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The Final Countdown: Needham’s Best Stock Picks for 2021

Are you ready for the New Year? We’re getting down to the wire, 2020 is almost gone, and Wall Street’s analysts are engaged in the time-honored tradition of picking stocks
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Are you ready for the New Year? We’re getting down to the wire, 2020 is almost gone, and Wall Street’s analysts are engaged in the time-honored tradition of picking stocks for next year.

In the background, we have, finally, a foundation of good news. The election is settled. For better or worse, former VP Joe Biden will take office on January 20, but he’ll have to deal with a Congress that features the narrowest partisan divide in decades. It’s a situation that lends itself to institutional gridlock – and oddly, that has investors feeling confident. It’s unlikely that the next four years will see any sweeping legislation. Investors foresee a period of stability, which is conducive to market gains.

Even better, the availability of COVID vaccines promises a return to normal life sooner rather than later. The prospect of large-scale immunity is a net positive by any measure.

And there is momentum. Markets have been gaining since March, and all three main indexes, the Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ, are at – or near - record-high levels. They are riding on the optimism of election results and the COVID vaccines – but the markets’ own gains have become another reason for optimism. It’s a virtuous circle.

With this in mind, Needham’s analysts have chosen three stocks they like for next year. While the firm’s analysts believe the three are poised to surge at least 25% in the year ahead, we wanted to get the rest of the Street’s opinion. After using TipRanks’ database, we learned that each ticker has scored Buy ratings from other members of the analyst community as well.

Synaptics, Inc. (SYNA)

Our computer systems are only as good as their user interfaces. The array of keyboards, pointers, touchpads, trackballs, and touchscreens we’ve developed gives testament to this basic fact of digital work. Synaptics is a tech company that develops high-end user interfaces systems, including flex-screens, touch-screens, VR systems, video interfaces, and vision tracking systems for IoT applications.

Our digital world puts a premium on both user interface systems and security, and Synaptics has delivered on both fronts. The company was the first to market a viable touchpad pointer system, and the first to develop the biometric tech for fingerprint sensors. Synaptics markets its products primarily to device companies in the mobile sector, and to computer display manufacturers.

2020 was a hard year for Synaptics. In Q3, the company was starting to show a recovery from the COVID recession, with the top line rebounding back to $328 million, but both revenues and earnings were down year-over-year. The company’s shares, however, are on their way up. The stock has gained 47% this year, with a notable spike in the last two weeks.

Needham’s Rajvindra Gill is impressed by Synaptics’ forward path. He writes, “We believe that recent M&A deals (acquisitions of Broadcom's wireless IoT business and DisplayLink) have transformed the business and will increase higher margin revenues while simultaneously opening new markets and creating opportunities for cost synergies. We look for the IoT business to have opportunities in the Edge computing, wireless connectivity and USB-C categories. In the remaining mobile business, SYNA is dominating the high-margin OLED touch controller market, winning virtually every new design by major handset OEMs.”

In line with those comments, Gill makes SYNA his ‘best pick’ for 2021 and has a Buy rating on the shares. The analyst’s $130 price target implies a 33% upside potential for the next 12 months. (To watch Gill’s track record, click here)

Overall, Wall Street is quite positive on this 'Moderate Buy' stock: SYNA has received 5 Buys and 2 Holds in the past three months. Running the numbers across the Street, the 12-month average price target lands at $105.5, suggesting about 8% growth in the new year (See SYNA stock analysis on TipRanks)

Duck Creek Technologies (DCT)

Sticking with the tech sector, we’ll look at Duck Creek. This Boston-based software company has found a home in the insurance world, producing software products that are industry-specific and designed to ease insurance carriers’ routine tasks of managing services. Duck Creek’s customers include such major names as AIG, Geico, and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance.

Duck Creek offers insurers a full range of software systems, including tools for policy rating, billing, and claims, along with data insights, distribution management, and reinsurance management.

