20 Stocks with the Potential to Pop
It's the basic question when investing in a stock:Â is it on the way up or will it go down? To answer this question, the street has developed numerous ways of attempting to predict what will happen, estimating various attributes tied to stock performance in order to determine what the future holds for a company's valuation.
After dissecting the data, analysts following a particular stock produce a price target of where they believe the stock is headed. From the entire S&P 500, which stocks are analysts expecting to have the biggest pops? With data from ThomsonReuters, we took a look at which stocks have mean consensus estimates farthest above their stock prices (as of market close on 9/30/09).
So, which stocks do analysts on average predict will have the biggest pop? Click ahead to find out!
By Ariel Nelson & Paul ToscanoPosted 1 Oct 2009
20. Massey Energy (MEE)
Price Target: $34.63
Closing Price (9/30): $27.89
Potential to Pop: 24.1%
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19. Snap On Inc. (SNA)
Price Target: $43.33
Closing Price (9/30): $34.76
Potential to Pop: 24.7%
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18. Plum Creek Timber Co. (PCL)
Price Target: $38.20
Closing Price (9/30): $30.64
Potential to Pop: 24.7%
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17. Family Dollar Stores (FDO)
Price Target: $33.10
Closing Price (9/30): $26.40
Potential to Pop: 25.4%
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16. Apollo Group (APOL)
Price Target: $92.83
Closing Price (9/30): $73.67
Potential to Pop: 26.0%
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15. Denbury Resources (DNR)
Price Target: $19.10
Closing Price (9/30): $15.13
Potential to Pop: 26.2%
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14. O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY)
Price Target: $45.66
Closing Price (9/30): $36.14
Potential to Pop: 26.3%
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13. Kroger (KR)
Price Target: $26.09
Closing Price (9/30): $20.64
Potential to Pop: 26.4%
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12. XTO Energy (XTO)
Price Target: $52.35
Closing Price (9/30): $41.32
Potential to Pop: 26.7%
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11. Exelon Corp (EXC)
Price Target: $63.29
Closing Price (9/30): $49.62
Potential to Pop: 27.5%
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10. Wellpoint (WLP)
Price Target: $60.90
Closing Price (9/30): $47.36
Potential to Pop: 28.6%
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9. Iron Mountain (IRM)
Price Target: $32.48
Closing Price (9/30): $25.04
Potential to Pop: 29.1%
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8. UnitedHealth Group (UNH)
Price Target: $32.48
Closing Price (9/30): $25.04
Potential to Pop: 29.7%
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7. Cephalon Inc. (CEPH)
Price Target: $76.63
Closing Price (9/30): $58.24
Potential to Pop: 31.6%
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6. Dean Foods Co (DF)
Price Target: $23.86
Closing Price (9/30): $17.79
Potential to Pop: 34.1%
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5. Sprint Nextel (S)
Price Target: $5.35
Closing Price (9/30): $3.95
Potential to Pop: 35.5%
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4. McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP)
Price Target: $37.50
Closing Price (9/30): $25.14
Potential to Pop: 49.2%
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3. MetroPCS Communications (PCS)
Price Target: $14.00
Closing Price (9/30): $9.36
Potential to Pop: 49.6%
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2. SLM Corp (SLM)
Price Target: $13.29
Closing Price (9/30): $8.72
Potential to Pop: 52.4%
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1. Moody's Corp (MCO)
Price Target: $32.25
Closing Price (9/30): $20.46
Potential to Pop: 57.6%
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