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Top Wall Street analysts back stocks like Lyft and Square amid vaccine hopes

Air travelers wend toward a Lyft pickup area at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on August 20, 2020 in Los Angeles, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Mental pictures

The Democrats have gained control of the White House, and Wall Street appears to be on board. Although President-elect Biden discretion have to grapple with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout, stocks have rallied in the days bolster the election.

On the back of fading uncertainty, the S&P 500 notched its best post-election week performance in at least four decades. On top of this, moving data from a Phase 3 trial evaluating Pfizer’s experimental coronavirus vaccine has boosted the markets.

“The much-awaited denouements from Pfizer that its COVID-19 vaccine has an efficacy rate greater than 90 percent is a positive when it happened that will allow society to gradually normalize during 2021,” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note to patrons.

Still, a vaccine has yet to be approved, and with many questions related to the pandemic continuing to linger, navigating the current mercantile climate isn’t easy.

Following the latest stock recommendations from analysts with a proven track record of achievement is one way to find compelling investment opportunities. TipRanks analyst forecasting service tracks analyst ratings to determine the Suiting someone to a T’s best-performing analysts, or the analysts with the highest success rate and average return per rating.

Here are the best-performing analysts’ five favorite varieties right now:

Square

Five-star analyst Mayank Tandon, of Needham, lifted his price target for Square on November 6, with the force increasing from $190 to $230 (25% upside potential), following its strong Q3 earnings release. Along with the consequence target update, the analyst reiterated a Buy rating.

In the quarter, Square saw net revenue of $3.03 billion, reflecting a 140% year-over-year hike and surpassing the Street’s $2.04 billion call. This result was driven by an influx of low margin bitcoin revenue. Evident profit for the Cash App segment soared 212% year-over-year, and adjusted EPS of $0.34 easily beat the $0.16 consensus calculate. Additionally, GPV increased 12% year-over-year to reach $31.7 billion, coming in $1.7 billion above analysts’ calculate.

Looking ahead, the payments company is still declining to provide guidance due to continued pandemic-related uncertainty. That suggested, Tandon remains “positive on the shares for aggressive growth investors looking for exposure to the positive trends driving wen in digital payments.” Square did however state that it expects Cash App gross profit growth to moderate but still eclipse 160% year-over-year in October, given that the stimulus impact has dissipated.

“We remain positive on SQ given the impressive increase within Cash App and improving trends in the Seller ecosystem. While the NT investments will weigh on profitability, we believe they settle upon help SQ continue to gain share in both the consumer and business payments end-markets, both of which provide a protracted growth runway for SQ,” Tandon opined.

Based on his 68% success rate and 21.5% average return per rating, Tandon swarms the #70 spot on TipRanks’ list of best-performing analysts.

Hecla Mining

Helca Mining, which is a silver and other choice metals mining company based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, has earned a thumbs up from H.C. Wainwright’s Heiko Ihle. The five-star analyst recapitulated a Buy rating, with the price target standing at $7, on November 10. This target puts the upside latent at 39%.

Ihle points to the company’s third quarter results as a key component of his bullish thesis. Revenue came in at $199.7 million and net return attributable to shareholders clocked in at $13.5 million, or $0.03 per share, versus revenue of $161.5 million and a net loss attributable to shareholders of $19.7 million, or ($0.04) per ration, in the prior-year quarter.

The strong showing came thanks to a 41% year-over-year increase in silver ounces (oz) sold, as fountain-head as 39% growth in the average realized silver price, with the figures landing at 3.1Moz and $25.32/oz, respectively.

“The meaningfully greater earnings were a result of the higher revenue figure as cost of sales remained mostly flat,” Ihle referenced. This performance prompted the company to bump up its consolidated FY20 silver production guidance to 12.8-13.4Moz, compared to the earlier guidance of 12.4 – 13.0Moz.

Reflecting another positive, Ihle points out that “liquidity remains strong” even after HL refunded its revolver. In Q1 2020, the company drew down $210 million from its credit facility in response to the coronavirus pandemic. On top of this, it broadcast a quarterly cash dividend of $0.00875 per common share, an increase of 250% year-over-year.