The value of the products can be inferred from the company’s successful IPO. When DCT started trading on the NASDAQ this past August, the stock closed its first session at $40 per share – after opening at $27. The 48% gain in the company’s first day followed a total capital raise of $405 million for the IPO.

Since the IPO, Duck Creek has issued one quarterly report as a public company. That report, for Q3, showed revenue at $58 million, or up 23% sequentially. The solid revenue was powered by a 54% year-over-year gain in subscription sales. The company finished its FY20 with a 24% yoy revenue gain, and reported over $389 million in cash on hand.

5-star analyst Mayank Tandon, in his report on DCT for Needham, was impressed enough by the company to call it his ‘best pick.’

“We are highlighting DCT as our top pick for 2021 and adding it to the Needham Conviction List. We believe DCT has a long growth runway. With the global P&C insurance industry in the early days of a long transition to modern, cloud-based software solutions and DCT's leading SaaS offerings and best-in-class execution, we believe the company will deliver outsized growth over the next several years… We see the robust industry-wide secular growth and the strong potential for beat and raise performances serving as positive catalysts for the shares,” Tandon wrote.

To this end, Tandon rates the stock a Buy, and his $55 price target indicates confidence in a one-year upside of ~28%. (To watch Tandon’s track record, click here)

The Buy-Hold split here is 4 to 2, making this another stock with a Moderate Buy rating from the analyst consensus. The shares sell for $43.11 and the $49.67 average price target suggests 16% growth from that level. (See DCT stock analysis on TipRanks)

Anaplan, Inc. (PLAN)

The third ‘best pick’ we’re looking at from Needham is Anaplan, another cloud software company. Anaplan offers business planning software, that facilitates connections among people, their data, and their plans. By easing connections, Anaplan’s software makes decision making processes smoother, in everything from finance to HR. Anaplan boasts over 1,500 business customers.

Anaplan’s revenues have been rising steadily in 2020, along with the share value. For the first, the top line sales have increased in each quarter of the year, going from $104 million in Q1 to $115 million in Q3, a gain of 10.7%. Meanwhile, PLAN shares have gained 37% year-to-date.

5-star Needham analyst Scott Berg clearly sets out the bullish case for Anaplan when he writes, “We are selecting Anaplan as our 2021 best idea and adding it to our Conviction List. Our industry work suggests that demand for Anaplan's leading Planning platform will climb in 2021, as this year's economic slowdown convinced companies to free up the time and resources companies needed to replace lagging legacy solutions that were ill-equipped to deliver business data during the most critical time periods in the pandemic."

Berg backs his bullish thesis with a Buy rating and a $95 price target. This figure implies a 32% upside potential in the next 12 months. (To watch Berg’s track record, click here)

All in all, PLAN has 12 Buy-side ratings given in recent weeks. These are partially balanced by 5 Holds and 1 Sell, making the analyst consensus view a Moderate Buy. The stock's strong gains through the year have pushed its share price to $71.60, almost to the $74.89 average price target and leaving room for just ~4% growth. (See PLAN stock analysis on TipRanks)

To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched 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.

The post The Final Countdown: Needham's Best Stock Picks for 2021 appeared first on TipRanks Financial Blog.

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United Airlines adds new flights to faraway destinations

The airline said that it has been working hard to "find hidden gem destinations."

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Since countries started opening up after the pandemic in 2021 and 2022, airlines have been seeing demand soar not just for major global cities and popular routes but also for farther-away destinations.

Numerous reports, including a recent TripAdvisor survey of trending destinations, showed that there has been a rise in U.S. traveler interest in Asian countries such as Japan, South Korea and Vietnam as well as growing tourism traction in off-the-beaten-path European countries such as Slovenia, Estonia and Montenegro.

Related: 'No more flying for you': Travel agency sounds alarm over risk of 'carbon passports'

As a result, airlines have been looking at their networks to include more faraway destinations as well as smaller cities that are growing increasingly popular with tourists and may not be served by their competitors.

The Philippines has been popular among tourists in recent years.

