Analysts says these are the top 5 stocks to invest in

The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States since March has affected a lot of businesses and companies. The pandemic has not only affected the financial ability of most companies but also reduced the value of the companies' stocks. As such investors are skeptical of investing at this period. 

As we move towards the second half of the year, it is advisable for potential investors to first consider the performance of company stock before investing. It is against this background that top stock analysts have researched and gathered the best performing stock on Wall Street using the TipRanks analyst forecasting service. This analysis serves as a guide for potential investors. The top five stocks in the analysis include:

Slack:

On July 8, Alex Zukin, the Top 25 RBC analysts revealed that Slack company stock is one of those thriving in this ravaging pandemic period. Zukin reiterated his buy rating and $38 stock price forecast on workplace messaging service Slack Technologies. Zukin revealed this after Slack has acquired Rimeto, a modern business directory. 

Usually, traditional business directories make use of names, phone numbers, emails, and locations in carrying out their services but this is not the case with Rimeto. As a modern business directory, Rimeto makes use of data integration to give a more detailed employee profile which includes experiences, skills, projects, and birthdays of the employee. 

Since the ongoing pandemic is forcing a lot of companies into adopting the work from home measure, Zukin believes that “Rimeto provides a powerful cultural tool that can help strengthen employees to each other, their work, and their company… and will add significant contextual data to Slack’s offering.”

As such, the current deal between Slack and Rimeto would further expand Slack's position as a modern operating system for the enterprise. It is against this background that Zukin states “We believe data is the key factor behind the acquisition – employee data, specifically...Slack as not just a communication platform, but also a source of employee data that can be embedded into other applications.”

With a 71% success rate and 20.2% average return per rating, Slack qualified as one of the top 5 company stocks that are worth investing in at this period. 

Costco

On July 8, Rupesh Parikh, a top five-star Oppenheimer cited Costco, the warehouse retail chain, as one of the companies that have been able to withstand the dwindling financial ability of most companies caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The analyst cited the company's ‘monster global June delivery' as one of the incidents that skyrocketed the company's stock. This came alongside a new Street-high stock price forecast of $355 (12% upside potential), up from $335 previously.

Aside from the company's surprising strength in the international market, the US core same-store sales increased 13.6% in the US, beating consensus of +7.6%. This became the first month that traffic in the company's sales was positive since the outbreak of the pandemic in March. In May, the store sales improved from 13.6% to 18.9%. The e-commerce moments also yielded a very good result, skyrocketing from 86.7% in June vs. 108.1% in May. “We look very favorably upon the well above expectation global comp delivery from COST in June” commented Parikh.

Added to this, with the recent debt issuance, Parikh revealed that a special dividend is also likely to increase in 2021. 

According to TipRanks, Parikh is ranked at #268 out of over 6,700 tracked analysts.

GenMark Diagnostics

GenMark, a molecule diagnostics company has experienced an increase of almost 290% in the company's shares. According to Canaccord Genuity’s Max Masucci, there is still more room for the company's shares to continue to grow. Masucci revealed that GenMark price target to $20 (from $17) following a preliminary Q2 update, featuring revenues that beat the Street by ~+28%.

Since the major business of the company is the sales of most of the testing kit used for the ongoing pandemic ravaging the country, the strength in the sales of these instruments leads to a 118% year over year preliminary revenue. This is revealed in the recently submitted GNMK Q2. The company's preliminary revenue is $40.1M, with $16.9M acquired on just testing kits alone. 

“GNMK is firing on all cylinders and rising to the challenge of a global pandemic, and we expect near-term catalysts to translate into long-term growth opportunities” cheered Masucci on July 8. He believes that the duration of GNMK’s coronavirus testing opportunity is underestimated, and expects “COVID-driven instrument placements to seed the market for product launches and menu expansion beyond the global pandemic.”

Added to this, Masucci revealed that, on June 29, the company launched its multi-target respiratory pathogen panel (RP2) which was produced to identify 21 respiratory disease-causing pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, from a single sample. The new testing kit can differentiate between flu and coronavirus and would be very useful in the upcoming season of the flu. 

Synaptics

Kevin Cassidy, Top Rosenblatt Securities analyst listed Synaptics company as one of the top 5 companies to invest in this period. Synaptics, a hardware company recently acquired Broadcom’s wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business for $250 million. Cassidy wrote on July 7th:

“We are upgrading SYNA to Buy from Neutral based on our estimated $0.45 - $0.55 accretion to our FY21 non-GAAP EPS estimates that the Broadcom wireless IoT connectivity business can provide.”

After the acquisition, Cassidy increased his former $66 stock price forecast to $73, arguing that with management’s focus on IoT, the acquired $65mn/year revenue can grow roughly 5% - 10% annually.

With the recent deal, shares in the company increased by 13%

Cassidy explained that “Our Neutral rating on SYNA had been based on concerns for the mobile display business’ low competitive barriers. This deal helps lower the company’s dependence on the mobile display business”

According to TipRanks, Cassidy ranked #157 out of 6,769 tracked analysts.

ANGI Homeservices

On July 7th, Wells Fargo’s Brian Fitzgerald increased his ANGI stock forecast broadcast from 11% to 18%. This is due to the company's improving consumer demand and higher market multiples. ANGI is a digital marketplace for all kinds of home services. 

“We also view some continuing slack in the pro-market as a positive for ANGI, likely, in our view, to drive a “goldilocks” scenario that should help drive strong service provider engagement with the platform and improving service request match rates,” Fitzgerald said. 

Fitzgerald is a five star top analyst in TipRanks. Also, he is among the Top 25 analysts as a result of his years of good success. 

This analysis of the top five companies whose stocks are able to withstand the current financial challenge caused by the pandemic is a guide for any potential investor interested in investing in this critical period. 

Note: Investingport is not invested in these storks and these are not our recommendations. Please do your own due diligence.