2 Stock Picks From a Wall Street Analyst Who Gets It Right

There are almost 7,600 professional stock analysts working on Wall Street, working for dozens of investment firms and reviewing the performance of nearly ten thousand stocks. The resulting pool of data, while a true treasure trove for investors, is also a challenge.

Fortunately, investors can turn to the Street’s top analysts, to find the stock pros who stand head and shoulders above the rest. These are the analysts who have made the most calls, achieved the best success rates, and brought in the highest returns. In short, they’re the analysts with extensive, proven track records of success.

Oppenheimer’s Chris Kotowski is one of Wall Street’s top-rated analysts – in fact, he is ranked #3 overall among the Street’s stock experts, based on the combination of his 85% success rate in stock recommendations and the 42.8% average return his calls have yielded in the past two years.

Kotowski has recently made bold bullish calls on two stocks – going against the grain when some others are more hesitant. Using the TipRanks database, we’ve uncovered these two picks, along with Kotowski’s insights on why they could be big winners.

Hamilton Lane (HLNE)

First on our list of Kotowski’s picks is Hamilton Lane, a Pennsylvania-based alternative asset management and investment advisory firm that specializes in providing private market investments to its clientele. The firm was founded in 1991, and today boasts more than 2,100 clients and investors in its customer base – and has total assets under management and supervision of $947.6 billion. This figure, released as of September 30 last year, includes both $131.5 billion in discretionary AUM and $816.1 billion in non-discretionary AUM.

Hamilton Lane has a global footprint, with 21 offices worldwide employing over 730 people. The company focuses on providing personalized services for its clients, offering them flexible solutions to meet their financial needs. The company’s services include asset management, as well as targeted investments, private wealth strategies, and long-term financial planning.

In early November last year, Hamilton Lane released its fiscal 2Q25 results and missed the forecasts on both the top and bottom lines. Revenues came in at $150 million, up more than 18% year-over-year but missing expectations by $4.17 million. The non-GAAP EPS figure, $1.07, was 2 cents per share less than had been anticipated. The company reported that its discretionary AUM was up $12.2 billion year-over-year, and that its fee-earning AUM was up $8.3 billion to $69.7 billion.

As the firm prepares to release its fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday, February 14, top analyst Chris Kotowski suggests that now presents an opportune moment to invest in this high-quality company at a potentially undervalued price.

“HLNE is a company that we have covered and admired since 2019 but have had on our Outperform list only sporadically because of valuation. One doesn’t often get to buy a great company at a good price, but we believe that this is one of those occasions… We view the company’s historic institutional business as a solid growth business and its more recent development of products for the retail channel should provide it with years’ worth of growth opportunities. Financially speaking, it is an outstanding performer with FRE margins consistently in the low to mid 40s.” Kotowski opined.

These comments back up Kotowski’s Outperform (i.e. Buy) rating on Hamilton Lane shares, while his price target of $186 points toward a one-year gain of ~17%. (To watch Kotowski’s track record, click here)

That is definitely the outlier view here. HLNE shares have a Hold (i.e. Neutral) consensus rating, based on 6 recent reviews that include 1 Buy, 4 Holds, and 1 Sell. (See HLNE stock forecast)

WisdomTree (WT)

Sticking with the financial sector, we’ll look at WisdomTree, a company specializing in exchange-traded products, as well as developing solutions to bring the advantages of blockchain technology to its clients. The company provides support for its customers in shaping their own financial futures, with an array of next-generation, digitally-based financial products. These include tokenized assets, blockchain-enabled mutual funds, and even WisdomTree’s own digital wallet, the ‘blockchain native’ WisdomTree Prime.

From its New York City headquarters, WisdomTree oversees offices in London, Dublin, and Milan, and also maintains a presence in Latin America and the Middle East. The company has $115 billion in global assets under management and employs over 200 people in its operations. The company prides itself on its ability to mesh traditional finance with the rapidly evolving world of digital assets, especially blockchain and crypto.

Turning to financial results, we find that WisdomTree beat expectations in its last quarterly release, from 3Q24. The company’s $113.2 million in revenues was up 25% year-over-year and beat the forecast by $3.92 million; the bottom line, non-GAAP EPS of $0.18, was up 8 cents from 3Q23 and was 2 cents better than had been anticipated. The end-of-quarter AUM, $112.6 billion, was described as a company record.

Given all of this, Oppenheimer’s Kotowski sees WisdomTree as a hidden gem for investors to pick up.

“We believe WT is moderately undervalued against its near-term earnings momentum, and we see significant longer-term upside potential from three sources: (1) if the strong recent AUM inflows continue, there should be considerable earnings leverage to take EPS well above consensus; (2) as one of the few independent ETF managers of scale, we think the company could fetch a meaningful premium in the event of a sale; and (3) WT is one of the first ETF managers approved for blockchain-enabled funds,” Kotowski stated.

Kotowski goes on to rate WT as Outperform (i.e. Buy), a rating that he complements with a $14 price target, suggesting a 43% upside in the next 12 months.

The consensus view on Wall Street gives WT stock a Moderate Buy rating, based on 5 reviews that include 3 Holds and 2 Buys. The shares are currently trading for $9.79, and the $12.63 average price target indicates room for a 29% share price increase by early next year. (See WT stock forecast)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.