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Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TipRanks' ‘Perfect 10' Picks: 2 Top-Scoring Stocks with Bullish Backing
Stocks spent much of May in rally mode, but the momentum faded last week as the S&P 500 slipped nearly 3%. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter It's a fresh reminder of the market turbulence that's shadowed President Trump's second term. Investors continue to wrestle with the impact of his shifting policies and unpredictable leadership. Still, April's economic data brought some relief: job growth remained solid, and inflation showed further signs of easing. In such a climate, marked by political uncertainty and mixed economic signals, navigating the markets becomes especially challenging. That's where tools like the TipRanks Smart Score come into play. This AI-powered system cuts through the noise by analyzing the vast data generated by millions of stock transactions, rating every stock based on factors historically tied to strong future performance. The results of the Smart Score comparisons are shown on a simple scale of 1 to 10, giving investors a clear, intuitive signal on any stock's likely near-term performance. The 'Perfect 10' stocks, of course, are the top-scorers that deserve a closer look—and when they get bullish backing from the Street's analysts, that's a combination of signals that can't be ignored. So, let's follow the Smart Score and analyst signals, and take a closer look at two 'Perfect 10s.' Whitestone REIT (WSR) We'll start in the world of real estate, where Whitestone REIT operates in the commercial real estate sector. The company's name says it all – it's a real estate investment trust, whose business is acquiring, owning, leasing, and managing various real properties. Whitestone's property list includes a range of medical facilities, office spaces, and retail locations, 52 in total, with 28 in Texas and 24 in Arizona. Both states, and especially Texas, are known as leaders in US economic growth in recent years. This background gives Whitestone a solid foundation for its 'Perfect 10' performance. The company follows a strict set of acquisition criteria, in order to maintain a high-quality portfolio. Its properties are located in 'established or developing, culturally diverse neighborhoods,' and Whitestone intentionally sets out to diversify its holdings. The company has built its portfolio by seeking out retail and mixed-use properties with upside potentials that include value-adds, lease ups, and the possibility of contractual rent increases. Whitestone prefers areas with high traffic and high visibility, and its operations have specifically targeted the Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix/Scottsdale urban areas. The company's most recent acquisition move was announced this month: the addition of a San Clemente neighborhood retail center in Austin, Texas. The center is restaurant-anchored, and totals 31,832-square feet; it is located near Austin's bustling technology hub, which includes campuses for Apple and Tesla. Also of note, particularly for return-minded investors, is Whitestone's dividend. REITs are well-known as dividend 'champs,' offering payments that are usually both highly reliable and above inflation. Whitestone pays out a monthly common share dividend, at 4.5 cents per share, with the last payment sent out on May 13. At its current rate, the dividend annualizes to 54 cents per common share and gives a forward yield of 4.3%, which compares well to the prevailing 2.3% rate of inflation. Whitestone has been paying out dividends since 2010. In its last quarterly earnings report, covering 1Q25, Whitestone had total revenues of $38 million. This figure was up 2.2% year-over-year, although it missed the forecast by $940,000. The company's funds from operations, a key metric when assessing REITs, came to 26 cents per share for the quarter, up 3 cents per share year-over-year and in-line with analyst expectations. The FFO figure was more than enough to fully cover Whitestone's total Q1 dividend payments of 13.5 cents per share. For Citizens analyst Mitch Germain, this REIT presents a complex picture. Looking into the company's workings, Germain is impressed by its quality portfolio – although he notes that Wall Street was not impressed by the last quarterly report. Germain writes of Whitestone, 'Whitestone REIT's 1Q25 results were viewed unfavorably by the investment community, though we believe the company remains on track to achieve its earnings outlook, while operating trends are positioned to trend ahead of shopping center REIT peers… Underlying property operating trends were mixed in the quarter, as occupancy dipped (-120bps Q/Q), while rents posted 20% growth. Same-store growth continues to track toward the high end of the retail REIT sector, supported by recent redevelopment efforts and leasing. Overall, we believe it is best to judge management's strategic plan execution over an extended period, rather than just one quarter, and over the last 12 quarters management has enhanced governance and shareholder outreach, lowered leverage, improved property operating trends, and produced earnings growth toward the high end of the shopping center REIT sector.' Germain goes on to explain the discounted nature of the stock, adding to the above, 'The shares trade at ~12x 2025E earnings, which is a two-turn discount to the shopping center REIT peers; with superior market exposures, and above-average property growth prospects, we think the discount is penalizing.' All of this adds up to an Outperform (i.e., Buy) rating for the Citizens analyst, whose $16 price target implies that the shares are looking at a one-year gain of 33%. (To watch Germain's track record, click here) The Strong Buy consensus rating here is based on 