Skip to headerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
Get our Free E-newslettersGet our Free E-newsletters
Kiplinger logoLink to homepage
Get our Free E-newslettersGet our Free E-newsletters
Subscribe to Kiplinger
Subscribe to Kiplinger
Save up to 76%
Subscribe
Subscribe to Kiplinger
  • Store
  • Home
  • Investing
  • Retirement
  • Taxes
  • Personal Finance
  • Your Business
  • Wealth Creation
  • More
    • Podcasts
    • Economic Outlooks
    • Tools
  • My Kiplinger
    • Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
    • The Kiplinger Letter
    • The Kiplinger Tax Letter
    • Kiplinger's Investing for Income
    • Kiplinger's Retirement Report
    • Store
    • Manage My E-Newsletters
    • My Subscriptions
  • Home
  • investing
  • stocks
stocks

10 Growth Stocks to Buy With Monster Potential

by: Harriet Lefton
October 5, 2018
Cargo Carrier Rocket Takes Off To The Clouds. 3D Illustration.

Getty Images

The stock market – especially growth stocks – is at an interesting inflection point as we enter the final quarter of 2018.

On the one hand, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index recovered from a tumultuous midyear with a 7% third-quarter gain that marked its best quarterly performance since 2013. On the other, interest-rate worries have sent a quick scare into the markets, and riskier, growth-oriented equities have suffered a bit of a pullback.

Still, corporate earnings have impressed, unemployment remains at multi-decade lows and the economy is growing. So as we head into the seasonally strong fourth quarter, the question for anyone who still believes the broader trend is up becomes, “Which stocks are Wall Street analysts singling out as compelling investing opportunities?”

We can use TipRanks to pinpoint top growth stocks – as identified by Wall Street’s brightest minds – that have significant growth potential. Let’s take a closer look at these 10 top picks now:

Data is as of Oct. 4, 2018. Stocks listed in alphabetical order.

1 of 10

Abeona Therapeutics

Close-up of a hand holding a chemistry test-tube with a chemical solution in a bio-chemistry DNA genetic research laboratory, GMO, human, animal, plants genetics research.

Getty Images

  • Market value: $540.8 million
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $33.67 (194% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)
  • Abeona Therapeutics (ABEO, $11.43), which develops novel gene and cell therapies for the potential treatment of rare diseases, is among the highest-potential growth stocks Wall Street is looking at. Abeona’s targets include little-known but devastating diseases such as epidermolysis bullosa, Sanfilippo syndrome and Batten disease.

For H.C. Wainwright analyst Ram Selvaraju (Track Record & Ratings), a recent transaction in the gene therapy sector provides an encouraging benchmark for Abeona’s value. Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD) is acquiring Celenex – which focuses on gene therapy targeting the same rare diseases as ABEO – for $100 million, with up to $262 million in additional milestones.

The Celenex transaction is a “bullish signal for Abeona and may provide additional incentive for investors to consider the company as an intriguing investment opportunity in the gene therapy field, with multiple shots on goal and diversified technology platforms” he states. Most crucially, any potential competition to Abeona from the Amicus acquisition is likely to be muted and, at best, several years away.

As a result, Sevaraju reiterated his “Buy” rating with a $30 price target. This suggests more than 160% upside from current levels.

  • Emerging-Markets Stocks: 10 Ways to Play the Next Bull Market

2 of 10

Alaska Air

Portland, Oregon, USA - March 19, 2011: A pilot of an Alaska Airlines 737 guides his plane in to the air from runway 10 left at Portland International Airport.Alaska Airlines is a US airline

Getty Images

  • Market value: $8.2 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $97.50 (46% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy (See Details)

Large regional airline Alaska Air (ALK, $66.82) is looking increasingly attractive right now. Top Imperial Capital analyst Michael Derchin (Track Record & Ratings) sent shares rallying after he upgraded the stock from “In-Line” (equivalent of hold) to “Outperform” (equivalent of buy). HJe also ramped up his price target from $62 to a confident $95 (43% upside potential), arguing that the stock is now trading far too cheaply.

So why the shift in sentiment?

Derchin cited industry-leading unit sales growth of 4% in 2019, as well as Alaska’s capacity discipline, merger synergies and a successful loyalty program generating higher sales. He also raises the possibility that Alaska, like its peers, will decide to hike luggage fees.

Alongside Hawaiian Holdings (HA) and Spirit Airlines (SAVE), ALK is now one of Derchin’s three favorite airline stocks.

