Many growth stocks have been struggling in recent weeks amid uncertainty related to COVID-19 and just how our economic recovery might look in the weeks ahead. Research and consulting company Ipsos confirms that there has been a "significant decline" in consumer confidence in the U.S. in August, and globally, there was a relatively minor 0.2 basis point improvement in its index from the previous month.
Those concerns are showing on the stock market, as there are more buying opportunities than there were just a few months ago when hopes were higher. But Wall Street analysts, who typically set stock price targets for the next 12 to 18 months, remain optimistic on the following three stocks: GrowGeneration (GRWG -1.97%), Boston Beer Company (SAM -1.55%), and Baidu (BIDU -1.04%). Many analysts believe these stocks can rise by more than 70%, and it's hard to argue with those projections.
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1. GrowGeneration
Hydroponics and gardening company GrowGeneration has been doing well, but shares of the company are down 27% year to date -- far below the S&P 500's gains of 18%. The company is coming off a strong second-quarter performance where sales of $126 million for the period ending June 30 were up 190% year over year. It even raised its guidance and projects the top line for the year to come in between $455 million to $475 million -- even at the low end of that range, that would be a year-over-year increase of 136%.
But what could make investors lukewarm about the investment is that GrowGeneration isn't cheap. While the business is profitable, investors are paying a multiple of 100 times earnings for it. On the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, the average stock trades at just 26 times its profits.
However, given the growth opportunities in the cannabis industry and the potential for GrowGeneration to provide more growers with tools and supplies to cultivate marijuana, there's still lots of potential for the stock. Although some brokerages have recently lowered their price targets for the stock, many still see it rising to at least $55 -- which would translate into a potential upside of close to 90% from its current price.
GrowGeneration's stock may be down right now, but I wouldn't expect it to continue falling for much longer.
2. Boston Beer
Boston Beer showed an underwhelming performance in its second-quarter results, which were reported in July. Although net sales of $603 million for the period ending June 26 were up 33% year over year, that fell short of the $658 million that analysts were looking for. Its per-share profit of $4.75 was also below Wall Street's forecast of $6.69.
Chalk this one up to some overzealous forecasting, as the company admitted in its press release that it "overestimated the growth in the hard seltzer category." Hard seltzer, which is lower in both calories and sugar than many other alcoholic beverages, has been booming amid the pandemic.
Although things have been slowing down, that popularity could again translate into strong sales numbers if the delta variant doesn't derail the economy's reopening. In the past two periods, Boston Beer's net sales have increased by 65% and 53%, respectively. And hard seltzer sales have been key to the company's strong numbers.
The variability in sales numbers suggests it could be difficult to forecast revenue, but Boston Beer does seem to be on the right path. While there are concerns that the hard seltzer trend may be fading, top beer maker Molson Coors also says seltzer is its top-growing segment for its business, and it continues to focus on that market.
Shares of Boston Beer are down more than 40% in the last six months (the S&P 500 is up 15%), weighed down heavily by the earnings miss. But for investors, this could be a great opportunity to buy. Multiple analysts here have set price targets of well over $1,000 for the stock, representing an upside of more than 70%. Some even see the growth stock more than doubling in value.
3. Baidu
Investing in Chinese stocks is risky right now, as concerns of government crackdowns and tensions with the U.S. have many investors worried about what lies ahead. And the bearishness has helped send shares of Baidu down more than 36% since the start of the year. But the company, which operates a search engine and has a video sharing website, is still doing well.
Baidu grew its sales by 20% year over year to $4.9 billion for the period ending June 30. One exciting segment of its business is in artificial intelligence (AI), where the company reported that it was the top provider of AI cloud services in China for the period. Quarterly sales in that segment grew 71% year over year.
The bad news is that the company does expect its growth rate to slow down next quarter, growing between just 8% and 19%. However, with the stock trading at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of just 15, it's incredibly cheap compared to Alphabet, which has a comparable business but trades at more than 27 times its future earnings. While there's more risk involved, Baidu is still what I'd consider to be one of the safer Chinese stocks out there.
Even with recent downgrades, multiple analysts see the stock climbing to $270 and higher -- double the level of where its shares trade today. While you could try to wait it out to see if the stock will hit its 52-week low of $116.41, odds are you can still earn a great return from buying it at its current price.