5 unanimously positive reviews set in recent weeks. The stock has a trading price of $12.06 and its average target price, $15.20, suggests an upside potential of 26% for the year ahead. (See WSR stock forecast) Permian Resources (PR) Next on our list of 'Perfect 10s' is Permian Resources, one of the many independent oil and gas research and exploration (E&P) firms working in the hydrocarbon-rich Permian Basin of West Texas. Permian Resources, which is based in Midland, has holdings that include over 450,000 net leasehold acres, located mainly in Reeves and Ward Counties, Texas, and Eddy and Lea Counties, New Mexico. The company is the second-largest pure-play E&P firm working in the Permian, and as of March 31 this year it was realizing 373 MBoe/d in total production. Earlier this month, Permian Resources announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 13,320 net acres, 8,700 net royalty acres and 12,000 Boe/d from APA Corporation. These assets directly offset Permian Resources' core New Mexico operating areas in the Delaware Basin formation of the larger Permian. The acquisition will cost Permian Resources $608 million. We should note here that Permian Resources has an established strategy of expansion-through-acquisition, and last year added approximately 50,000 net acres via $1.2 billion of acquisitions. Turning to the financial results, we find that the company's last quarterly report showed 1Q25 results that were in-line with analyst expectations. Permian Resources had revenue in the quarter of $1.38 billion, up 11.3% year-over-year, and saw an EPS of 44 cents; the EPS figure was a strong increase from the 25-cent earnings reported in 1Q24. Like REITs – see Whitestone, above – energy companies are known as solid dividend payers, and Permian Resources fits that bill. In its last dividend declaration, Permian Resources set a 15-cent payment per common share, to be paid out on June 30. The dividend annualizes to 60 cents per share and gives a forward yield of 4.7%. This 'Perfect 10' stock has caught the attention of Raymond James analyst John Freeman, who sees Permian Resources as a sound investment for multiple reasons. The 5-star analyst, who ranks 2nd amongst the thousands of stock experts on Wall Street, writes of this oil and gas company, 'The core tenets of PR's success are improving operational efficiencies and accretive consolidation. Market volatility presumably reduces the latter, although PR delivered another tuck-in to add into the fold. Activity remains steady-as-she-goes despite oil price weakness relative to the original budgeted levels. PR's strong balance sheet and cash balance allows the company to make the most of the current environment. The needle management is threading accrues to less CAPEX versus more production… We believe PR shares should outperform the peer group over the next 12 months.' With that stance in the background, it makes sense that Freeman rates PR shares as a Strong Buy. His $23 price target implies that the stock will appreciate by 81% in the next 12 months. (To watch Freeman's track record, click here) This is another stock with a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 16 positive analyst reviews. The shares are currently trading for $12.72 and the $17.88 average price target indicates room for a 40.5% upside on the one-year horizon. (See PR 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. Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
TipRanks' ‘Perfect 10' Picks: 2 High-Scoring Stocks Earning Top Marks from Wall Street
If there's one thing the markets dislike, it is uncertainty, and we have plenty of that right now. Investors remain cautious about both the economic effects of the tariffs on global trade and the probability of a recession. Discover outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks. Filter, analyze, and streamline your search for investment opportunities using Tipranks' Stock Screener. In this environment, investors want to find stocks with solid foundations, shares that stand to gain no matter what the market conditions. The key to finding these stocks lies in the data, the flood of information generated by thousands of traders dealing in thousands of stocks for tens of millions of daily transactions. The sheer volume of data presents an obstacle to stock picking – but the TipRanks Smart Score offers a way to sift through the pebbles, and find the valuable nuggets. The Smart Score uses an AI-powered algorithm and natural language processing to gather, collate, and sort all of the data generated by the market's normal activity – and then to use that data to rate every stock against a set of factors that are known to correlate with future outperformance. Each stock is then given a score, a single digit on a 1-to-10 scale, with the 'Perfect 10s' denoting the top-scoring shares. We've used the data platform at TipRanks to look up two of these high-scoring stocks that have also earned top marks from the Street's analysts. Here they are, presented along with some of the analysts' comments. Western Digital (WDC) First up on our list of 'Perfect 10' stocks is Western Digital, a major player in the computer memory industry. The company is a leader in the global supply chain for hard disk drives, data center drives, and data center platforms, and also has a significant business in portable drives and network attached storage solutions. The company also produces and markets the cable accessories needed for installations and attachments. Until this past February, Western Digital was also a major player in the market for flash memory and storage. The company entered the flash market at large-scale in 2016, with its $19 billion acquisition of SanDisk. In February of this year, Western Digital spun off its SanDisk brand. The spin-off was made fully effective on