No one expects large-cap stocks to perform as well as their small-cap brethren. It's simply easier for a company to grow from $300 million to $600 million than it is for a $10 billion company to turn into one worth $20 billion.
Yet since the stock market bottomed out last March, the benchmark S&P 500 has risen 103% in value, only slightly lagging the 128% gained by its small-cap sibling, the Russell 2000. It's an impressive 17-month performance by the large-cap index.
Based on Wall Street's consensus estimates, the three big, burly stocks below still have further to run and are expected to see their stocks increase between 38% and 43% over the next 12 months.
Image source: Getty Images.
Coinbase Global
Coinbase Global (COIN -5.10%) is a picks-and-shovels type of business for investors who don't want to guess which cryptocurrency will be the winner in the future. By providing an exchange and ecosystem for all cryptos, it wins regardless of which one comes out on top, just like the enterprising suppliers of the gold rush.
Certainly Coinbase is benefiting from the rise of Bitcoin (BTC -0.05%) and Ethereum (ETH 0.18%), the two largest digital currencies by market cap and the two that contribute most to the crypto exchange's bottom line. Bitcoin represented 47% of the assets on the platform, but 24% of Coinbase's trading volume in the second quarter. Ethereum, on the other hand, represented 24% of assets but 26% of volume. The rest of the cryptocurrency universe made up the remaining amounts.
Moreover, overall trading volume hit $462 billion in the period, a massive increase from the $28 it saw a year ago, and 38% more than in just the first quarter. In fact, there were 8.8 million transacting users in the quarter, a 44% increase sequentially. That generated $2.2 billion in total revenue for Coinbase in the quarter, of which $1.9 billion was transactional.
Coinbase Global stock is down 27% from its direct listing price in April, and Wall Street analysts have put a $384-per-share price target on its stock, giving the crypto exchange implied upside of 38% over the next year. Because cryptocurrencies and the cryptoeconomy is still in its infancy, Coinbase is one large cap set to grow even larger.
Image source: General Motors.
General Motors
Automakers are finding themselves in a difficult position at the moment because of the global chip shortage, and General Motors (GM -0.04%) just announced another production cut for the year as a result. It will be idling two of its primary pickup truck plants in Mexico and Indiana while putting three other factories on hiatus for several weeks.
That's a problem for the automaker because pickups tend to be the most profitable vehicles it produces and early on in the supply chain disruption the shortages had not affected their production. Now it's trickling down to those vehicles that can most impact GM's bottom line, and the automaker's stock has lost a quarter of its value since June.
While concerning, this could be the perfect time to get into General Motors stock.
You often hear about upgrade cycles in the tech industry, whether it's smartphones or video game consoles, but there's one coming in the auto industry that will forever alter the way it's viewed. And GM intends on leading the way.
The carmaker forecasts its entire fleet will be all-electric by 2035 and it has committed to spending $35 billion on EVs, self-driving cars, and battery technology by 2025. That is more aggressive than rival Ford Motor, which anticipates 40% of its fleet being all-electric by 2030.
Wall Street has a consensus price target of $70 per share, which would give General Motors an implied 37% lift above the $51 per share where it recently traded.
Image source: Zoom Video Communications.
Zoom Video Communications
If there was one stock that reflected the pandemic boom it was arguably Zoom Video Communications (ZM 0.05%), the videoconferencing company that became the must-have necessity of stuck-at-home workers. With the COVID-19 outbreak increasingly in the rearview mirror, Zoom isn't as much of a requirement as it was in 2020 and its stock is down 11% year to date and some 50% below its all-time high hit last October.
But it's too early to say Zoom is done. Certainly investors shouldn't expect a repeat of the meteoric revenue and profit growth it experienced last year, but companies are now much more cognizant of the efficiency with which Zoom allows them to conduct their operations remotely and they're not about to abandon its capabilities even if they're not using them to the same extent they were.
That's why Zoom's recent guidance for the rest of 2021 was still exciting, even if it wasn't at last year's breakneck pace. It forecasts some $4 billion in revenue this year, or 51% above the year-ago record, while adjusted operating income of $1.5 billion, 50% more than last year, is expected. That's the kind of growth companies would beg to achieve, and Zoom is doing it in a supposed "down" year.
Moreover, there remains the ever-present threat of a stock market crash, whether from runaway inflation, supply chain shortages, or new outbreaks of COVID-19 variants. Any of those could send the economy reeling, and a business built on videoconferencing would stand to gain.
Zoom Video Communications trades under $300 a share, or more than 30% below the $428 per share price target analysts set. While its stock does still go for seemingly rich valuations relative to earnings, sales, and the free cash flow it produces, it looks to be a large-cap stock with plenty of growth potential built in.
