The major U.S. equity indexes took a breather late in the week but the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ were all still challenging all-time highs in the last week. The election is imminent, as are interest rate decisions, and many investors and traders are looking for new ideas for how to be positioned ahead of 2025. This is where the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations can be come into play. But what about when analysts are covering highly speculative stocks with much higher implied upside than normal?
Oggonomics searches the daily flow of analyst calls covering the upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street looking for new ideas in Wall Street research reports. These analyst calls can be a reliable source for finding some of those new ideas that might have otherwise been overlooked or missed. Most analyst calls in established blue chip and large-cap stocks come with implied upside to the Buy/Outperform ratings in a range of 8% to 12%. So, when you see an implied upside of 50% (or even 100%) it has to be in a highly speculative company.
Oggonomics always reminds investors and its readers that no single analyst report should ever be the sole basis to buy or sell a stock. That decision to buy or sell, or hold or short sell, is up to each investor and the decision should be made with a financial advisor. And this would be magnified in such speculative stocks.
In the week of November 1, 2024, there were at least seven stocks with Buy, Outperform or Overweight ratings which had implied upside of 50% to 100%. That does of course assume that the analysts were accurate in their assumptions. And just as certain is the notion that some of these (or maybe none of them) will actually live up to these lofty expectations.
DISCLAIMER & NOTICES
When investors see implied upside to price targets of 50%, 75% or even 100% then it should automatically be assumed that these are covering highly-speculative stocks. These should each absolutely be viewed with even a more skeptical eye compared to other research reports. They are also only likely to be appropriate for the most aggressive investors and speculators in trading.
All formal analyst ratings and price targets are from the outside brokerage and investment banking forms mentioned. Oggonomics does not have opinions on these speculative stocks and it does not publish any price targets or formal ratings of its own. Oggonomics is also not endorsing nor is it recommending that investors chase these and related analyst calls.
THE BIG 50% TO 100% IMPLIED UPSIDE CALLS
Alumis Inc. (NASDAQ: ALMS) was started with a Outperform rating and was assigned a $25 price target at RW Baird on October 31. Alumis closed down over 7% at $11.23 ahead of the call and its stock was trading at $11.50 later on that day. This aggressive price target is several weeks after Alumis released its 28-week data on its treatment for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis had a high response rate.
Genelux Corporation (NASDAQ: GNLX) was started with a Buy rating and $8.00 price target at Guggenheim on October 29. Genelux closed up 16% at $2.96 on Monday after a 6.8% stake was reported by Highbridge Capital Management on Friday afternoon. It has recently begun dosing its first Phase II trial subject with Olvi-Vec in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Guggenheim noted that Genelux’s market cap of only about $100 million offers a positive risk/reward heading into 2025. Its 52-week range is $1.60 to $18.00.
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HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: HIVE) was started as Overweight with a $9.00 price target at Cantor Fitzgerald on October 29. The Canadian crypto-mining outfit was up 13.2% at $4.11 on Monday and its shares rose by 4% to $4.28 on about twice the normal volume that day. HIVE Digital’s 52-week range is $2.18 to $5.74. Cantor Fitzgerald sees the vertically integrated bitcoin miner’s data centers in Canada, Paraguay, Sweden and Iceland as low-cost renewable energy sources. It’s also considered a Top-10 miner that has a focus of maximizing returns versus growth at any cost and sees its hash rate doubling as an underappreciated view along with Hive’s graphics processing unit ambitions.
NANO Nuclear Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NNE) had recently conducted a capital raise of about $41 million before fees, which kept pressure on the stock. H.C. Wainwright issued a new Buy rating with a $50 price target on October 30 over the development of microreactors as the demand for datacenters and other energy-intensive tech operations are massive consumers of electricity. NANE Nuclear Energy’s shares initially rose on the report but the stock was down 3.3% at $20.20 later that same day. NANO’s 52-week trading range of $3.25 to $37.51 should show just how volatile the pre-revenue stock is.
ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ORIC) was started with an Overweight rating and was assigned a $20 price target at Wells Fargo on October 31. ORIC closed up 4.67% at $9.42 on Wednesday and was indicated up over 16% at $11.00 at $11.00 on Thursday’s early indications but it was only trading up 2.4% at $9.65 because of the market weakness. This was after data a week earlier was presented showing strong preclinical indications for its class of potential cancer treatments.
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Serve Robotics Inc. (NASDAQ: SERV) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $16 price target at Ladenburg Thalmann. Serve Robotics closed up 2.1% at $9.74 on Friday and was indicated up 2% at $9.94 on Monday. The stock was at $11.50 mid-week. This is the robotics for food delivery company, and potentially for bartending down the road, and it briefly shot up to $20 this summer. Northland Capital had also issued a $16 price target earlier in October.
TG Therapeutics, Inc. (NASAQ: TGTX) was started with a Buy rating and was assigned a $50 price target at TD Cowen. That was versus a prior $24.35 close and TG Therapeutics closed up 5.6% at $25.71 on the first day. The view is on the multiple sclerosis treatments that could rival much larger drugs like Ocrevus and Kesimpta with multi-billion sales. TG Therapeutics had nearly a $4 billion market cap and its 52-week trading range was $7.17 to $26.41.
RUNNER-UP!
RxSight, Inc. (NASDAQ: RXST) wasn’t quite a 50% upside call but close. Jefferies initiated RxSight with a Buy rating and it issued a $72 price target versus a prior $50.25 closing price. RXSight had a $2 billion market cap and a 52-week range of $21.14 to $66.54. Jefferies talked up its as having the first (and only) post-surgery adjustable intraocular lens to treat cataracts and the potentiality for expanding its total addressable market. RxSight was also noted as likely to be EBITDA-positive in the second-half of 2026 and also having enough cash to get there on its own.
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