  • 7 “Strong Buy” Stock Picks for Breakneck Growth

3 of 10

Alibaba

Hangzhou, China - March 25, 2018: The main building in the headquarter of Alibaba group in Hangzhou. Alibaba, founded by Jack Ma, is the biggest e-business company in China.

Getty Images

  • Market value: $393.1 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $234.63 (47% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)

With 18 back-to-back buy ratings in the last three months, Alibaba (BABA, $156.13) is undoubtedly one of the Street’s favorite growth stocks.

RBC Capital’s Mark Mahaney (Track Record & Rating) recently attended Alibaba’s investor day in Hangzhou, China. He left the event with his bullish thesis on the stock reaffirmed, writing, “We believe management did an impressive job of explaining their long-term vision of empowering businesses to succeed in a digital era.” This includes helping businesses use a data-driven approach to boost sales.

Ultimately, Alibaba’s fundamentals remain very strong. Alibaba represents a stellar play on Chinese middle-class growth and the rapid boom of e-commerce. Combine this with management’s long-term focus and excellent execution and you have a very compelling stock, Mahaney writes.

As a result, this top analyst reiterated his “Outperform” rating on BABA with a bullish $215 price target (38% upside potential).

  • Emerging-Markets Stocks: 10 Ways to Play the Next Bull Market

4 of 10

BorgWarner

Courtesy BorgWarner

  • Market value: $8.7 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $57.71 (34% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)

Auto-parts maker BorgWarner (BWA, $42.96) is buzzing right now. Following an upbeat investor day, the company revealed several new production contract wins. These contracts “underscore (BWA’s) opportunity set and strong positioning around vehicle electrification,” Oppenheimer’s Noah Kaye (Track Record & Ratings) writes.

Kaye has a “Buy” rating on the stock with a $58 price target (35% upside potential). Kaye is confident that the company’s electric vehicle operations “will support cross-cycle topline outperformance and the robust growth targets management outlined.” Indeed, BWA is modelling for 6% compound annual growth through 2023 with a total addressable market of $47 billion in combustion, $39 billion in hybrids and $11 billion in electric vehicles.

Kaye explains, “As the global auto industry evolves to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations, we expect BorgWarner to benefit.” This is due to accelerating vehicle electrification, continued runway on turbochargers and the company’s “overall strong position” for internal combustion engines.

Bottom line: BorgWarner is perfectly poised for auto industry changes – and this sets the stock up for stellar long-term growth.

  • 5 Blue-Chip "Marijuana Stocks"

5 of 10

Facebook

New York City, USA - March 15, 2014: Close-up view of facebook notifications on a smart phone. Facebook is a social networking service, owned and operated by Facebook, Inc.

Getty Images

  • Market value: $452.6 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $206.31 (30% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)

The world’s most dominant social platform still has plenty of room to run, say top analysts. This makes sense given that Facebook (FB, $158.85) shares are currently down 8% over the past month. The stock has pulled back for several reasons, including a security breach that affected 50 million users, and the departure of Instagram’s co-founders.

“We reiterate our Strong Buy on FB and view the recent selloff as a buying opportunity as the company’s long-term growth story remains intact,” cheers Tigress Financial’s Ivan Feinseth (Track Record & Ratings). He sees “substantial upside” from current levels but doesn’t offer a specific price target. No worries: We can see that the average analyst price target indicates 30% upside ahead.

Most notably, Feinseth cites Facebook’s gigantic user base as a key competitive advantage. Right now, the company boasts over 2.2 billion MAUs (monthly active users), and 1.5 billion DAUs (daily active users). This enables advertisers to use Facebook’s tools to effectively target their best potential customers, he explains.

Plus keep an eye out for Facebook’s next big growth drivers: Marketplace, Stories and Watch, an on-demand video service. Meanwhile, SunTrust’s Youssef Squali reassures investors that Instagram’s founders have left the popular photo-sharing app “in a good place” with “stable footing,” and “impressive” user growth.

  • RBC Capital’s 10 Best Tech Stocks to Buy for 2025

6 of 10

Gaia Inc.

Woman with crystal new age meditation healing

Getty Images

  • Market value: $281.1 million
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $26.33 (72% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)
  • Gaia Inc. (GAIA, $15.27) is a global digital video company that streams curated videos to subscribers in more than 120 countries. Currently the platform boasts over 8,000 titles aimed at a very specific audience. The videos, 90% of which belong exclusively to Gaia, focus on Seeking Truth, Transformation and Yoga.

