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1 Hated Stock that Deserves Some Love and 2 to Turn Down
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1 Hated Stock that Deserves Some Love and 2 to Turn Down

In This Article:

Wall Street’s bearish price targets for the stocks in this article signal serious concerns. Such forecasts are uncommon in an industry where maintaining cordial corporate relationships often trumps delivering the hard truth.

Accurately determining a company’s long-term prospects isn’t easy, especially when sentiment is weak. That’s where StockStory comes in - to help you find attractive investment candidates backed by unbiased research. Keeping that in mind, here is one stock where you should be greedy instead of fearful and two where the outlook is warranted.

Two Stocks to Sell:

Paramount (PARA)

Consensus Price Target: $12.75 (9.8% implied return)

Owner of Spongebob Squarepants and formerly known as ViacomCBS, Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) is a major media conglomerate offering television, film production, and digital content across various global platforms.

Why Do We Pass on PARA?

  1. Annual sales declines of 1.6% for the past two years show its products and services struggled to connect with the market

  2. Performance over the past five years shows its incremental sales were much less profitable, as its earnings per share fell by 20.5% annually

  3. Diminishing returns on capital from an already low starting point show that neither management’s prior nor current bets are going as planned

At $11.61 per share, Paramount trades at 7.9x forward price-to-earnings. To fully understand why you should be careful with PARA, check out our full research report (it’s free).

Mercury Systems (MRCY)

Consensus Price Target: $45 (-13.9% implied return)

Founded in 1981, Mercury Systems (NASDAQ:MRCY) specializes in providing processing subsystems and components for primarily defense applications.

Why Is MRCY Risky?

  1. Organic revenue growth fell short of our benchmarks over the past two years and implies it may need to improve its products, pricing, or go-to-market strategy

  2. Earnings per share fell by 47.2% annually over the last five years while its revenue grew, partly because it diluted shareholders

  3. Shrinking returns on capital from an already weak position reveal that neither previous nor ongoing investments are yielding the desired results

Mercury Systems’s stock price of $52.25 implies a valuation ratio of 99x forward price-to-earnings. Check out our free in-depth research report to learn more about why MRCY doesn’t pass our bar.

One Stock to Buy:

TransDigm (TDG)

Consensus Price Target: $1,483 (4.9% implied return)

Supplying parts for nearly all aircraft currently in service, TransDigm (NYSE:TDG) develops and manufactures components and systems for military and commercial aviation.