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United brings back more routes, says it is committed to 'finding hidden gems'

This week, United Airlines  (UAL)  announced that it will be launching a new route from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) to Morocco's Marrakesh. While it is only the country's fourth-largest city, Marrakesh is a particularly popular place for tourists to seek out the sights and experiences that many associate with the country — colorful souks, gardens with ornate architecture and mosques from the Moorish period.

More Travel:

"We have consistently been ahead of the curve in finding hidden gem destinations for our customers to explore and remain committed to providing the most unique slate of travel options for their adventures abroad," United's SVP of Global Network Planning Patrick Quayle, said in a press statement.

The new route will launch on Oct. 24 and take place three times a week on a Boeing 767-300ER  (BA)  plane that is equipped with 46 Polaris business class and 22 Premium Plus seats. The plane choice was a way to reach a luxury customer customer looking to start their holiday in Marrakesh in the plane.

Along with the new Morocco route, United is also launching a flight between Houston (IAH) and Colombia's Medellín on Oct. 27 as well as a route between Tokyo and Cebu in the Philippines on July 31 — the latter is known as a "fifth freedom" flight in which the airline flies to the larger hub from the mainland U.S. and then goes on to smaller Asian city popular with tourists after some travelers get off (and others get on) in Tokyo.

United's network expansion includes new 'fifth freedom' flight

In the fall of 2023, United became the first U.S. airline to fly to the Philippines with a new Manila-San Francisco flight. It has expanded its service to Asia from different U.S. cities earlier last year. Cebu has been on its radar amid growing tourist interest in the region known for marine parks, rainforests and Spanish-style architecture.

With the summer coming up, United also announced that it plans to run its current flights to Hong Kong, Seoul, and Portugal's Porto more frequently at different points of the week and reach four weekly flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai by August 29.

"This is your normal, exciting network planning team back in action," Quayle told travel website The Points Guy of the airline's plans for the new routes.

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Walmart launches clever answer to Target’s new membership program

The retail superstore is adding a new feature to its Walmart+ plan — and customers will be happy.

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It's just been a few days since Target  (TGT)  launched its new Target Circle 360 paid membership plan. 

The plan offers free and fast shipping on many products to customers, initially for $49 a year and then $99 after the initial promotional signup period. It promises to be a success, since many Target customers are loyal to the brand and will go out of their way to shop at one instead of at its two larger peers, Walmart and Amazon.

Related: Walmart makes a major price cut that will delight customers

And stop us if this sounds familiar: Target will rely on its more than 2,000 stores to act as fulfillment hubs. 

This model is a proven winner; Walmart also uses its more than 4,600 stores as fulfillment and shipping locations to get orders to customers as soon as possible.

Sometimes, this means shipping goods from the nearest warehouse. But if a desired product is in-store and closer to a customer, it reduces miles on the road and delivery time. It's a kind of logistical magic that makes any efficiency lover's (or retail nerd's) heart go pitter patter. 

Walmart rolls out answer to Target's new membership tier

Walmart has certainly had more time than Target to develop and work out the kinks in Walmart+. It first launched the paid membership in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, when many shoppers sheltered at home but still required many staples they might ordinarily pick up at a Walmart, like cleaning supplies, personal-care products, pantry goods and, of course, toilet paper. 

It also undercut Amazon  (AMZN)  Prime, which costs customers $139 a year for free and fast shipping (plus several other benefits including access to its streaming service, Amazon Prime Video). 

Walmart+ costs $98 a year, which also gets you free and speedy delivery, plus access to a Paramount+ streaming subscription, fuel savings, and more. 

An employee at a Merida, Mexico, Walmart. (Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images

If that's not enough to tempt you, however, Walmart+ just added a new benefit to its membership program, ostensibly to compete directly with something Target now has: ultrafast delivery. 

Target Circle 360 particularly attracts customers with free same-day delivery for select orders over $35 and as little as one-hour delivery on select items. Target executes this through its Shipt subsidiary.