February 24, when SanDisk started trading independently under the SNDK ticker. Western Digital's shares dropped sharply in the aftermath, reflecting investor worries that the company will have difficulty maintaining revenues without the lucrative flash memory segment. A look at the company's last earnings report, however, shows that the hard disk drive (HDD) business has been accelerating recently, at a much faster pace than flash. The fiscal 2Q25 results showed that Western Digital had total revenues of $4.29 billion; of this total, $2.41 billion came from the HDD side, while $1.88 billion came from flash products. HDD revenues were up 76% year-over-year, compared to the 13% y/y gain in flash. The company's total revenue in fiscal Q2 was up 41.6% from fiscal 2Q24, and beat the forecast by $30 million. At the bottom line, Western Digital's non-GAAP EPS of $1.77, while showing a strong turnaround from the 75-cent EPS loss in the prior-year period, missed the forecast by 5 cents per share. According to Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring, the company's success in HDD is the key point to the narrative. He writes of the stock, 'WDC benefits from accelerating data growth, which drives storage demand in the cloud and on-prem. We believe that we are still in the middle of the cycle upturn – demand outstrips supply with continued upward pressure in HDD pricing – and entering a period of AI-driven storage demand growth, which will benefit both HDDs and flash shipments. While WDC is behind STX in HAMR timeline, we believe WDC will remain its leading HDD revenue and profits market share in the near term with its competitive UltraSMR solutions for high-capacity drives before the industry shifts to wider adoption of HAMR. We believe the magnitude of the valuation discount vs. STX is overdone with its market share leadership.' These comments back up Woodring's Overweight (i.e., Buy) rating on WDC shares, and his $46 price target suggests that the stock will gain 25.5% over the coming year. (To watch Woodring's track record, click here) The Morgan Stanley stance is bullish, but the consensus rating on Western Digital is even more so. The stock has a Strong Buy consensus rating, based on 16 recent analyst reviews that include 13 Buys and 3 Holds. The stock is currently priced at $36.68 and its $68.13 average price target implies that it will appreciate by an impressive 86% by this time next year. (See WDC stock forecast) MercadoLibre (MELI) From memory hardware, we'll switch gears and look at e-commerce for our second 'Perfect 10' performer. MercadoLibre is a $100-plus billion player in this field, and the leading online retail firm in Latin America. The company operates in 18 Latin American countries, including such giants as Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina, as well as smaller countries such as Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Panama. MercadoLibre's home region is a potential gold mine for an online retailer, with more than 665 million people and a fast-growing middle class that wants to tap into the global markets. The company offers services through several divisions, including its core MarketPlace, the online platform that connects buyers and sellers; Mercado Credito, a consumer credit service; Mercado Pago, for online payments; and Mercado Publicado, that focuses on digital advertising. Together, these platforms make MercadoLibre a giant in both e-commerce and fintech, with a market cap of $106 billion and annual revenue, in 2024, of nearly $21 billion. Zooming in to look at the last reported quarter, 4Q24, we find that MercadoLibre finished its 25th anniversary year with a set of blockbuster financial results. The company's quarterly revenue of $6.1 billion was up 37.4% year-over-year, and came in $120 million better than had been expected. The bottom line, an EPS of $12.61, was $5.05 ahead of the forecast. The company's financial results were supported by strong user growth – in Q4, annual unique buyers on the site surpassed 100 million, and the fintech side reported 61 million monthly active users. In addition to these strong results, MercadoLibre's stock has been climbing – and even the tariff brouhaha has not derailed the stock's success. MELI is up 53.2% in the last 12 months, and up 25% for the year-to-date. This is a dramatic outperformance when compared to the NASDAQ's modest 4% one-year gain and 15.5% year-to-date loss. This online retailer has caught the attention of Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang, who is impressed with the company's proven record of achieving regional dominance. She writes in her recent assumption of coverage, 'MELI stands out as a dominant regional leader in the global e-commerce setting, leveraging underpenetrated markets in Latam that are primed for significant growth in both online retail and fintech. With a proven track record of local expertise and knowhow on top of strong execution, we believe that the company offers investors a robust sustainable long-term growth outlook, supported by a diverse range of drivers, making it a unique and highly attractive EM investment candidate.' Unsurprisingly, Jiang rates MELI as a Buy, and her $2,500 price target points toward a one-year upside potential here of 17.5%. (To watch Jiang's track record, click here) Overall, MercadoLibre's 14 recent analyst reviews include 13 to Buy and 1 to Hold, supporting the Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares are priced at $2,128.33 and have a $2,546.92 average price target that implies an upside of 20% on the one-year time horizon. (See MELI 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. Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue
Globe and Mail
13-04-2025
- Automotive
- Globe and Mail
Tesla vs U.S. EV Rivals: Who Wins the Tariff War?
