Wall Street’s top analysts like these stocks for the long term as a new year begins

Stocks started the new year on rocky footing as investors confronted the prospect of rising omicron cases, higher bond yields and the Federal Reserve tightening its monetary policy.

These macroeconomic factors can cause confusion for even seasoned investors, particularly as they position their portfolios for the longer term. TipRanks, a financial data aggregation website, provides an array of tools for investors to look beyond short-term market volatility.

Here are five stocks with strong long-term potential that are loved by Wall Street analysts.

After a boom in e-commerce and rapid acceleration in high-tech applications for nearly all industries, specialized semiconductors have been in high demand. The vast majority of the 5nm wafers used in manufacturing the chips are developed in foundries in East Asia, although Intel (INTC) is attempting to fill the domestic void. Led by CEO Pat Gelsinger, the company has pledged $25 billion to $28 billion in investments toward new foundries and several new initiatives, and analysts have taken notice.  

Among those analysts is Ivan Feinseth, who recently spelled out a bevy of reasons for his increased bullish stance. In addition to the aggressive expansion in footprint and output capacity, Intel has announced it will take advanced driver-assistance systems subsidiary Mobileye public, which he believes will catalyze upward momentum for INTC. (See Intel Stock Analysis on TipRanks) 

Feinseth rated the stock a Buy, and raised his price target to $72 from $68.  

According to the analyst, the Mobileye IPO “unlocks potentially tremendous shareholder value, provides additional capital for ongoing investment in key growth initiatives, and furthers the companies partnership in ongoing AV technology development.” He expects the IPO to occur sometime during the summer of 2022.  

Regarding additional initiatives, Intel will link up with its ostensible competition to develop even more advanced semiconductors. Moreover, the recently announced Intel Foundry Services (IFS) will provide cutting-edge expertise for other firms’ manufacturing process.  

Feinseth noted his expectation that Intel will regain its formerly dominant position in data center and cloud infrastructure markets.  

On TipRanks, Feinseth is ranked as #50 out of more than 7,000 total analysts. His stock picks have been correct 74% of the time and have returned him an average of 37.3% each.  

Yet another industry bolstered by stay-at-home trends by the pandemic, educational tech saw several companies’ valuations hit highs as their user bases swelled. However, as vaccine rollouts progressed, investor interest moved away to more reopening linked plays. One of these stocks is Coursera (COUR), which has seen its valuation decline about 45% since going public in early 2021. Now, a top analyst sees a worthwhile discount opportunity.  

Declaring Coursera as one of his firm’s top picks in ed tech for the new year, Ryan MacDonald of Needham & Co. published a bullish report on the stock. In it, he argues that its key businesses are well poised for high performance this year.  (See Coursera Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks) 

MacDonald rated the stock a Buy, and assigned a price target of $45.  

The analyst expects that the company’s increased budgets for talent retention will provide its enterprise segment with the ability to continue growing. Moreover, Coursera has invested heavily in expanding its product offerings. The firm added programs such as LevelSets, SkillSets, and Academies, all tools which MacDonald anticipates will better entrench the company with its customers.  

Furthermore, COUR is adding more content to its Degrees platform, jumping from 24 to 35 live programs.  

The stock itself has “compressed significantly since its March 2021 IPO when education technology companies warranted premium valuations,” and now the analyst sees its share price at an attractive entry point.  

Out of over 7,000 analysts, MacDonald comes in at #439. His success rate stands at 52%, and his ratings have averaged returns of 30.6% each.  

The world’s most valuable company by market cap briefly surpassed yet another milestone recently, a $3 trillion valuation. On the heels of its huge product cycle led by the iPhone 13, Apple (AAPL) is experiencing massive demand, and has been executing on record sales. All this, in the face of a global semiconductor shortage mainly affecting smartphone manufacturers.  

Reiterating his confident stance on the stock is Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, who opined that as the chip and component shortages begin to relax moving through 2022, the smoother supply chain will serve as an upward catalyst for Apple. Additionally, he was bullish on its expanding Services segment, as well as its pipeline product innovations on the way. (See Apple Website Traffic on TipRanks) 

Ives rated the stock a Buy, and assigned a price target of $200.  

The analyst explained that consumer demand is on track to outpace supply by 12 million units, and that Apple has already sold upward of 40 million units this past holiday shopping season.  

As far as its Services business is concerned, Ives forecasts an addressable market worth about $1.5 trillion. Vast opportunities exist to monetize through “the Apple golden installed base,” and is already positioned to meet $100 billion by 2024.  

Beyond its iPhone and more traditional product cycles, Apple has already announced a possible automotive offering targeted for 2025, which could open the company up to grab market share from more nascent electric vehicle players. Ives also detailed that the “highly anticipated AR headset Apple Glasses” will arrive in the back half of the year, providing Apple with exposure to metaverse related revenue streams.  

Financial data aggregator ranks Ives at #60 out of more than 7,000 professional analysts. His ratings have been met with success 74% of the time, and they have earned average returns of 51.8%.  

In a digitally transformed world, everyone needs a website. However, publicly traded domain registrar GoDaddy (GDDY) has relatively stagnated the last year and a half, until recently. Activist investor Starboard Value acquired a 6.5% stake, and noted that shares were discounted and “represented an attractive investment opportunity,” according to its filing.  

Disclosing his hypothesis on the matter is Brent Thill of Jefferies, who shared the bullish sentiment with Starboard, and wrote that GoDaddy represents a “top value play among web site builders.” Unlike many other tech plays, GDDY underperformed both the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq Composite (NDX), however, the analyst sees this as just another reason to buy in. (See GoDaddy Risk Analysis on TipRanks) 

Thill rated the stock a Buy, and assigned a price target of $110.  

He said that GDDY is likeable due to its “consistent execution, double-digit organic revenue growth, strong uFCF generation and attractive valuation.” Thill maintains his optimism even after shares jumped more than 8% following the acquisition news.  

Moreover, GoDaddy’s investments in innovation throughout 2021 are anticipated to act as tailwinds as 2022 progresses.  

The relatively new CEO of two years has focused the company on launching product innovations, particularly in Hosting and Presence, payment, and “omnichannel commerce solutions.” 

Thill is rated as #314 out of over 7,000 expert analysts. He has been successful 60% of the time and has averaged returns of 28.2%.  

As the streaming wars heated up, Netflix (NFLX) stock cooled down. The last two months have been rather weak for the streaming service and production firm, as investors are shaken off by poor engagement data and concerns over its international profitability. The majority of analysts, however, have remained bullish.  

One of which is Stifel Nicolaus’ Scott Devitt, who wrote that despite the investor worries, the company has done well releasing popular content, and has a robust pipeline which will see the company moving away from its exposure to solely video product offerings. (See Netflix Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks) 

Devitt rated the stock a Buy, and declared a price target of $660.  

The analyst detailed that beyond its traditional business of video content streaming, Netflix has been innovating toward video games and visual effects opportunities. The company is hoping to diversify its revenue streams and differentiate itself from other pure-play streaming entities.  

Meanwhile, he maintains a confident long-term outlook on NFLX. From Devitt’s calculations, the firm will increase its total subscribers by 50% by 2025, and by 100% by 2030.  

In addition to the engagement data numbers and international reach skepticism, Devitt attributes the recent downturn in share price to a rotation away from growth and tech stocks, as well as “heightening investor focus on new streaming competition/utility of alternatives.” Although he is not concerned with the underlying fundamentals of Netflix’s business.   

For his efforts, Devitt currently maintains a ranking of #177 out of more than 7,000 analysts vying for the top spots. His ratings have resulted in success 62% of the time and have averaged him returns of 35.3%.