Since the end of the Great Recession, growth stocks have been the best place to put your money to work in the market. Historically low lending rates, coupled with predominantly dovish monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, have created a perfect scenario for fast-paced companies to hire, innovate, and acquire other businesses.
But over the past two months, rising Treasury yields have incited brief, yet steep, sell-offs in growth stocks. What's been an unsettling move lower to some folks represents an opportunity to buy rapidly growing stocks at a substantial discount for long-term investors.
Based on Wall Street's one-year consensus price targets as of April 5, the following five growth stocks all offer upside ranging between 43% and 70%.
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Teladoc Health: Implied upside of 43%
Let's begin with telehealth provider Teladoc Health (TDOC -1.52%). Teladoc has lost close to 40% of its value in less than two months, primarily as a result of the U.S. successfully administering over 167 million coronavirus vaccines as of April 5. With nearly a quarter of the adult population fully vaccinated, and Amazon announcing a nationwide expansion of its virtual-care platform, there's been some concern about where Teladoc goes from here.
As for Wall Street, the answer is pretty clear: It goes up. With a consensus price target of almost $260, Teladoc offers implied upside of 43% over the next year.
Teladoc is the leading provider of telehealth services in the U.S. and handled nearly 10.6 million virtual visits last year. The beauty of telemedicine is that it's a win up and down the healthcare-treatment chain. It's more convenient for patients, can allow physicians to better keep tabs on at-risk patients, and billed more cheaply than office visits, which health insurers love.
Also, don't forget that Teladoc acquired leading applied health-signals company Livongo Health in November. Livongo's solutions are aided by artificial intelligence and are designed to send tips and nudges to patients with chronic illnesses to help them lead healthier lives. Livongo already has well over 500,000 enrolled diabetes members, and its platform provides a perfect jumping-off point for Teladoc to cross-sell its own solutions.
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Datadog: Implied upside of 47%
Opportunistic investors might be able to make bank with cloud-based application-monitoring company Datadog (DDOG -3.94%), as well. Though shares of Datadog have fallen by more than 30% from their all-time high, Wall Street believes the company has up to 47% upside, based on its one-year consensus price target.
The good news for Datadog is that the end of the pandemic shouldn't mean an end to its rapid sales growth. With more businesses than ever shifting online and into the cloud, we're unlikely to see this trend reverse once workplaces reopen. The ability to understand customer behaviors, monitor key applications in real time, and understand important financial data is more critical now than ever before -- and the company's operating results prove it.
Although Datadog's total customer count with at least $100,000 in annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew by 46% in 2020 to 1,253, the figure that really stands out is the 94% growth in customers generating at least $1 million in ARR. Datadog is scaling seamlessly with its clients and has been able to make bolt-on acquisitions to broaden its product portfolio and appeal to a larger slate of businesses.
With an annual sales-growth rate ranging between 30% and 40%, Datadog appears to have all the tools needed to make patient investors a lot richer.
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Trulieve Cannabis: Implied upside of 48%
Considering how hot U.S. marijuana stocks have been this year, you might be shocked to learn that, based on Wall Street's 12-month price target, U.S. multistate operator (MSO) Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF -5.95%) offers as much as 48% upside.
What's really interesting about Trulieve's approach, compared to other MSOs, is that it's chosen to focus most of its attention on one market. As of mid-March, before announcing two acquisitions, Trulieve had 83 open dispensaries, 78 of which were located in medical marijuana-legal Florida. Even if Florida fails to legalize recreational weed, it's on pace to be the third-largest marijuana market by 2024.
Why focus on one state? The simple answer is that Trulieve has been able to use saturation in a key market to its advantage. It's been able to effectively build up its brands while keeping marketing costs down, thereby allowing a lot of its revenue to flow to its bottom line.
This is why it's been profitable for 12 consecutive quarters (three full years). In 2020, Trulieve controlled 49% of Florida's market for cannabinoid oils and 53% of the state's share of dried flower.
If Trulieve can successfully duplicate its blueprint in other states, it shouldn't have any issue clearing $1 billion in total sales by 2022. For context, that'd be up from $521.5 million in sales in 2020.
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Skillz: Implied upside of 63%
Mobile-gaming platform Skillz (SKLZ -1.63%) is another extremely fast-growing company with significant upside potential. The stock plunged roughly 60% from its recent record high, and Wall Street is now looking for the company to gain an estimated 63% over the coming 12 months.
What's noteworthy about Skillz is its operating model. The company is providing a compelling platform for gamers to compete against each other for cash and prizes, with the company and game developers splitting a percentage of the prize value. Because there aren't a lot of costs that go into the platform once it's developed, gross margin for Skillz came in at a whopping 95% in 2020 and 2019.
The big potential for Skillz looks to be the multiyear agreement it reached with the National Football League (NFL) in early February. Developers will be competing to launch NFL-themed games on the platform by later this year or perhaps in 2022. As a reminder, football is the most-popular sport in the United States.
With Wall Street expecting sales to catapult from $230 million in 2020 to nearly $1 billion by 2024, it's no wonder analysts see substantial upside in Skillz.
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Novavax: Implied upside of 70%
However, the hypergrowth company that may offer some of the biggest upside over the next year is biotech stock Novavax (NVAX 2.06%). According to Wall Street, which has a $300 consensus price target on the stock, it could gain 70% over the coming year.
The primary buy thesis for Novavax revolves around its coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373. Though its experimental name leaves a lot to be desired, Novavax's COVID-19 candidate proved successful in late-stage trials in the United Kingdom.
The company's vaccine demonstrated 96.4% efficacy against the original strain of the virus, while still providing for 86.3% efficacy against the U.K. variant. On a combined basis, it was shown to have an overall vaccine efficacy of 89.7%.
Even though Novavax's COVID-19 treatment wasn't as effective in a phase 2b South African trial, the investment community is nevertheless hyped about its prospects to help developed and emerging countries in their vaccination processes. Delays on the U.S. front have kept Novavax from making an impact in the highly lucrative U.S. market, but with billions of people worldwide to still vaccinate, Novavax could become one of a half-dozen to dozen key players in that process.
Novavax lost over $7 per share in 2020, but Wall Street believes it can generate between $32 and $39 in earnings per share between 2022 and 2024. That would make buying at its current $177 share price an absolute steal.
