Top Wall Street analysts confident in the potential behind these 3 stocks – NBC New York

The stock market has been in a difficult phase lately as investors deal with macroeconomic pressures, upcoming elections and geopolitical tensions.

Investors and their portfolios can survive the chaos, however, if they ignore the short-term noise and choose stocks with attractive long-term return prospects.

In this regard, the assessments of top Wall Street analysts and their investment theories can provide useful insights and help us make the right decisions.

With that in mind, here are three stocks favored by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Costco Wholesale

Members-only department store chain Costco Wholesale (COST) is this week’s top pick. The company recently reported its June sales and announced an increase in its membership fee. Costco is raising the annual fee for its “Gold Star” membership by $5 to $65, effective Sept. 1. Additionally, the fee for the premium “Executive Membership” is now $130, up from $120.

Commenting on Costco’s first membership increase since June 2017, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe reiterated a buy rating on COST shares and raised his price target to $1,050 from $860, saying the stock remains a top pick. The analyst believes the membership increase is a favorable catalyst for the stock and the company’s earnings.

Tarlowe noted that Costco has historically raised its membership fees an average of every 5.5 years. This time, however, the retailer raised the fee after a seven-year hiatus. He thinks the timing of the fee increase is right, given the consistent membership health the company has experienced and the strong June numbers.

“COST has not seen a significant impact on membership growth in the past when it has increased dues, so we believe the impact will be limited,” Tarlowe said.

The analyst expects the higher fee to boost sales and earnings before interest and taxes, since membership fees make up a substantial portion of Costco’s consistently rising operating profit. He estimates a potential benefit of nearly 3% to the company’s earnings per share in each of the next two years.

Tarlowe is ranked #321 out of more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 67% of the time, yielding an average return of 18.8%. (See Costco Dividends on TipRanks)

MongoDB

Next up is database software company MongoDB (MDB). The stock fell in May after the company announced weak guidance for the fiscal second quarter and cut its full-year outlook. MongoDB blamed a slower-than-expected start to the year on both new workload wins and consumption growth for its cloud-based database software Atlas.

Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth recently lowered his price target on MDB stock to $400 from $500 to account for near-term pressure. However, he reaffirmed his buy rating, as he sees the stock’s sell-off as a good time to buy.

Despite the slow start to the year, Feinseth is optimistic about MongoDB as the company gains traction among developers. He also noted the growing momentum for MDB’s Atlas DBaaS (database as a service) product.

He expects the company to benefit from the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its offerings. “MDB’s integration of new AI-powered capabilities improves developer productivity, accelerates application development and accelerates its rapid enterprise adoption trends,” Feinseth said.

The analyst also highlighted the company’s expansion into other key verticals, such as healthcare, insurance, manufacturing and automotive. He is optimistic about the prospects of MDB’s robust DBaaS platform, given its superior functionality and cost advantages compared to traditional database solutions.

Feinseth is ranked #191 out of more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 62% of the time, yielding an average return of 13.6%. (See MongoDB Stock Buybacks on TipRanks)

Nvidia

Semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA) is this week’s third pick. The wave of generative artificial intelligence has significantly increased demand for the company’s advanced graphics processing units. Even after the stock’s impressive rally this year, Goldman Sachs analyst Toshiya Hari thinks it has more room to grow.

Following a meeting with Nvidia CFO Colette Kress, Hari reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a $135 price target. The analyst said the meeting reinforced his “belief in the sustainability of the ongoing Gen AI spending cycle.” The meeting also assured the analyst of NVDA’s potential to maintain its dominance through robust innovation in computing, networking and software.

Commenting on Nvidia’s next-generation AI graphics processor, Blackwell, the analyst noted that the CFO said the company’s key suppliers are better positioned for the Blackwell disaster than previous generational transitions. Hari expects a notable revenue contribution from the Blackwell platform in Q4 FY25 and Q1 FY26, but he sees a limited contribution in Q3 FY25.

The analyst believes that despite increasing competition, Nvidia will continue to maintain its leadership position based on several factors, such as a large installed base and greater access to supply. In addition, the high speed at which large enterprises and cloud service providers are building and deploying generative AI models gives Nvidia an edge over competitors who are still developing advanced AI GPUs.

Hari is ranked No. 30 out of more than 8,900 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 69% of the time, yielding an average return of 30.2%. (See Nvidia Options Activity on TipRanks)