20 Stocks with the Potential to Pop
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It's the basic question when investing in a stock: 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 2/23/10).
So, which stocks do analysts on average predict will have the biggest pop? Click ahead to find out!
ByAriel Nelson & Paul Toscano
Posted 23 Feb 2010
20. Pactiv Corporation (PTV)
Potential to Pop: 35.4%
Mean Price Target: $30.80
Closing Price (2/23): $22.74
Number of Analysts: 10
High Estimate: $35.00
Low Estimate: $27.00
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19. Morgan Stanley (MS)
Potential to Pop: 35.6%
Mean Price Target: $36.81
Closing Price (2/23): $27.15
Number of Analysts: 21
High Estimate: $46.00
Low Estimate: $32.00
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18. Chesapeake Energy (CHK)
Potential to Pop: 35.74%
Mean Price Target: $35.70
Closing Price (2/23): $26.30
Number of Analysts: 26
High Estimate: $50.00
Low Estimate: $24.00
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17. Halliburton (HAL)
Potential to Pop: 35.76%
Mean Price Target: $41.00
Closing Price (2/23): $30.20
Number of Analysts: 24
High Estimate: $55.00
Low Estimate: $31.00
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16. Goldman Sachs (GS)
Potential to Pop: 36.08%
Mean Price Target: $213.25
Closing Price (2/23): $156.70
Number of Analysts: 20
High Estimate: $244.00
Low Estimate: $180.00
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15. MEMC Electronic Mat. (WFR)
Potential to Pop: 36.13%
Mean Price Target: $16.50
Closing Price (2/23): $12.12
Number of Analysts: 19
High Estimate: $22.00
Low Estimate: $10.50
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14. Citigroup (C)
Potential to Pop: 36.2%
Mean Price Target: $4.56
Closing Price (2/23): $3.35
Number of Analysts: 18
High Estimate: $6.00
Low Estimate: $3.00
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13. Sprint Nextel (S)
Potential to Pop: 36.3%
Mean Price Target: $4.55
Closing Price (2/23): $3.34
Number of Analysts: 25
High Estimate: $8.00
Low Estimate: $2.50
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12. Invesco LTD (IVZ)
Potential to Pop: 36.5%
Mean Price Target: $26.00
Closing Price (2/23): $19.05
Number of Analysts: 13
High Estimate: $30.00
Low Estimate: $23.00
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11. Applied Materials (AMAT)
Potential to Pop: 37.7%
Mean Price Target: $16.42
Closing Price (2/23): $12.01
Number of Analysts: 19
High Estimate: $22.00
Low Estimate: $11.50
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10. Amazon.com (AMZN)
Potential to Pop: 38%
Mean Price Target: $161.74
Closing Price (2/23): $117.24
Number of Analysts: 27
High Estimate: $200.00
Low Estimate: $130.00
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9. Freeport McMoran (FCX)
Potential to Pop: 38.6%
Mean Price Target: $102.06
Closing Price (2/23): $73.64
Number of Analysts: 15
High Estimate: $125.00
Low Estimate: $80.00
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8. Schlumberger LTD (SLB)
Potential to Pop: 38.7%
Mean Price Target: $84.46
Closing Price (2/23): $60.88
Number of Analysts: 24
High Estimate: $130.00
Low Estimate: $70.00
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7. Alcoa Inc. (AA)
Potential to Pop: 39%
Mean Price Target: $18.33
Closing Price (2/23): $13.18
Number of Analysts: 15
High Estimate: $26.40
Low Estimate: $13.00
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6. Iron Mountain (IRM)
Potential to Pop: 40.3%
Mean Price Target: $33.50
Closing Price (2/23): $23.87
Number of Analysts: 6
High Estimate: $40.00
Low Estimate: $28.00
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5. El Paso Co. (EP)
Potential to Pop: 40.7%
Mean Price Target: $14.20
Closing Price (2/23): $10.09
Number of Analysts: 10
High Estimate: $20.00
Low Estimate: $11.00
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4. Gamestop Corp (GME)
Potential to Pop: 41.5%
Mean Price Target: $26.70
Closing Price (2/23): $18.87
Number of Analysts: 15
High Estimate: $34.00
Low Estimate: $21.00
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3. Tenet Healthcare (THC)
Potential to Pop: 43.3%
Mean Price Target: $7.22
Closing Price (2/23): $5.04
Number of Analysts: 15
High Estimate: $9.50
Low Estimate: $4.50
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2. Micron Tech (MU)
Potential to Pop: 46.9%
Mean Price Target: $12.65
Closing Price (2/23): $8.61
Number of Analysts: 20
High Estimate: $20.00
Low Estimate: $4.00
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1. AES Corp (AES)
Potential to Pop: 52.9%
Mean Price Target: $18.00
Closing Price (2/23): $11.77
Number of Analysts: 3
High Estimate: $22.00
Low Estimate: $16.00
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