Five-star Roth Capital analyst Darren Aftahi (Track Record & Ratings) has just left meetings with Gaia’s CFO and CMO with his bullish thesis reaffirmed. He subsequently reiterated his “Buy” rating with a $25 price target (64% upside potential).

According to Aftahi, Gaia is planning to increase subscription prices in mid to late 2019, alongside a new premium service. He sees this as a savvy move. “Given that Netflix has raised prices on multiple occasions in recent years, it is not out of the cards for Gaia to also implement a price increase,” the analyst points out.

He also sees any subscriber loss from the price-hike as immaterial longer-term due to the impressive brand loyalty and stickiness of most of Gaia’s subscriber base.

  • 7 Top Tech Stocks That Could Catch Fire Soon

7 of 10

Salesforce.com

San Francisco, United States - August 24, 2018: Outside Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, located at 415 Mission St. Salesforce is an American cloud computing company with headquarters in Sa

Getty Images

  • Market value: $120.4 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $174.89 (13% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)

In just the last week, cloud-computing stock Salesforce.com (CRM, $154.90) has scored multiple buy-equivalent ratings from the Street. The reason: Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference and upbeat analyst day.

Alex Zukin (Track Record & Ratings) from Piper Jaffray gives the stock his seal of approval. Salesforce “is making all the right moves, at the right time, with the right people” Zukin argues. He tells investors to buy and hold as this is a “set it and forget it” stock. Citing higher demand, rapid product innovation and an impressive ecosystem of products, Zukin boosted his price target from $180 to $190 (23% upside).

Similarly, Oppenheimer’s Brian Schwartz (Track Record & Ratings) advises investors to “stay the course.” “We consider CRM one of the healthiest long-term growth stories in our SaaS/applications software universe,” he wrote in a Sept. 27 report. The bullish outlook came with a new price target: $180, up from $160 previously. Note that Schwartz is one of the Top 10 analysts ranked by TipRanks for his precise stock-picking skills.

  • 5 Triple-A Semiconductor Stocks to Buy Now

8 of 10

Sorrento Therapeutics

Immunotherapy as a human immune system therapy concept as a biomedical or biomedicine oncology treatment using the natural cancer fighting properties of the body as a 3D render.

Getty Images

  • Market value: $451.8 million
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $21.67 (436% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)

Cutting-edge biotech stock Sorrento Therapeutics (SRNE, $4.04) may only have three recent ratings. But these ratings indicate an extremely compelling story. All three analysts are top-performing analysts, and their consensus opinion is that Sorrento has more than 400% of upside potential.

The best-rated analyst covering the stock is B. Riley FBR’s Andrew D’Silva (Track Record & Ratings). His price target may be a more cautionary $15, but this still indicates upside potential of more than 270%.

Sorrento is developing new therapies to turn malignant cancers into manageable and possibly curable diseases. This includes a first-in-class non-opioid pain management (“RTX”) and a next generation lidocaine patch (“ZTlido”).

“SRNE is pioneering cutting-edge immuno-oncology (IO) treatments and is leveraging its proprietary technological expertise, which includes one of the world’s most robust fully human monoclonal antibody (mAbs) libraries, to develop novel CAR T-cell treatment” D’Silva writes.

He sees the risk/reward dynamic for Sorrento’s pipeline as favorable and notes multiple additional opportunities in animal health and pain management.

  • 7 Health Care Stocks to Buy for Robust Returns

9 of 10

Turtle Beach

Courtesy Turtle Beach

  • Market value: $240.1 million
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $38.75 (118% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Strong Buy (See Details)
  • Turtle Beach (HEAR, $17.80) is one of the leading makers of award-winning gaming headsets. Its motto: “Hear Everything. Defeat Everyone.”

According to top D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte (Track Record & Ratings), it’s full steam ahead on Turtle Beach.

The company currently is enjoying the benefits of Epic Games’ massively successful Fortnite Battle Royale. “Our headset sales were up over 80%. Gamers want that better headset in order to play Fortnite,” Turtle Beach CFO and COO Robert Lloyd told analysts on the recent Q2 earnings call.

However, even aside from Fortnite, the stock still looks compelling. “We see headset usage rates increasing as additional games move towards this more social gaming format, regardless of ‘Fortnite’s’ ability to sustain its meteoric growth” Forte writes.

