The S&P 500 is on a winning streak. And these stocks are responsible. Should you invest now?
The bulls are celebrating right now. As you probably heard, the S&P 500 share index has hit a new milestone. It is now 3,453 days since March 9, 2009, when the world was in the full throes of a financial crisis and the S&P hit its low. That makes it the longest bull stretch on record. Since its low in 2009, the market has exploded by over 300%.
Plus strong consumer earnings, and a hiatus in the trade dispute has just boosted the index to a record intraday high of 2,873.23 points.
The following stocks are some of the biggest winners during this rally. So what does the future hold for these soaring stock names? Here we use TipRanks to 1) find the stocks with the most bullish outlook; and 2) dive into the Street outlook for these stocks based on the latest ratings form top analysts. Is now still the time to jump in? Let’s take a closer look now:
1. Abiomed (NASDAQ:ABMD)
- Up 6980% since 2009
- Strong Buy Street consensus
Abiomed is pioneering a new generation of heart-related medical devices. This includes the AbioCor artificial heart and Impella, the world’s smallest heart pump.
Don’t underestimate Abiomed’s massive growth potential. Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Abiomed estimates that about 221,000 U.S. patients annually would benefit from procedures using Impella. Plus the stock doesn’t just have a U.S. focus. It also operates in Europe, Japan, and now India.
Indeed five out of six analysts are currently bullish on the stock. This is with a $468 average price target (23% upside potential). See ABMD Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
2. Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX)
- Up 5859% since 2009
- Moderate Buy Street consensus
Online streaming giant Netflix seen sales explode from $2.16 billion in 2010 to an estimated $15.81 billion in 2018, up over seven-fold in just a few years. Despite a weaker Q2, top Monness analyst Brian White is sticking to his bullish stance.
“After meaningful upside earlier this year, Netflix may have gotten ahead of itself in terms of global streaming net addition expectations in the June quarter; however, we view this reset as healthy and not the end of this strong, global, secular growth story” says White. He has $430 price target on the stock (20% upside potential). See NFLX Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
3. Align Tech (NASDAQ:ALGN)
- Up 5492% since 2009
- Strong Buy Street consensus
Medical device stock Align Technology, Inc wins the award of top-performing S&P 500 stock in 2017. Shares shot up in the year from $96 to $223 during the year. The company is behind a new wave of teeth straightening tech with its popular ‘clear aligners.’
“We’ve seen a maturation of Invisalign’s clear aligners over the past decade,” explains Robert W Baird analyst Jeff Johnson. “They went from a product that was passable for some patients but not good for all back in 2011, to a product that by mid-2016, had orthodontists saying: ‘I can use this technology in most cases.’” He has a $425 price target on the stock (16% upside potential). See ALGN Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
4. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)
- Up 3003% since 2009
- Strong Buy Street consensus
Amazon may be trading at over $1,900, but it still has 100% support from the Street. “We still think that [Amazon] is the best long-term-growth investment available to investors today,” top MKM Partners analyst Rob Sanderson said recently.
He ramped up his price target from $1,840 to $2,215 on August 22. “We think the margin story at [Amazon] is set up very well for the next several quarters,” Sanderson told clients. Most notably, he says Amazon’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services (or AWS), is in a “sweet spot” for margin expansion following a period of aggressive buildout investments. See AMZN Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
5. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)
- Up 2886% since 2009
- Moderate Buy Street consensus
Chip stock Nvidia has just provided updates on its on its 8th generation Turing GPU architecture. Five-star Needham analyst Rajvindra Gill calls the Turing architecture a ‘game changer’ and the biggest achievement in innovation for NVIDIA since the 2006 CUDA GPU.
“Gaming still accounts for the majority of sales and this transformational architecture reinforces our belief that the core franchise will undergo a significant upgrade cycle over the upcoming years” states Gill. He has a bullish $325 price target on the stock (19% upside potential). See NVDA Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
6. SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB)
- Up 2569% since 2009
- Strong Buy Street consensus
This US-based high-tech commercial bank just posted “another blowout quarter” in Q2. On the back of these results, top Maxim Group analyst Michael Diana upped his price target from $350 to $365 (12% upside potential). He named the bank his “top pick” among the “small to mid-cap” banks in the long term.
In his report, Diana drew attention to 9.7% rise in total client funds, 21bp expansion in net interest margins, and unchanged core efficiency ratio at 47%. Out of 13 analysts covering SIVB, only 1 is sidelined on the stock right now. See SIVB Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
7. Expedia (NASDAQ:EXPE)
- Up 2089% since 2009
- Moderate Buy Street consensus
Expedia is “back in the groove,” whooped Jefferies analyst Brent Thill following strong Q2 results. Revenue rose 11% to $2.88 billion, from $2.58 billion a year ago. “Even with the +9% move post print, we still believe Expedia shares have more than 20% upside to our $170 price target and represent one of the only deep value names in Internet,” he added. This suggests further upside potential of over 30% from current levels.
Meanwhile Oppenheimer’s Jed Kelly stated “Results support our view that EXPE is well-positioned to drive long-term accommodation share gains.” He is particularly upbeat about Expedia’s AirBnB rival HomeAway. See EXPE Price Target and Analyst Ratings Detail.
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And the best part is that you can see at a glance the trending stocks with the most upside potential from the current share price to the average analyst price target. These are the prime stocks with the most growth potential.