Trump's new tariff barrage is jolting the electric vehicle market—and Tesla (TSLA) might not be the winner this time. While the TSLA stock has bounced around like a pinball —swinging nearly $200 billion in market value this week—rival EV makers may be quietly positioning for a tariff-era edge. Stay Ahead of the Market: Discover outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks. Filter, analyze, and streamline your search for investment opportunities using Tipranks' Stock Screener. Tesla vs Ford: Both Exposed to China, But Tesla Feels It Harder Tesla's exposure to Chinese tariffs just got real. The company stopped taking orders for its Model S and X in China, where tariffs would force a 45% price cut just to stay level. That's a non-starter. Meanwhile, Ford (F) has a more diversified global footprint and leans less heavily on high-end China exports. In addition, Tesla's Q1 U.S. sales dropped by 8.6%, resulting in a nine percentage point loss in its EV market share. Ford, though less dominant in EVs, isn't dealing with luxury pricing pressure in China. That gives it breathing room Tesla doesn't have. Tesla vs General Motors: Supply Chain Vulnerabilities on Both Sides General Motors (GM) shares Tesla's problem: imported components. Both could face higher costs if tariffs on parts remain at 25%, as Goldman Sachs warned. But GM has broader ICE (internal combustion engine) fallback revenue, while Tesla's brand—and margins—lean more aggressively into luxury EV territory, where price cuts hurt most. Tesla vs Rivian: Domestic Focus Gives Rivian an Opening Rivian (RIVN), despite lower production scale, builds entirely in the U.S.—a major tariff-proof advantage right now. As tariffs raise costs on imports, Rivian's clean domestic profile could start to matter more to consumers and investors looking for stability. Tesla's global sprawl makes it harder to pivot quickly. Tesla vs Lucid: Premium EV Showdown Gets Interesting Lucid (LCID), like Rivian, builds in the U.S. and doesn't rely on China. While still a small player, Lucid's Air sedan competes directly with Tesla's Model S—precisely the model Tesla pulled from China. If Lucid keeps scaling, it may grab the very customers Tesla can no longer serve abroad. Compare These Stocks on TipRanks Tariffs aren't just trade policy—they're economic tremors with stock market consequences. Use the TipRanks Stock Comparison tool to compare Tesla, Rivian, GM, Ford, and Lucid side-by-side. Track who's exposed, who's insulated, and who could ride out this tariff storm with their margins intact. Decoding the TipRanks Smart Score The TipRanks Smart Score breakdown paints a telling picture of how U.S. EV stocks are positioned right now—and surprisingly, it's not Tesla leading the pack. Tesla scores a 1 out of 10, the lowest possible rating on TipRanks' system, signaling underperformance. Despite a solid analyst price target ($306.14) and a massive market cap, the score suggests weak institutional confidence, negative sentiment, and pressure from recent volatility and tariff exposure. General Motors follows closely behind with a score of 2, also flagged as underperforming. While analysts still see upside in GM, its exposure to global supply chains and lukewarm technicals are keeping institutional enthusiasm muted. On the other end, Rivian is the standout with a Smart Score of 8, putting it firmly in the 'Outperform' zone. That suggests hedge funds, technical indicators, and investor sentiment are all tilting in its favor—likely helped by its U.S.-based manufacturing, which shields it from international tariff pressure. Lucid scores a 7, placing it just below the outperform threshold. It benefits from the same domestic edge as Rivian but suffers from weak fundamentals and a negative price forecast. Ford, with a score of 5, sits right in the middle. Its high dividend yield offers income stability, but limited upside and trade-related cost risks are holding back its momentum. Taken together, these Smart Scores give investors a behind-the-scenes look at how each EV stock is being treated by the market's deeper forces.
