30 Stocks That Could Rally 30% or More

The major indexes may be trading near record highs and valuations might be stretched, but industry analysts say dozens of quality stocks are priced for big upside in the next 12 months or so.

True, it's getting harder to spot bargains, what with the benchmark S&P 500 up nearly 30% on a price basis since its early April low. The "growthier" but riskier Nasdaq Composite is up a whopping 40% since it bottomed in spring.

That has taken a lot of potential upside out of many of Wall Street's favorite names. But a better-than-expected second-quarter earnings season and rising estimates for corporate profits have the bulls on the move.

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A weaker dollar is another tailwind, as it makes U.S. companies' goods and services cheaper overseas.

"We often remind readers that over the intermediate-to-long-term, earnings drive stock prices, and last quarter earnings jumped more than 11%," writes Grant Engelbart, investment strategist at Carson Group. "Nearly 60% of companies have raised their forward guidance for full-year earnings per share, something nearly unthinkable earlier this year when companies were withdrawing guidance completely in the wake of tariff uncertainty."

The bottom line is that although markets tend to get a bit choppy around this time of year – September is historically a tough one for stocks – the outlook for equities remains bright.

The fact that the Federal Reserve is telegraphing a quarter-point cut to the short-term federal funds rate at the next Fed meeting also bodes well for equities.

Analysts still spy big bargains

As long as a company's earnings prospects are rising faster than its share price, its stock can very much look like a bargain, and therefore a potential market beater. To get a sense of where to start digging for such finds, we screened the S&P 500 by implied upside to industry analysts' average price targets.

What we found: a total of 30 stocks in the S&P 500 have implied upside of at least 30% over the next 12 months or so, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

But before we get to the S&P 500 stocks that could rally the most based on price targets, a caveat is in order.

Price targets are a blunt tool when it comes to sussing out cheap stocks. Committing capital based on a single data point is not an investment process.

It's also important to note that stocks with the most upside potential don't necessarily get consensus Buy recommendations from the very same analysts whose models spit out the target prices.

With that warning out of the way, if you're looking for widely traded stocks with the most upside potential, the names listed below aren't a bad place to start.

Data as of August 23, courtesy of S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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