Forte reiterated his “Buy” rating with a bullish $38 price target. From current levels, this means he expects HEAR to more than double.

  • 10 Cool Things Your Google Home Smart Speaker Can Do

10 of 10

Weight Watchers

New York City, USA - June 17, 2013: The facade of the Weight Watchers Store in Chelsea on 23rd Street. Weight Watchers International, founded in 1963 by Jean Nidetch and based in the US, is t

Getty Images

  • Market value: $4.5 billion
  • TipRanks consensus price target: $106.80 (52% upside potential)
  • TipRanks consensus rating: Moderate Buy* (See Details)

Five-star Oppenheimer analyst Brian Nagel (Track Record & Rating) recently initiated coverage on Weight Watchers (WTW, $70.04). With a “Buy” rating and $98 price target (40% upside potential), it’s clear he likes what he sees.

Weight Watchers, one of the world’s largest weight loss companies, currently is undergoing a significant transformation. Under the leadership of new CEO Mindy Grossman, WTW is now introducing improved programming and better digital infrastructure. The purpose: to better connect with a larger and more diverse community of subscribers.

“For investors, the new WTW strategy suggests the potential for a sustained, stronger and higher margin growth trajectory,” Nagel writes. He calls a recent pullback in shares “largely mechanical in nature and at odds with strengthening fundamentals at the company.”

* Note: If we look only at the best-performing Wall Street analysts, the consensus shifts from “Moderate Buy” to “Strong Buy.” This is with six buy-equivalent ratings in the past three months vs just one hold rating.

Harriet Lefton is head of content at TipRanks, a comprehensive investing tool that tracks more than 4,700 Wall Street analysts as well as hedge funds and insiders. You can find more of TipRanks’ stock insights here.

  • Best Online Brokers, 2018
  • tech stocks
  • stocks to buy
  • stocks
  • Alibaba Holding (BABA)
  • bonds
  • growth stocks
Share via EmailShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedIn

Recommended

13 Best Warren Buffett Growth Stocks
stocks

13 Best Warren Buffett Growth Stocks

Warren Buffett might be known as a legendary value investor, but don't ignore his growth holdings. Here, we examine 13 of "the Oracle's" best growth s…
September 22, 2020
Bonds: 10 Things You Need to Know
Investing for Income

Bonds: 10 Things You Need to Know

Bonds can be more complex than stocks, but it's not hard to become a knowledgeable fixed-income investor.
July 22, 2020
Stock Market Today 3/5/21: Tech Roller Coaster Leaves Investors Thrilled
Stock Market Today

Stock Market Today 3/5/21: Tech Roller Coaster Leaves Investors Thrilled

Stocks, especially tech, appeared poised for yet another bloodletting on Friday despite a stellar February jobs report. Then came the turn.
March 5, 2021
Stock Market Today 3/4/21: Crash? Not Today. But Stocks Still Feel Pain.
Stock Market Today

Stock Market Today 3/4/21: Crash? Not Today. But Stocks Still Feel Pain.

A small rise in weekly jobless claims and comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell sparked a scare in stocks Thursday, though the losses could've been wo…
March 5, 2021

Most Popular

Where's My Refund? How to Track Your Tax Refund Status
tax refunds

Where's My Refund? How to Track Your Tax Refund Status

If you're waiting for your tax refund, the IRS has an online tool that lets you track the status of your payment.
March 2, 2021
Where's My Stimulus Check? Use the IRS's "Get My Payment" Portal to Get an Answer
Coronavirus and Your Money

Where's My Stimulus Check? Use the IRS's "Get My Payment" Portal to Get an Answer

The IRS has an online tool that lets you track the status of your stimulus checks.
February 19, 2021
Your Guide to Roth Conversions
Special Report
Tax Breaks

Your Guide to Roth Conversions

A Kiplinger Special Report
February 25, 2021
  • Customer Service
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us (PDF)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Kiplinger Careers
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy Preferences

Subscribe to Kiplinger's Personal Finance

Be a smarter, better informed investor.
Save up to 76%Subscribe to Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Dennis Publishing Ltd logoLink to Dennis Publishing Ltd website
Do Not Sell My Information

The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc., is part of the Dennis Publishing Ltd. Group.
All Contents © 2021, The Kiplinger Washington Editors

Follow us on InstagramFollow us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterConnect on LinkedInConnect on YouTube