We've seen this lightning-fast delivery speed only in snippets from Amazon, the king of delivery efficiency. Who better to take on Target, though, than Walmart, which is using a similar store-as-fulfillment-center model? 

"Walmart is stepping up to save our customers even more time with our latest delivery offering: Express On-Demand Early Morning Delivery," Walmart said in a statement, just a day after Target Circle 360 launched. "Starting at 6 a.m., earlier than ever before, customers can enjoy the convenience of On-Demand delivery."

Walmart  (WMT)  clearly sees consumers' desire for near-instant delivery, which obviously saves time and trips to the store. Rather than waiting a day for your order to show up, it might be on your doorstep when you wake up. 

Consumers also tend to spend more money when they shop online, and they remain stickier as paying annual members. So, to a growing number of retail giants, almost instant gratification like this seems like something worth striving for.

Related: Veteran fund manager picks favorite stocks for 2024

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President Biden Delivers The “Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President”

President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through…

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President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through the State of The Union, President Biden can go back to his crypt now.

Whatever 'they' gave Biden, every American man, woman, and the other should be allowed to take it - though it seems the cocktail brings out 'dark Brandon'?

Tl;dw: Biden's Speech tonight ...

  • Fund Ukraine.

  • Trump is threat to democracy and America itself.

  • Abortion is good.

  • American Economy is stronger than ever.

  • Inflation wasn't Biden's fault.

  • Illegals are Americans too.

  • Republicans are responsible for the border crisis.

  • Trump is bad.

  • Biden stands with trans-children.

  • J6 was the worst insurrection since the Civil War.

(h/t @TCDMS99)

Tucker Carlson's response sums it all up perfectly:

"that was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech given by an American president. It wasn't a speech, it was a rant..."

Carlson continued: "The true measure of a nation's greatness lies within its capacity to control borders, yet Bid refuses to do it."

"In a fair election, Joe Biden cannot win"

And concluded:

“There was not a meaningful word for the entire duration about the things that actually matter to people who live here.”

Victor Davis Hanson added some excellent color, but this was probably the best line on Biden:

"he doesn't care... he lives in an alternative reality."

*  *  *

Watch SOTU Live here...

*   *   *

Mises' Connor O'Keeffe, warns: "Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden's State of the Union Address." 

On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden is set to give his third State of the Union address. The political press has been buzzing with speculation over what the president will say. That speculation, however, is focused more on how Biden will perform, and which issues he will prioritize. Much of the speech is expected to be familiar.

The story Biden will tell about what he has done as president and where the country finds itself as a result will be the same dishonest story he's been telling since at least the summer.

He'll cite government statistics to say the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and inflation is down.

Something that has been frustrating Biden, his team, and his allies in the media is that the American people do not feel as economically well off as the official data says they are. Despite what the White House and establishment-friendly journalists say, the problem lies with the data, not the American people's ability to perceive their own well-being.

As I wrote back in January, the reason for the discrepancy is the lack of distinction made between private economic activity and government spending in the most frequently cited economic indicators. There is an important difference between the two:

  • Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant

  • It's the private sector that's responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people's needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people's economic well-being.

Recently, government spending and hiring has accounted for a larger than normal share of both economic activity and employment. This means the government is propping up these traditional measures, making the economy appear better than it actually is. Also, many of the jobs Biden and his allies take credit for creating will quickly go away once it becomes clear that consumers don't actually want whatever the government encouraged these companies to produce.

On top of all that, the administration is dealing with the consequences of their chosen inflation rhetoric.

Since its peak in the summer of 2022, the president's team has talked about inflation "coming back down," which can easily give the impression that it's prices that will eventually come back down.

But that's not what that phrase means. It would be more honest to say that price increases are slowing down.

Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the cost of living will not return to prepandemic levels, and they're not happy about it.

The president has made some clumsy attempts at damage control, such as a Super Bowl Sunday video attacking food companies for "shrinkflation"—selling smaller portions at the same price instead of simply raising prices.

In his speech Thursday, Biden is expected to play up his desire to crack down on the "corporate greed" he's blaming for high prices.

