President Trump announced his official tariff policy this week, and the effects are still reverberating through the markets. The new policy sets US tariffs at their highest rates in a century, including a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to start on April 5, along with a number of higher levies on specific countries and entities: a 20% blanket tariff on the EU, a 25% levy on South Korean products, a 24% rate on Japanese goods, a 34% tariff on Chinese imports, and a whopping 46% tariff on imports from Vietnam.
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The immediate result of “Liberation Day” was around a $3.1 trillion wipeout in Thursday’s trading, the biggest one-day loss for stocks since March 2020, when uncertainty gripped global markets at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Increased volatility, however, doesn’t mean you can’t find good stock buys. What’s needed is a tool to sort through the volatility and the increased data flow – and to identify the shares that are primed for gains. This is the job that the TipRanks Smart Score was designed for.
The Smart Score uses an AI algorithm to gather and collate market data and to rate every stock against a set of factors that have proven track records as predictors of future outperformance. The stocks are given a simple score, on a 1 to 10 scale, with the ‘Perfect 10s’ indicating the high scorers.
Using the TipRanks database, we’ve looked up two ‘Perfect 10’ stocks; now let’s give them a closer look
Concentrix (CNXC)
The first ‘Perfect 10’ we’ll look at here is Concentrix, a high-tech company that got started more than 20 years ago and today offers a wide range of services and solutions for more than 2,000 client companies. Concentrix can provide tech answers to practical issues in fields including digital operations, enterprise technology, data & analytics, and strategy & design. The company designs, builds, and runs end-to-end solutions for a wide range of enterprises, at any scale. Concentrix boasts that its services are invisible to end users and their own customers – because the solutions are seamlessly integrated into daily operations. They just work, so that customers and users don’t need to think about them.
Concentrix has a global footprint, with operations in 70 countries and over 150 languages. The company’s partners include such major names as Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, and Google. A few numbers will give the scale of Concentrix’s operations and success: some 155 of its clients are listed in the Fortune 500; the firm protects its intellectual property with more than 300 patents; and it generated $9.6 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2024, which ended on November 30, 2024.
In the company’s most recent financial report, covering fiscal 1Q25, revenues came in at $2.37 billion. While down 1.3% from the prior year, it was still in line with expectations – and the company realized a non-GAAP EPS of $2.79. That EPS was up 22 cents per share year-over-year, and it beat the forecast by 20 cents per share. Looking ahead, Concentrix expects to generate between $625 million and $650 million in free cash flow during fiscal year 2025.
In addition to generating earnings and cash, Concentrix has been returning profits to shareholders. Since 2021, the company has maintained a regular quarterly dividend payment. This was last paid out at a rate of $0.33275 per common share, in February of this year. The dividend will next be paid out, at the same rate, this coming May 6. The dividend annualizes to $1.33 per common share and gives a forward yield of 2.35%. The company expects that total returns to shareholders in fiscal 2025, from both dividends and share repurchases, will exceed $240 million.
For Canaccord’s 5-star analyst Joseph Vafi, key points for investors here are Concentrix’s solid earnings and its free cash flow. He writes, “We like the outperformance in FQ1, especially on the EPS line but FCF yield is where things really shine. As we are early in the fiscal year and given compelling valuation on current numbers, we like management’s prudence in building conservatism in the forward outlook without a follow-through guidance raise. Perhaps more important than revenue and EPS reiteration, guidance on unlevered free cash flow is still >20%…”
Vafi goes on to note some of the company’s strengths, which should interest investors during a volatile market environment: “We think that Concentrix is doing better than peers on share gains, exploiting its broader technology capabilities. This dynamic was evident in some of the company’s weakest verticals over the past couple of years. Notably consumer electronics was flat YoY, an improvement from last year and mostly attributable to share gains. We also call out broad-based new North American wins where volumes are going directly offshore, highlighting the company’s global service delivery capabilities.”
Quantifying his stance, the analyst puts a Buy rating on CNXC shares, along with an $80 price target that points toward a one-year upside potential of 58.5%. (To watch Vafi’s track record, click here.)
Overall, Concentrix has a Strong Buy consensus rating from the Street, based on four recent reviews that include three to Buy and one to Hold. The stock is currently selling for $50.43, and its $64.50 average target price implies a gain of 28% in the year ahead. (See CNXC stock forecast.)
Navigator Holdings (NVGS)
The second Perfect 10 stock we’ll look at is a mainstay of the world’s shipping lanes. Navigator Holdings is a major player in the liquefied gas shipping segment, a vital link in the world’s oceanic trade lanes. The company specializes in the transport of liquefied gas products, especially liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petrochemical gases, and ammonia, all of which are in high demand from the energy industry, industrial end users, and commodity traders. Navigator Holdings has been in operation since 2000, and has focused its fleet operations on handysize liquefied gas carriers.
That focus has paid off, and Navigator today operates a fleet of 59 such vessels, making it one of the world’s largest operators of handysize liquefied gas carriers. In addition to its strong place in maritime logistics, the company also operates a network of terminals and other ship-to-shore infrastructure. The company’s ships are manned by a total of 2,590 officers and crew, and Navigator has a sound reputation for safety and reliability. Last year, Navigator’s vessels made 1,216 port calls, and transported 6.7 million metric tons of gas products.
In financial terms, the company’s 4Q24 report showed top line revenues of $144.03 million, up 1.7% from 4Q23 and beating the forecast by $23.16 million. The company’s earnings in the quarter came to 31 cents per share, in line with the analysts’ expectations but also up 7 cents per share year-over-year.
This gas carrier has caught the attention of analyst Benjamin Nolan, from Stifel, who is rated by TipRanks among the top 3% of the Wall Street stock pros. Nolan sees plenty of potential here, especially for the company to expand its fleet and terminal activities. He says of Navigator, “There has been some recent improvement in ethylene margins which could be well-timed with the terminal expansion now complete. We expect rates are likely to remain firm, particularly for ethylene vessels, which should benefit the company as they continue expanding that portion of their business. With shares trading at only 5x EV/EBITDA, and given our expectation for EBITDA to grow with the addition of new ships and the expanded terminal, we believe NVGS shares attractive and expect a gradual grind higher in valuation.”
Nolan follows those comments with a Buy rating on the shares, and a $21 price target that implies an upside potential for the next 12 months of 72%. (To watch Nolan’s track record, click here.)
The general Street view of Navigator is a Strong Buy, based on 4 unanimously positive analyst reviews on file. The shares are currently trading for $12.23 and the $21.75 average target price suggests a 78% for the coming year. (See NVGS stock forecast.)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
