Nvidia is no longer Wall Street's favorite stock. This company is.

By Philip van Doorn

Analysts still love the GPU king, but they think its shares will go nowhere over the next year

Late in December, Nvidia Corp. topped a list of favorite stocks among analysts working for brokerage firms. But with the stock continuing to soar this year, running the same screen of the S&P 500 produces a different result, with Nvidia no longer even making the top 20.

Back in December, the great majority of analysts polled by FactSet who covered Nvidia (NVDA) rated the stock a buy or the equivalent. Before the market opened on Dec. 26, their consensus price target for the stock was $668.11, which was 37% higher than the Dec. 22 closing price of $488.30.

Nvidia's stock closed out 2023 at $495.22, having risen 239% for the year. So far in 2024, the stock has climbed another 83.5% to close at $908.88 on Wednesday. That is slightly above the new consensus 12-month price target of $904.55 for the stock.

Even though 54 out of 60 analysts still rate Nvidia a buy, the stock has gotten ahead of the analysts' traditional consensus 12-month price target. That combination of favorable ratings and a target below the current price gives some food for thought: A year isn't a lengthy period for a committed long-term investor.

Last week, we looked at Nvidia's price-to-earnings valuation, which has come down significantly over the past year.

A new screen for favorites among the S&P 500

Beginning with the S&P 500 SPX, we narrowed the list to 74 stocks with at least 75% buy or equivalent ratings among analysts polled by FactSet.

Here are the 20 remaining stocks in the S&P 500 that are buy-rated by at least 75% of analysts and that have the highest 12-month upside potential indicated by the consensus price targets:

   Company                              Ticker   March 13 price  Consensus price target  Implied 12-month upside potential  Share buy ratings 
   United Airlines Holdings Inc.         UAL             $43.04                  $63.46                                47%                77% 
   First Solar Inc.                      FSLR           $158.04                 $226.83                                44%                82% 
   Insulet Corp.                         PODD           $175.54                 $237.18                                35%                83% 
   Aptiv PLC                             APTV            $79.72                 $103.73                                30%                80% 
   Schlumberger Ltd.                     SLB             $52.57                  $68.15                                30%                94% 
   Halliburton Co.                       HAL             $36.53                  $47.28                                29%                88% 
   Zoetis Inc. Class A                   ZTS            $176.23                 $227.20                                29%                88% 
   MGM Resorts International             MGM             $42.86                  $55.24                                29%                80% 
   Baker Hughes Co. Class A              BKR             $31.75                  $40.55                                28%                80% 
   Lamb Weston Holdings Inc.              LW            $102.94                 $129.15                                25%                93% 
   Carnival Corp.                        CCL             $16.65                  $20.88                                25%                83% 
   Delta Air Lines Inc.                  DAL             $43.91                  $53.89                                23%                96% 
   VICI Properties Inc.                  VICI            $29.31                  $35.78                                22%                88% 
   UnitedHealth Group Inc.               UNH            $488.00                 $595.73                                22%                88% 
   Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.    TTWO           $144.89                 $176.11                                22%                77% 
   News Corp Class A                     NWSA            $26.35                  $32.02                                22%                78% 
   Las Vegas Sands Corp.                 LVS             $53.35                  $63.95                                20%                83% 
   SBA Communications Corp. Class A      SBAC           $219.80                 $262.36                                19%                82% 
   Teledyne Technologies Inc.            TDY            $421.24                 $500.55                                19%                90% 
   NextEra Energy Inc.                   NEE             $59.54                  $70.32                                18%                77% 
                                                                                                                              Source: FactSet 

Click on the tickers for more about each company.

Click here for Tomi Kilgore's detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

News Corp (NWSA) is the corporate parent of MarketWatch publisher Dow Jones.

Don't miss: Alphabet is the bargain stock among the 'Magnificent Seven'

Also read: Why Japan's stock market could keep soaring - plus three stock picks there

-Philip van Doorn

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-14-24 1015ET

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.