In the name of "bringing down costs for Americans," the administration wants to implement targeted price ceilings - something anyone who has taken even a single economics class could tell you does more harm than good. Biden would never place the blame for the dramatic price increases we've experienced during his term where it actually belongs—on all the government spending that he and President Donald Trump oversaw during the pandemic, funded by the creation of $6 trillion out of thin air - because that kind of spending is precisely what he hopes to kick back up in a second term.

If reelected, the president wants to "revive" parts of his so-called Build Back Better agenda, which he tried and failed to pass in his first year. That would bring a significant expansion of domestic spending. And Biden remains committed to the idea that Americans must be forced to continue funding the war in Ukraine. That's another topic Biden is expected to highlight in the State of the Union, likely accompanied by the lie that Ukraine spending is good for the American economy. It isn't.

It's not possible to predict all the ways President Biden will exaggerate, mislead, and outright lie in his speech on Thursday. But we can be sure of two things. The "state of the Union" is not as strong as Biden will say it is. And his policy ambitions risk making it much worse.

*  *  *

The American people will be tuning in on their smartphones, laptops, and televisions on Thursday evening to see if 'sloppy joe' 81-year-old President Joe Biden can coherently put together more than two sentences (even with a teleprompter) as he gives his third State of the Union in front of a divided Congress. 

President Biden will speak on various topics to convince voters why he shouldn't be sent to a retirement home.

According to CNN sources, here are some of the topics Biden will discuss tonight:

  • Economic issues: Biden and his team have been drafting a speech heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy – an attempt to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

  • Health care expenses: Biden will also push for lowering health care costs and discuss his efforts to go after drug manufacturers to lower the cost of prescription medications — all issues his advisers believe can help buoy what have been sagging economic approval ratings.

  • Israel's war with Hamas: Also looming large over Biden's primetime address is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has consumed much of the president's time and attention over the past few months. The president's top national security advisers have been working around the clock to try to finalize a ceasefire-hostages release deal by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins next week.

  • An argument for reelection: Aides view Thursday's speech as a critical opportunity for the president to tout his accomplishments in office and lay out his plans for another four years in the nation's top job. Even though viewership has declined over the years, the yearly speech reliably draws tens of millions of households.

Sources provided more color on Biden's SOTU address: 

The speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism. The president will talk about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He'll highlight efforts to cut costs for the American people, including pushing Congress to help make prescription drugs more affordable.

Biden will talk about the need to preserve democracy and freedom, a cornerstone of his re-election bid. That includes protecting and bolstering reproductive rights, an issue Democrats believe will energize voters in November. Biden is also expected to promote his unity agenda, a key feature of each of his addresses to Congress while in office.

Biden is also expected to give remarks on border security while the invasion of illegals has become one of the most heated topics among American voters. A majority of voters are frustrated with radical progressives in the White House facilitating the illegal migrant invasion. 

It is probable that the president will attribute the failure of the Senate border bill to the Republicans, a claim many voters view as unfounded. This is because the White House has the option to issue an executive order to restore border security, yet opts not to do so

Maybe this is why? 

While Biden addresses the nation, the Biden administration will be armed with a social media team to pump propaganda to at least 100 million Americans. 

"The White House hosted about 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers across three separate events" on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official told CNN. 

Not a very capable social media team... 

The administration's move to ramp up social media operations comes as users on X are mostly free from government censorship with Elon Musk at the helm. This infuriates Democrats, who can no longer censor their political enemies on X. 

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that the president's SOTU performance will be critical as he tries to dispel voter concerns about his elderly age. The address reached as many as 27 million people in 2023. 

"We are all nervous," said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the president's "ability to speak without blowing things."

The SOTU address comes as Biden's polling data is in the dumps

BetOnline has created several money-making opportunities for gamblers tonight, such as betting on what word Biden mentions the most. 

As well as...

We will update you when Tucker Carlson's live feed of SOTU is published. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 07:44

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