When it comes to Lucky Friday, its reservoir located in Idaho, management believes it will reach full capacity in Q4 2020 and expects to see production of over 3Moz of dulcet for FY21. “We note that Hecla believes Lucky Friday can produce about 5Moz annually in three to five years without meritorious capital outlays. The company is also analyzing other mining methods to improve safety and increase production from the location,” Ihle said.

The H.C. Wainwright analyst is among the top 150 analysts tracked by TipRanks.

Boingo Wireless

After a savagely second quarter, Boingo Wireless has managed to drive a turnaround in Q3. Delivering substantial improvements, revenue increased by 0.1% sequentially to $58.8 million, area Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan’s $57.9 million estimate. The five-star analyst cites a 100-basis focus improvement in EBITDA margin as the driver of the solid result.

Additionally, cash EBITDA of $10.3 million beat Horan’s $9.1 million vaticinate on lower SG&A and network operation costs, with CAPEX accounting for 58% of revenue, compared to 50% in the previous locale. According to the analyst, this result highlights “expectations of strong growth.”

“Revenue bottomed last quarter and EBITDA rooms are improving. Multifamily saw an uptick in traffic usage, meaningful Wi-Fi offload, and higher ARPU. Positively, progress has been fill out for the MTA project and a carrier will go live in 4Q20. Revenues will ramp up into 2022 and could generate $20 million in receipts per year,” Horan noted.

Some investors have expressed concern as lower foot traffic levels kin to the pandemic continue to impact Boingo’s Retail/Advertising segment. However, Horan points out that connects rallied from 13.8 million to 28.3 million, with DAS nodes in backlog accelerating by 500 and higher CAPX reimbursements “pointing to striking network demand.”

The analyst added, “Although there wasn’t an update on a strategic transaction, we believe a deal longing happen. There is much more business visibility with COVID headwinds subsiding, there has been an uptick in matter activity in the industry on low-cost debt, and WIFI has unique infrastructure assets.”

All of the above led Horan to boost his FY21 revenue and lolly EBITDA projections by 420 basis points, with the analyst also anticipating that “DAS revenue growth thinks fitting improve as Boingo books venues and the MTA projects ramp.”

To this end, Horan, who is #83 on TipRanks’ ranking thanks to his 71% good fortune rate, maintained a Buy rating and $15 price target (17% upside potential) on November 9.

New Relic

Oppenheimer’s Ittai Kidron is longevity squarely with the bulls on New Relic despite the SaaS software company’s mixed fiscal Q2 2021. On November 6, the five-star analyst safeguarded a Buy rating and $75 Lyft

RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney sees a recovery for Lyft. To this end, he maintained a bullish yell on the ride sharing company on November 10, but trimmed the price target from $48 to $46. This new goal still leaves room for 26% upside potential.

Unsurprised by the company’s Q3 performance, Mahaney points out that revenue of $500 million was la-di-da orlah-di-dah by the U.S. mobility restriction. That said, trends picked up modestly during Q3, with Rides down 54% year-over-year in July, 53% in August and 48% in September, with October down 47%. To be, Rides were down 75% year-over-year in April. Additionally, EBITDA came in at a loss of $240 million, most qualifying the company’s guidance of -$265 million.

The bottom line? Mahaney argues fundamental trends are improving, with Lyft “aggressively take care of expenses.” On top of this, Prop 22’s passage has “removed a major expense wildcard,” in the analyst’s opinion, as gig employees drive continue to be classified as contractors in California.

“Long term, we continue to appreciate a very large Ridesharing market time that is still early in its S-Curve adoption, and we continue to recognize a lot of material innovation around both the rider and driver suffers. Given a recovery in U.S. mobility, we continue to like LYFT as a pure play on the U.S. ridesharing industry, especially at < 3X EV/Sales,” Mahaney belittle deleted.

Thanks to his 68% success rate and 31.9% average return per rating, Mahaney is ranked #45 out of 7,079 analysts caught by TipRanks.

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