As the tech rally broadens out further, many investors may be inclined to spread their bets beyond the mega-cap darlings that have hogged the headlines for their impressive year-to-date performance. Amid the recent bout of market strength, Wall Street analysts have been quite busy, raising the bar on some tech stocks (such as AMD, SNOW, and MBD) that now seem to have a clearer path higher.
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In this piece, we’ll use TipRanks’ Comparison Tool to check out three tech stocks that sport “Strong Buy” ratings from the analyst community.
Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD)
Dr. Michael Burry, the man who bet against housing ahead of the Great Financial Crisis, recently revealed that he’s betting big against the semiconductor stocks. Indeed, the semiconductor plays, as a whole, have been hot of late, thanks in part to their role in the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
Valuations may have gotten a bit out of hand when it comes to certain chip plays. However, compared to its hotter peers — think Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) — AMD looks fairly valued at 8.8 times price-to-sales (P/S), a multiple that’s essentially in line with the semiconductor industry average of 8.2 times. As such, I’m staying bullish on AMD.
Five-star-rated Roth MKM analyst Sujeeva De Silva, who initiated coverage on AMD stock with a Buy and a $125.00 price target, seems to think AMD still has plenty of AI upside. He’s a big fan of the company’s MI300X chip and its potential to take meaningful market share.
I think De Silva is right on the money to be upbeat on the market-claiming potential of the new chip. Nvidia has been the semiconductor stock to own of late. That said, AMD also deserves to be in the conversation, given its tremendous pipeline of innovations, which may very well be overlooked.
Sure, it will be very difficult for any firm to catch up to Nvidia on the front of AI chips and GPUs (graphics processing units) as it looks to get into the CPU game. Still, if there’s a firm that may have a good chance of pulling it off, it’s AMD under its legendary top boss, Lisa Su.
Su defied the odds before, lifting AMD from its ominous depths of 2015 en route to a jaw-dropping quadruple-digit percentage gain. Though the road only gets tougher from here, I believe it’s a mistake to think AMD under Su has no chance of giving Nvidia a good run for its money.
Beyond its MI300X chip, I’d also look for AMD’s coming Arm-based CPU — ARM (NASDAQ:ARM) is a firm that licenses chip architecture to third parties — to be a credible challenger to Nvidia and the rest of the CPU pack. It’s not just AI that can power AMD higher. The company has a compelling pipeline of innovations that’s sure to keep even the market leader on its toes.
What is the Price Target for AMD Stock?
AMD’s a Strong Buy, according to analysts, with 23 Buys and seven Holds assigned in the past three months. The average AMD stock price target of $127.13 implies 6.1% upside potential.
Snowflake (NASDAQ:SNOW)
Snowflake is a data warehouse company that provides infrastructure to enterprises that are serious about unlocking the power of their datasets. Amid macro headwinds, enterprise customers have been pulling back on IT spending while also laying off staff.
Such cutbacks have created a pretty unfavorable climate for SaaS (software-as-a-service) firms as a whole. Despite the macro challenges, I remain bullish on SNOW stock for the long haul, given that the firm could be in for rapid growth reacceleration once the economic tides finally do turn.
Looking ahead, Analyst Brian White of Monness sees the sluggishness continuing into the coming third quarter, which is on tap for November 29, 2023. White has a Hold rating on the stock and is calling for the eighth straight quarter of slowing sales.
White also astutely pointed out that other cloud players have already seen the slowdown show signs of “moderating.” Only time will tell if Snowflake can follow in the footsteps of other cloud players who are now being profoundly rewarded for posting better-than-feared results amid macro headwinds.
Snowflake’s usage-based revenue recognition model has also probably made the recent revenue slowdown look a whole lot worse than it is. On the flip side, once corporate IT spending budgets ramp up, Snowflake’s revenue could turn a corner very rapidly. And that could see many investors pile into the stock after a sizeable spike. In short, Snowflake’s revenue recognition can make it look worse when times are bad but better when times are good.
My takeaway? Don’t give up on Snowflake just because it’s feeling the effects of the macro environment. Once things normalize, growth could pick up very quickly as secular trends (think AI) begin to take hold.
What is the Price Target for SNOW Stock?
Snowflake’s a Strong Buy, according to analysts, with 23 Buys and five Holds assigned in the past three months. The average SNOW price target of $194.33 implies 20.7% upside potential.
MongoDB (NASDAQ:MDB)
Database kingpin MongoDB has been hot of late, with shares now up a whopping 106% year-to-date. The analyst upgrades have also been flowing in rapidly, with the latest hike coming courtesy of Capital One Financial’s Connor Murphy, who has a $427.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America Securities also initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and a $450.00 price target, citing enthusiasm for the company’s position in the fast-growing NoSQL database market.
NoSQL databases go above and beyond SQL (a language used to query relational databases) databases, allowing for better management of a more diverse range of big data sets. Large sets of structured and semi-structured data (data that’s not neatly organized in tables) are likely to be more commonplace in the age of AI.
Building on the momentum from a surprising Q2 earnings beat (earnings per share of $0.93 vs. $0.46 estimate), MongoDB stock looks to have a path back to new highs. At 18.5 times price-to-sales, though, the stock trades at a hefty premium to the software infrastructure peer group, which goes for 9.2 times price-to-sales. The stock certainly looks expensive, but relative to its long-term growth, the high price of admission seems more justifiable. As such, I’m inclined to be bullish on the stock.
What is the Price Target for MDB Stock?
MongoDB stock comes in as a Strong Buy on TipRanks, with 24 Buys, three Holds, and one Sell assigned by analysts in the past three months. The average MDB stock price target of $436.08 implies 12.1% upside.
The Takeaway
It’s time for investors to look beyond mega-cap tech for year-ahead upside. The following tech plays are seen as Strong Buys by analysts. As each firm looks to surpass estimates, I’d look for the price target upgrades to flow in. Of the three names, analysts expect the most gains from Snowflake (20.7%) for the year ahead.
