is of long-term duration, participate in the movement of the workload to the cloud, and benefit from the digital transformation, justifying his stance on Alphabet’s prospects for 2023. He reiterated a purchase rating on the stock with a price target of $135. The analyst mentioned that over the last five years, the Alphabet has delivered 23% growth in sales per annum and 27% operating profits.
Verizon:
This week, another name on our top-5 list is Verizon’s wireless and wireline communications services. One of the selections of the 5-star analyst Ivan Feinseth of Tigress Financial Partners is Verizon, which is well-positioned to obtain from the growth of ongoing 5G wireless subscriptions as well as the new growth opportunities in fiber and fixed broadband connectivity.
MongoDB:
MongoDB, a general-purpose database platform provider, is among Feinseth’s purchased stocks which we think is an excellent addition to portfolios this week. Feinseth mentioned that the company’s “industry-leading open-source database software structure” is drawing new customers. Feinseth further added that even though he lowered his price target from $575 to $365, the firm is well-poised to profit from the gradual rise in IT enterprise spendings when organizations adopt MongoDB’s highly customizable and scalable Database as a service.
- Published By Team Hongkong Journalist
